GRACE: The Next Generation
by IndusLotus2001
Summary: A new group of very different girls are chosen to take on the title of Guardians of the Veil, and as the powers are passed on to the new generation, a new generation of enemies arise as well. The fate of all the worlds hang in the balance as these new Guardians learn theirs is the most important generation yet. They will make or break the rise of the new world.
1. Meet GRACE

**A/N: Hey guys! So this is my second W.I. . fic, although since my first one was technically a crossover fic, maybe this could be counted as my first one. Anyway, I recently got back into W.I.T.C.H., re-watched the entire show, and even started reading the comic books. At the same time, I began reading fanfiction and saw a lot of people had done 'next generation of Guardians' fics, and decided I'd do my own.**

**Most of the fics use girls who are in middle school, which is to be expected since W.I.T.C.H. were thirteen when they discovered they were guardians. However, I made these girls sixteen, starting their junior year of high school. The reason for this age will make more sense as the story progresses.**

**Anyway, enjoy this guys, and review please!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

On a hot day at Sheffield Institute, most people looked for shade under a large tree. Alyssa Ashcroft preferred to look for shade on _top_ of a tree. Yes, she liked to climb trees, sit on one of the sturdy branches, away from everyone else, and draw under the shade the leaves provided. It was peaceful up there, away from the taunts of Gabrielle Shay and her group of mindless zombies. And as if it weren't bad enough that Gabi had tormented her all her life, everyone else knew Alyssa by the, uncreative, unclever, yet sticking, nicknames Gabi gave her in sixth grade: Classless-a and Klutzcroft.

Alyssa supposed she was an easy target. She only had one friend for the first nine years of her life, and she'd abandoned Alyssa halfway through fifth grade when she became friends with the drama obsessed kids of the school. So when she started middle school, Alyssa was lonely and pathetic. Alyssa tried to keep her head up though. So what if she didn't have any friends? At least she knew how stay bubbly. And at least she had talent. Alyssa could paint as well as van Gogh.

Okay, that was stretching it a little. But she was still mega talented, and she put all her spare time into teaching herself how to draw, paint, or sculpt. Once her parents had discovered her talent, they immediately indulged her by putting her in all the art classes she wanted to take and buying her art kits for her birthday and Christmas.

Alyssa looked down from the tree to see Jake Saunders walk up to the steps where Gabi and her best friend Breanna were sitting, in their cheerleading outfits. The cheerleaders always performed in their annual 'first day of school assembly.' If dropping the girls they lifted up and falling because the dumber girls always messed up could be counted as performing. Jake had just started dating Gabi. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, said something, then headed inside.

Jake Saunders was one of those guys that had everything to offer and lacked nothing. He was extremely smart; state identified in fact. He played four sports and was good at all of them; the star player in two. He was incredibly handsome; the most sought after guy in school. And after all that, he was modest. But he wasn't very nice. He had partaken in the events that had earned Alyssa both her embarrassing nicknames, and he used both of them. On top of that, he was a huge player. Even before the sixth grade incidents, Alyssa ruled Jake out as a potential boyfriend, despite how hot he happened to be. Besides, she hated the people who always appeared to be too perfect. That was both intimidating and boring, and simply untrue. If you appear to be perfect, you're clearly putting on a front for some reason.

As she waited for the bell to ring to signify the first day of eighth grade, Alyssa began to sketch something she'd been dreaming about lately. It was a huge castle, something that looked like it could've been beautiful once, but was black and dark and depressing now. She didn't know why she was dreaming about a gloomy looking castle, but it seemed like something cool to draw, so she kept going.

Alyssa chewed on her bottom lip, a nervous habit of hers, as she finished up the castle. She'd been dreaming about this castle for a couple of months now, but as of last week, she'd been seeing more than just the castle. She saw five girls with wings flying above the castle. Each of them were glowing a different color. She didn't know what it meant, but last night, she'd seen their faces for the first time.

One of the girls, the one with an orange glow, was Alyssa herself. She knew it was normal to dream of yourself, so she didn't think much of it. But the rest of the girls shocked her. Each face was stranger than the last. The girl with the gray glow was Elizabeth Kramer, or Ellie, Alyssa's ex-best friend. Alyssa hadn't spoken to Ellie in six and a half years, but maybe it wasn't the strangest thing. She and Ellie were close once.

Then it got even weirder. The girl with the blue glow was Caitlin Lewis, or Caty, a girl Alyssa barely ever talked to. Alyssa never liked Caty. Caty was incredibly smart, but participated in stuff like mock trial and Model U.N., so Gabi dubbed Caty and her friends, nerds. However, even though Caty was as low on the high school totem pole as Alyssa was, she liked to act like she was so much better than everyone else, Alyssa included.

The girl with the green glow was Gabi Shay. Why Alyssa would dream of her worst enemy she didn't know, but if the castle was any indication, these dreams seemed more like nightmares than anything, and Gabi was definitely a frequent visitor in her nightmares.

The last girl, who had a pink glow surrounding her, was the weirdest of them all. Alyssa didn't recognize her at all. She was someone Alyssa had never seen, which didn't make any sense at all. Alyssa once read a book on dreams and visions, just for fun, and that's how she knew you couldn't dream about someone you didn't know! And you can't make people up, especially not their faces. The book did say that if you do dream about someone you don't know, and you see their face, it's not a dream; it's a vision, telling you about someone you will meet.

Alyssa didn't believe in the supernatural. Her mother was a very logical person, and Alyssa was pretty much a clone of her mother, from her mother's looks to her brains to her fears. But then how did she dream up a face she'd never seen before?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Elizabeth Kramer tripped over her own two feet on the way to the drama room.

"It's a wonder you're the best dancer in this school," a voice chuckled good naturedly.

Ellie looked up and began to blush furiously when she saw she fell right in front of Jake Saunders.

"Um…" she squeaked out.

Jake laughed again and helped her up. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks Jake," Ellie said, smiling weakly.

"Try to be more careful El," Jake said, winking at her before walking off.

Ellie let out a little girly sigh and practically floated the rest of the way to the drama room. She entered the room to see her best friends, Jade Crane, Adam White, and Milly Trainer already there.

"You're late," Jade said.

"And your face is all red. Are you okay?" Adam asked.

"Let me guess. Jake Saunders," Milly teased.

Ellie nodded.

Jade shook her head in disgust. "El, you know I love you, but when are you going to understand: Jake Saunders will never go for us! We're known to the whole school as the drama freaks thanks to Gabi Shay."

"Who, by the way, happens to be dating Jake," Adam added. "Has been for a week now."

"Meaning," Milly said, "that they'll be broken up by next week. Because Jake Saunders is the biggest player at Sheffield."

"I know, I know, I've heard it all before," Ellie snapped.

"Yet you can never seem to get it through your head!" Jade shot back.

Ellie sighed frustratedly and rolled her eyes as she set her backpack down on one of the chairs.

A few of months ago, Jake Saunders didn't even know Ellie's name. And if it hadn't been for Breanna's party, then he would've either teased her relentlessly or completely ignored her when she fell in front of him. But last May, Breanna Kramer, the second most popular girl in school, and Gabi Shay's right hand girl, had a huge birthday bash. Ellie and her friends were almost as low on the high school hierarchy as the nerds and friendless losers, but Breanna and Ellie were cousins, meaning Breanna was forced to invite Ellie. And Ellie was forced to go.

Normally, Ellie skipped most of Breanna's parties, which is why Breanna didn't mind having to invite her. It was bad enough she shared a last name and blood with a drama freak; she didn't need that very same girl coming to her parties. But since this party was for Breanna's birthday, Ellie had to go. Her father and Breanna's were brothers and it wouldn't be very family oriented if Breanna's own cousin didn't show up to her party.

Ellie and Breanna's fathers were too into "family orientation." Ellie managed to skip most of Breanna's birthday parties with the excuse of tests or rehearsals or performances the next day, but Breanna had been sick on her actual birthday that year, forcing her to hold a party two months later. And somehow, Ellie's always absent father found out Ellie didn't have an excuse this time. Ellie couldn't understand how her father didn't understand that Breanna didn't want her at her party; that she purposely didn't invite anyone Ellie even remotely knew just to keep Ellie out; that Ellie wouldn't have cared if Breanna invite her three best friends, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, and her hero Barbra Streisand, she still wouldn't go, given the choice. Then again, considering he wasn't at home enough to know whether Ellie had black or brown hair, he wouldn't know how Ellie and Breanna felt about each other. Funny that he preached about family when he didn't give a damn about his own.

But Ellie had gone to Breanna's party and brought with her the script of the current play the community theater was putting on: The Tempest. She was playing Ariel (Ellie had purposely auditioned for Ariel, even though she knew Ariel was a guy, and the director loved her so much that he gave her the role and told her Ariel would be a girl for this version of the play), Jade was playing Miranda, and Adam had won the part of Prospero. Milly decided to sit this one out. Ellie sat in a corner trying to learn her lines, but the music was too loud and the high schoolers Breanna had invited were too drunk, and Gabi, Breanna, and her their friends were too bitchy to each other right in front of Ellie, and she couldn't concentrate. But she's promised her dad she's stay at Breanna's part for two hours and by the time she decided she wanted to leave, it had only been half an hour.

That's when Jake Saunders had found her. He walked right up to Ellie and struck up a conversation. At first Ellie was guarded. A guy like Jake Saunders, Mr. Popularity, wouldn't talk to her without an ulterior motive. But then she realized every guy at the party was occupied with some girl or the other and the only people Jake had to talk to were girls who weren't talking to any of the boys. She was the only girl at the entire party that wasn't throwing herself at Jake.

Jake surprised Ellie by demonstrating startling knowledge on all of Shakespeare's plays. Two days later, Jake and Ellie were made partners in English class. Their assignment was to write an extra scene in the current play the class was reading: West Side Story. This was Ellie's favorite play, and she learned it was Jake's as well. They got an A on that project-it was Ellie's first A in English that entire year. Ever since then, Jake had talked to Ellie on a regular basis, and Ellie fell for him hard. Her friends were not pleased. Jake Saunders was not a nice guy. Yes, he was athletic and hot, and incredibly smart, but he was also a huge jerk and player. So Ellie was never able to talk about her crush as much as she would've liked to. And even though she and Jake texted all summer and had even hung out a few times, the inevitable happened at Gabi's end of the summer party: Gabi and Jake began dating.

Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Gabi Shay and Jake Saunders became an item. The most popular guy had to go out with the most popular girl. It was a wonder it took the two of them this long. And even though in the back of her mind, Ellie knew Gabi and Jake would date eventually, she was still completely crushed.

"Look, I know Jake is dating Gabi, and I know he'd never like me regardless. It's not my fault I like him, but I'll get over him." Even as Ellie said this, she knew it was only to appease her friends. She had a feeling she'd never get over Jake Saunders.

"Now, let's practice. Singing at the Halloween dance isn't just for fun. It's our first music grade of the year."

"That's more like it," Jade said as she and Milly smiled at Ellie. Adam, who knew her better than anyone gave her a look that said, 'You sure you're okay?'

Ellie gave him the brightest smile she could muster. She wanted to talk to Adam. He wouldn't judge her even if he wanted to. But she also knew Adam had a crush on her (he'd tried to ask her out since kindergarten, but Ellie just wanted to be friends), so she couldn't let him see how much she liked Jake.

"Okay," Adam said quietly, but even the smile couldn't fool him. He knew his best friend to well for that.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae Dylan stared out the window, watching the buildings blur past as her driver drove her to her new school, Sheffield Institute. Even though _Rae_ insisted she could walk, her _parents_ insisted she be driven to school. And even though _Rae_ insisted she didn't need her parents with her, and they could just go to work, _they_ insisted that they accompany her on the way to her first day at a new school.

She'd been in Heatherfield for a week before she had to start school. It wasn't a bad place. Sure she missed her friends, her extended family, and the close knit community she had in her old town, but Rae was a girl who knew how to adapt, and accept and embrace change.

Rae liked what she saw of Heatherfield so far. Already her family had located a Chinese restaurant called The Silver Dragon (Friday nights was Chinese night for Rae and her mother) and a pizzeria called Guiseppes (Sunday was pizza night for Rae and her mother), a newly opened bookstore called Down the Rabbit Hole (Rae loved to read and had applied for a job there a couple days ago), and Rae adored her back yard. There was lots of space for her dog Sandy to run around and a large red maple tree Rae liked to nap under. She could do with a smaller house however.

"Okay sweetie, we're five minutes away," Rae's mother Silena said. Rae requested Silena notify her when they were five minutes away from Sheffield Institute.

"Okay Harv, you can drop me off here," Rae said to the family's driver, Harvey Jones.

"Yes Miss. Dylan," Harvey said and Rae rolled her eyes. She couldn't count the number of times she'd told Harvey, who she actually considered a friend and confidante, that he could call her Rae. And he did, when the two were alone. But in front of her parents, he wouldn't budge, though Rae didn't think they'd mind.

"Are you sure sweetie?" Silena asked as Harvey stopped the car.

"_Yes_ Mom," Rae said forcefully. "And I can walk home this afternoon."

"Not on your first day," Rae's father Frank disagreed. "Harvey will pick you up."

"Fine," Rae said, knowing she couldn't win this argument. "But I want Harvey to pick me up here. Okay Harv?"

"Only if it's okay with your parents Miss. Dylan," Harvey said, surreptitiously winking at her. Rae hid a smile. No matter what her parents said, Harvey would wait for her here. This was why she loved Harvey so much.

"I suppose it's alright with me, if that's what you want," Frank said agreeably.

Silena looked reluctant, but at her daughter's pleading look and her ex-husband's reassuring one, she caved. "Oh alright."

"Thank you Mom!" Rae cried delightedly.

"Just have a good first day, okay sweetie?"

"I'll do my best," Rae promised, kissing her parents on the cheek. "Bye Harvey, thanks for the ride," Rae called as she exited the car.

"See you this afternoon Miss. Dylan," Harvey said, before taking off to take Rae's mother to her office and her father to the airport (he worked and lived in Delaware and was only in Heatherfield to see how Rae adjusted to the move.

Rae appreciated everything Harvey and her parents did for her, especially the fact that they both decided to ride along for her first day of school since her parents got divorced twelve years ago and couldn't stand each other, but she did not want to show up at her new school in a fancy stretch limo. She did not want to be known as the richest girl in town, even if her mother was Silena Shane, the woman who started her own clothing line at the age of seventeen, when she still in high school, that became such a success in just six months that she decided to forego college and pursue designing as a permanent career. And the last thing she needed was for people to find out her father was Franklin Dylan, the inventor of just about every electronic item owned by the entire population of the country. No, the only thing Rae wanted to be known for was her grades. She was state identified and planned to keep it that way.

As she stepped through the entrance arch of Sheffield, she saw lots of kids in the courtyard, waiting for the bell to ring. There were a bunch of girls by the steps in cheerleading outfits. Most of them were all crowded around one girl who Rae could only guess was their leader. She had chin length, dark brown hair, a body shaped like an hourglass, and as Rae got closer, she saw her eyes changed from blue to green to brown. Yeah, she was beautiful enough to be the most popular girl in school, the kind of girl Rae wanted to avoid.

There were boys to the right of the cheerleaders passing around a soccer ball, boys to the left of them practicing lacrosse, and a group of students laughing underneath a large oak tree. Rae wondered if she should approach someone and try to make friends, but everyone seemed to be wrapped up in their own worlds, in their own cliques. Sighing, Rae decided she might as well go inside and try not to be late for her first class. She had gotten a copy of her schedule from the principal when she and her mother had visited the school a week ago.

"Room 533?" Rae asked herself. The school only had two floors, so she had no idea where room 533 would be, especially since the first room she saw after passing all the offices and the library was 123.

Her mother's voice echoed in her mind. "When in doubt, go forward. It's easier to retrace your steps that way."

Rae went forward, frowning at her schedule, trying to figure it out when she bumped into someone and fell on the floor.

"Ow," she groaned.

"Back at you," a voice said.

"I'm so sorry!" Rae apologized immediately.

"You should be. Maybe you should watch where you're going!" the voice snapped back as the two looked up at each other. Immediately, the person Rae bumped into, an undeniably hot boy with a stellar body, longish brown hair, and soft hazel eyes, backtracked. "I mean, I'm sorry too!" He picked himself up and offered his hand to Rae.

Rae rolled her eyes, batted his hand away, and picked herself up. She knew she wasn't the prettiest person around, but even she had to admit she looked pretty good today, from her outfit that her mother designed, to her make up that her mother helped her do, to her hair that actually behaved for once. And there was no doubt that was the only reason the boy was apologizing.

The boy grinned at her. 'Hot!' Rae thought, then scolded herself.

"You know, you could've avoided me," she snapped at the boy. "So maybe you should've been watching where you were going."

"You're probably right," the boy agreed. "I'm sorry."

"Funny how your mouth says one thing and your eyes say another," Rae bit out.

The boy's grin grew wider, infuriating Rae even more. "You're new, aren't you?"

"What's it to you?"

"I just wanted to know if you needed some help. You probably don't know how to get to your first class."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well the reason you bumped into me was because you were staring at that schedule in your hand."

"Wow, the boy has a brain," Rae said, rolling her eyes.

The boy looked right into her eyes and Rae felt herself getting lost into the two pools of hazel in front of her. "You're stereotyping me, aren't you? You think because I'm good looking, I'm not smart."

"I know because you called yourself good looking, you're arrogant," Rae replied.

"I'm only repeating what other girls say," the boy defended. Then his grin faltered. "That sounded really arrogant, didn't it?"

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" came Rae's response.

"I really appreciate your sarcasm," the boy said sincerely, confusing Rae. In her old school, she used her sarcasm to scare guys like this away. They'd call her a bitch and never talk to her again. So why wasn't it working this time?"

"I don't however, appreciate your stereotyping. I'm state identified, and top of our class."

"Fascinating," Rae replied, but she was kicking herself. Of course this guy was hot and smart. "Next you're going to tell me you're the star player of the lacrosse team."

"Soccer actually. And basketball. Not the star player, I don't think, but those are the sports I'm good at. I'm only average at lacrosse and baseball."

Rae raised her eyebrows.

The boy shrugged. "I like sports."

"And you play them all?"

The boy nodded.

'Mr. Perfect,' Rae thought bitterly.

"So new girl, you have a name?"

"Mind telling me how to get to room 533?" Rae replied.

The boy looked at her schedule. "I could. Or I could just show you. We have that class together. It looks like we have every class together."

Rae looked at him incredulously and groaned out loud. The boy, not at all deterred, just laughed.

"So, name?" he asked again.

Rae sighed. "Rachel Dylan," she said.

The boy grinned at her and introduced himself. "Jake Saunders."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi Shay raised one perfect eyebrow at her best friend Breanna Kramer. "No."

"But Gabs, he's so cute!"

"Bree, how many times do I have to tell you: you're never going to find the perfect guy if you don't have enough self-respect to cut someone like Colin Dunn loose."

"Gabi, he's on the football team."

"He cheated on you five times!"

Breanna sighed. "I know. But he's the only guy who would give me the time of day this summer."

"That's because he was the only single guy around this summer. But all the single guys that were away on vacation are back now, and I heard Lana and Dalton broke up last week."

Breanna immediately brightened at this. Dalton Drew was her longtime crush and she's been heartbroken when her and Gabi's arch nemesis Lana Oller began dating at the start of the summer.

Gabi looked up to see more students filing in. She and Breanna always got school early. It was a sign of power to be the first one at school, and considering Lana had been trying to take Gabi's spot as co-captain of the cheerleaders (the other captain was a senior girl who Lana wouldn't dare try to dethrone), she needed all the power she could get. Not that it mattered. She was the only sophomore to get a spot on the JV squad last year, and she was shoo-in for varsity this year. And once she secured her spot in JV, no one would dare allow Lana to take Gabi's spot.

"Look, it's Jake," Breanna said, spotting her best friend's new boyfriend.

Gabi looked over and smiled.

"Hey babe," she said as Jake made his way over.

"Hey Gabs," Jake smiled. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I need to show Principal Cortez my commencement speech, but I'll catch up with you later, okay? You look great by the way."

Gabi smiled and tried to stop herself from blushing. Boys making her blush was a sign of weakness, not power. "Okay," she said as Jake went inside. He was junior class president, and the junior and senior class presidents always made some sort of welcome speech at the start of year assembly.

As it got later, more and more cheerleaders, including Lana and her best friend Kelli Chapman, joined Gabi and Breanna on the steps.

"Bree, I love your extensions!" Susy Carter gushed when she saw them. "They look amazing!"

"Thanks!" Bree exclaimed.

Gabi shot Bree a look. Breanna was Gabi's second-in-command, meaning compliments shouldn't excite her that much. Breanna had to be as self-assured as Gabi.

"I mean, yeah I know," Breanna backtracked, flipping her brown hair back carelessly. She looked at Gabi hopefully, and Gabi nodded in approval.

"Look at the new bag my dad got me," Missy Carson said, showing off her new Gucci purse.

"That's got nothing on Gabi's new Louis Vuitton bag," Carrie Black pointed out.

Gabi let a small smirk grace her lips before turning to face Missy with a smile. "But your bag is gorgeous too, and it totally suits you."

"Thanks," Missy said, glowing.

That was another trick to keeping power. Compliment your friends, making them think they're special, but never let them think they could be better than you. Gabi refused to engage in a power struggle with Lana. She wouldn't have to.

"Look, new girl," Kelli said, nodding over to a raven haired girl. She was short and skinny, using her clothes to show off the few curves she had. Her dark eyes held an air of command.

"We should invite her to be a cheerleader," Lana suggested.

"She's definitely pretty enough," Breanna agreed.

"We don't know if she can cheer," Gabi said disdainfully.

"Well, if she can't, she can still hang out with us," Lana said. "I mean, Michelle, Eve, and Andria hang out with us, but they're not cheerleaders."

Gabi looked behind her to make sure the aforementioned girls weren't listening before answering, "That's because Andira doesn't know the difference between a flashy flip and flashing someone, Eve is too uncoordinated to even pull off a somersault, and Michelle is too busy with her artsy crap to dedicate enough time to cheerleading."

"Yeah," Lana said slowly, "but my point is, the new girl is pretty, and we need someone like that on our side. I mean, what if she decided to become friends with Breanna's drama freak cousin or Alyssa? What would that do to the social hierarchy?"

"She's not that pretty Lana," Gabi snapped.

"Pretty enough to get with Jake," Lana said.

"Jake is my _boyfriend_," Gabi said icily. This was a touchy subject. Gabi had gone out with tons of guys, but, and she hadn't admitted this to anyone except Bree, she actually had real feelings for Jake. That's why it took so long for Gabi and Jake to become an item. Jake had asked Gabi out plenty of times before, but Gabi hadn't said yes until she was sure Jake wouldn't view her as part of the game.

Lana had asked Jake out at the beginning of the summer, but he said no, which was surprising. Lana was completely Jake's type. There were rumors going around that the reason Jake said no was because he wanted this to be the summer he got Gabi to agree to go out with him, and he didn't want to date any other girls. The rumor made Gabi feel powerful and special, but she was still worried Jake would run off with the first pretty non-cheerleader he saw (non-cheerleader because all the cheerleaders, including Lana, and the three girls Gabi hung around with who weren't cheerleaders, weren't allowed to date Jake, even if they broke up). The last thing Gabi needed was some random new girl to come along and steal Jake from under her nose.

"He may not be for long if we don't get new girl to be part of our group," Lana said.

"She may have a point Gabs," Breanna said tentatively. "If she's part of our group, then Jake becomes off limits to her. If she's not, she has no reason to stay away from him."

Gabi's eyes flashed angrily and she glared at Breanna, Lana, and Kelli, the only three girls in this conversation with Gabi, in turn. "Are you suggesting that I can't make her stay away from Jake without allowing her to be a cheerleader or friends with us?"

"Of course not Gabi," Breanna said soothingly. "But we could always use another friend, right? The more pretty girls part of our group, the better our image."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "You guys are all exaggerating her beauty." Someone as well versed in make-up and clothes as Gabi could see right through the new girl's look. She indeed looked great today, and she was pretty, but she wouldn't look like that every day. And being naturally pretty didn't help if you didn't enhance it. There were very few girls who were naturally drop dead gorgeous. Thanks to her color changing eyes that she inherited from her mother, Gabi was one of those girls.

At that moment, the bell rang and hordes of students started filing into the school building. Gabi started telling Breanna the story of the completely sweet thing Jake said to her the night before, making sure she was speaking loud enough for Lana to hear. She saw Alyssa Ashcroft roll her eyes as she walked past them.

"Make sure you don't trip again Klutzcroft!" Gabi called after her.

Alyssa looked back, but then just resumed walking.

"It bothers me that we can't get to her anymore," Breanna said.

"It shouldn't. We shouldn't be bothered by someone as low on the totem pole as Classless-a," Gabi said, rolling her eyes.

"Gabi is right," Lana said. At this, both Breanna and Kelli widened their eyes. Lana and Gabi rarely agreed on anything. "Classless-a shouldn't evoke any negative emotions in us."

Gabi nodded as she and the other girls headed to their first class. All the cheerleaders shared their first, fifth, and eighth class this year. Gabi shared every class with Breanna, and all but one class with Lana, and Kelli. She wasn't sure yet if having Lana and her faithful follower around her all the time was a good or bad thing.

The cheerleaders all looked at Gabi before choosing their seats. Gabi chose one in the middle of the classroom and the other girls sat around her. Summer Tendril sat to Gabi's right, and Breanna sat to Gabi's left. In front of Breanna was Kelli, and in front of Gabi was Lana. Lana and Kelli turned around to face Gabi and Bree. Despite the rivalry between Lana and Gabi, the two girls spent more time with each other than anyone else (besides Bree for Gabi and Kelli for Lana).

"So Bree, any prospective boyfriends for this year?" Lana asked, obviously privy to the knowledge that she was dating Breanna's crush this past summer.

"I'm keeping my options open," Breanna said, earning a look of approval from Gabi.

'Way to go Bree,' Gabi thought. The last thing Breanna needed to do was let Lana know she had power over her.

Lana was going to say something else when Gabi's mouth suddenly dropped open in shock.

"What?" Lana asked as she, Kelli, and Breanna followed Gabi's gaze. Coming into the classroom they saw the new girl. Walking in with her was Gabi's boyfriend.

"Oh, that girl is _so_ not becoming a cheerleader," Gabi growled. "And she needs to know she can't be walked into class with _my_ boyfriend. This means war."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"And furthermore, the new healthcare bill continues to provide-"

"Caty, I need you!" Lilianne Morrison cried, running into the Debate Team's meeting room.

Caitlin Lewis stared at the blond, along with her debate partner, Nina Simone, and their opponents, Brian Din and Nick Sholtz.

"Seriously Lili?" Misha Zoller asked. "We're kind of in the middle of something." The other members of the team nodded.

Lili rolled her eyes. "Whatever. As if your team needs anymore practice. And no one cares about the new healthcare bill. I, on the other hand, need help with my math homework. I didn't finish the last two problems of the summer work."

"And you couldn't come in here quietly and ask Misha for help? Considering she's, you know, not currently _debating_?" Caty asked.

Lili sighed. "No. I wanted _your_ help. But fine. I see how it is. You don't care, even though you promised you'd help me with whatever I needed. I'll just talk to Aunt Iris this afternoon. You know Aunt Iris, right? What is it you call her…_Mom_?"

"Okay, Lili, fine," Caty snapped, stepping out from behind the podium she and Nina were standing behind.

"And _this_," Brian said loudly, "is why Caty shouldn't be captain of the Debate Team. She and her silly friends are always running out on us. Vote Din for the win!"

"Brian for captain!" Travis Buckley, Brian's best friend, backed up.

Caty moaned as she followed Lili, Misha, and Nina out of the room.

"Thanks a lot Lil. Now I'll never be voted captain and if I'm not voted captain, then Ms. Mandel won't recommend me for the D.C. internship, and I won't-"

"Amount to anything in life, yeah. Whatever," Lili finished, rolling her eyes. She'd heard this same freakout from her cousin too many times before.

Caty sighed, wishing Lili would, just once, try and understand where Caty was coming from even if she didn't care about the same things. If Lili could realize that the prospect of the D.C. internship for her held the same value that the prospect of Lili's internship with Silena Shane, the hottest designer in the country, maybe she wouldn't be quite as dismissive. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking, considering Lili was always dismissive of anything Caty wanted.

"Don't worry Caty, you'll get the letter even if Brian does beat you out for captain," Nina soothed her best friend as the four girls made their way to their first class of the day, honors pre-calc. Lili, who wasn't advanced like the rest of the girls, followed them so Caty could help her finish up her Algebra 2 homework before the bell rang. "After all, you're the one who single handedly won Model U.N. for our school last year when Brian flaked."

"And you beat out Brian for SGA vice president," Misha piped up.

"And you and Brian are tied in the number of wins for mock trial, which is also advised by Ms. Mandel," Nina added.

"And who was the girl that got to go to states with the Academic Decathlon team when she was only a freshman?" Misha reminded. "You were the only freshman chosen, and one of the only two sophomores chosen last year."

"And now you're co-head of the decathlon team." Nina said. "As a junior. Usually it's only seniors."

"Ms. Mandel is only willing to write one recommendation letter," Caty said. "And I may have won vice president, but Brian is still on student government sergeant at arms and he's just waiting to call me out on doing something against the bylaws so he can give me a strike."

"Caty, you haven't broken a single rule in your whole life," Misha said.

"Still, he's just as impressive as me. He was the other sophomore who went to states with the decathlon team, he was chosen to go as a freshman, and the only reason I went was because he got sick, he got sick last year for Model U.N. too, but he was on the Model U.N. team as a freshman, which I couldn't achieve, like you said, he won just as many cases as I have in mock trial, and he's a shoo-in to win Debate Team captain…for the third year in a row."

Caty was an ambitious girl with big dreams. She intended to take all the honors and AP classes she could, get the best grades in those classes, outshine everyone she could in her various clubs, prove to everyone that doing Newspaper, Mock Trial, Model U.N., Student Council, Academic Decathlon, and Debate Team (the things that people like Gabrielle Shay thought were nerdy) were actually helpful, and study pre-law at Yale. One humongous step in the right direction was to be chosen for a summer internship in Washington D.C. where she and the other interns would get attend political events, meet important politicians, and sit in on courthouse cases. It was an internship for six people. Four would be college students. The other two spots were available to high school students, but only if they attended one of the top 5 most prestigious schools in the country. Sheffield happened to be one, and each of these high schools were allowed to recommend two students. Those two students had to submit an application with a full transcript, an activity resume, and a killer recommendation letter. It was almost like a college application.

The recommendations were worrying Caty. The other student recommended from Sheffield was Brian Din. He and Caty had been competing in everything since kindergarten. Both knew a recommendation letter from Ms. Mandel would be perfect. She taught honors lit for all grades, regular lit for seniors, IB lit for juniors and seniors, and she was the academic advisor for the Debate Team, the forensics team, literature honors society, book club, and Mock Trial. She was by far the most impressive teacher at Sheffield, besides Mr. Ganball, the IB Program convener, who taught honors US history for all grades, IB history for juniors and seniors, APUSH for juniors, and Theory of Knowledge for IB students of all grades, but all of the IB juniors and seniors asked for college recommendation letters from him, so he refused to write letters for the internship. Caty knew she could get any teacher to write her letter, but she wanted Ms. Mandel, who was only willing to write one letter. Caty really wanted to be the student she chose to write the letter for, partly because she wanted this internship more than she's ever wanted anything, and partly to rub it into Brian's face.

"You have a higher position than Brian in student council," Nina said. "And you are co-editor of the newspaper. Brian is just the photographer."

Caty nodded. That was true.

"And you'll probably get offered editor-in-chief," Misha pointed out. Misha was the other editor of the paper. She wanted to study journalism at Columbia, so she hoped the position of editor-in-chief would be given to her next year. Usually it went to one of the two editors (and if it was offered to Caty, she'd already promised she'd forego it for Misha), but sometimes the seniors played favorites and gave it to a staff writer they were friends with. But getting offered the position was still impressive.

"But that won't be until after the applications are due," Caty said.

Lili cleared her throat. "Hello! Homework help!"

Caty and her friends rolled their eyes. Caty had grown up with Nina Simone. They'd been best friends since they were three. The two girls met Misha, a sweet Indian girl, when they started Sheffield together as sxith graders. Misha was new that year and fit in with Caty and Nina right away, because like them, she was studious, cared about her grades and school work, and joined all the clubs they were into. Lili was Caty's cousin who moved to Heatherfield during the summer after her parents got divorced. She and her mother had been staying with Caty's family until they could find an apartment. They finally had, and were moving into it the next weekend. The weekend couldn't come fast enough.

Lili's mother and Caty's were sisters. Caty's mother had told Caty to treat Lili kindly and help her with everything. Lili took that to mean Caty was pretty much her slave and had to do everything she said or else she'd tell her "Aunt Iris" Caty was being mean at this difficult time in her life.

Lili and Caty had always been different, but they'd gotten along well. Lili's thirteenth birthday party was the last day the two cousins saw each other until the summer however, and the time apart helped the girls grow apart. Now Lili was snobbish, annoying, and rude. She was conceited and fake, and she made Caty look bad in front of Brian, which caused Brian to tease her and look down on her.

One other component of the D.C. application was a character evaluation written by the other recommended student, and that was the part Caty was most worried about her. Even if she couldn't get Ms. Mandel to write her recommendation, she could find another impressive teacher. Mr. Everett, her chemistry teacher from last year, was her second choice. He was a brilliant man, a popular teacher, co-advisor of the Academic Decathlon team, and she was his favorite student. But she needed to make nice with Brian to get a good character eval out of him. She had tried her hardest to be nice to him every time she saw him over the summer and she greeted him cordially this morning for the first Student Council meeting of the year. They made friendly conversation as they walked from Student Council to the Debate Team meeting. But being nice to him wasn't enough. She had to impress him as well, and having to hang around with Lili was not a good way to impress him.

Lili met Gabrielle Shay her first day at Heatherfield while she and Caty were at the mall. They hit it off immediately and Gabi gave Lili a summer audition for cheerleading. She'd easily made it on the team. Hanging around with someone who was in Gabi Shay's inner circle did not help with Brian's image of her. After all, Gabi Shay had always insulted everyone in the honors crowd that Caty was part of, but picked Brian as her main target and teased him relentlessly since elementary school.

Caty looked at Lili's homework, helped her with the last few problems, and sent her on her way to Algebra 2.

"I'm never going to get on Brian's good side if he continues to think I'm on good terms with Lili."

"Haven't you told him you guys pretty much hate each other?" Misha asked.

"He doesn't believe her since they're cousins," Nina explained. "Brian and his family are really close and he doesn't get that most people don't get along with their parents and siblings and cousins."

"But she always acts so bitchy to you," Misha complained.

"No. She acts snobbish. It's different," Caty said. "I don't think you've noticed, since we don't really associate with Gabi over the summer, but every time the cheerleaders were over at my house and they started teasing me, Lili never joined in. Not because she doesn't think I'm a nerd, but because she knows if she teases me too, she can't hold the whole 'Caty's being mean to me and I'm going through such a hard time because of the divorce' thing over my head. Because then I can just say, 'Well, Lili doesn't stand up for me when the popular girls are teasing me; she just joins in and calls me a nerd.' And Brian was over a lot during the summer because we had to work on Model U.N. and SGA stuff together and he noticed Lili didn't tease me so…"

"What a messed up situation," Misha groaned.

"Tell me about it," Caty agreed.

"What are you going to do?" Nina asked.

"I have no clue."

The bell rang and the students started filing in.

"First class of the first day," Nina sighed. Even the nerds like Caty and her friends didn't want to be in school.

"We'll talk about this more at lunch," Misha promised.

Caty nodded and caught Brian's eye as he walked in. He made his way to sit beside his friend Will. He stopped at Caty's desk. Caty expected him to say something nasty or teasing, but instead her gave her a coy smile and said, "I liked your idea about making the Halloween Dance a masquerade."

Caty had suggested the annual Halloween Dance be a masquerade that morning in student council, but stupid Jake Saunders, student council president, had shot her down saying a masquerade for a Halloween dance, in which lots of people would be wearing masks for their costumes already, would be dumb.

"Um, thanks," Caty said, surprised. She's never gotten a compliment from Brian before. She gave him an uncertain smile.

Brian nodded, then went over to his seat.

"That was weird," Caty said to Nina.

Nina nodded, but Misha smiled.

"Maybe. But I think I just figured out the solution to both your problems."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: What did you think? This was just an introduction chapter, to let you get acquainted with the characters. I like where this is going so far, and I hope other people do! I have the next chapter written already, so I'll post that if I receive positive reception. So please review this guys! **

**And thanks for reading!**

**~IndusLotus2001**


	2. A Day in the Life of GRACE

**A/N: Second chapter. Thank you to Arianna Le Fay for favoriting this story and thank you to WaterAmulet and SilvenArrow for reviewing. Reviews really help and really brighten up my day. My updates should be pretty fast because I have a lot of this story written in advance, but only if people are interested, so if you like this story, please let me know!**

**Also, I tried to use page breaks to split up each part of the chapter, but it didn't seem to work, so I'm gonna try it a different way this time, and hopefully that'll work. If it does, I'll replace the first chapter with these new page breaks.**

**Shout outs:**

**SilvenArrow: Yes, I remember you from your reviews on Playing the Player. I'm not sure if I'll continue. The funny thing is, I've had chapter 5 written for quite some time, but all on different devices, and I've yet to put them together and I feel like people have lost interest by now. For now, I'm going to concentrate on this story. Yes, I did PM you saying the acronym would be PIXIE, but I really wanted to name the leader Rae, and I wanted the popular girl to be Gabrielle, so GRACE worked out better. As for names, it would've been Piper (Earth), Ivy (Quintessence), Xahria (fire), Isabelle "Izzy" (water), and the air guardian would still be Ellie. Hopefully the page breaks will work now, and yes we will get to the guardian stuff soon. There's actually a little peek into the guardian stuff at the end of this chapter, but I really wanted to use this chapter to give readers a little insight into the characters' lives. I'm having a little trouble with Caty because her problems at home (which go far past Lili) can only be addressed at home, and won't be for a while, but hopefully soon! Thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Misa: Really? It's weird you couldn't review, but thank you so much for taking the time to leave me a PM, that was really nice of you. And I received your PM before I saw the reviews, so you're technically the first reviewer, so thank you for that as well. The first review always means so much. I hope you don't run into the same reviewing problem this time. If you do, I'll see what I can do to fix it. I'm so glad you like the characters, and I love the name Rae as well, it was really important to me that I get to use the name. Yes, you will get to see the old guardians. Like Hay Lin, one of the guardians will be chosen because she is related to one of the old guardians, but it won't be the air guardian. It'll probably become obvious in this chapter which one of the girls is related to an old guardian. Thanks for your nice words and enjoy!**

**WaterAmulet: Thank you. GRACE was a last minute brainstorm. The acronym was originally supposed to be PIXIE, but GRACE hit me while I was trying to think of a cool five letter word I can use that has the letter 'G' in it because I really wanted the popular girl's name to be Gabrielle. It'll fit into the story later. When I thought of GRACE, it was perfect, because then I could also use the name Rae for the leader, which was what I originally wanted when I thought of the acronym FAIRY (that was the first acronym I came up with and I grew attached to the name Rae, but I didn't really like many of the other names I came up with for FAIRY {Francesca, Allie, Isabelle, Rae, and Yolanda}). I'm glad you're excited for more, I hope this chapter is to your liking!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

As annoying as it was having Jake walk her to every class, she had to admit-if only to herself-she was glad he insisted on walking her to lunch. Once they entered the cafeteria, she knew she never would've been able to find it if she were left to her own devices.

"Okay, so stick with me and you'll know what food is safe, and what you'll want to stay away from," Jake said, grabbing a tray from the end of the lunch line.

Rae smirked and held up a brown paper bag. "I'm not stupid enough to try and buy lunch on my first day at a new school. But considering you said some food is safe, I guess I'll bring money tomorrow."

"Don't. If you're lucky enough to have a parent that packs you lunch, you'll want to stick with that," Jake said. "So what's in there?"

Rae shrugged and looked inside. "Looks like a sandwich, a can of coke, a baggie of carrots, a little thing of hummace, and…" Rae groaned. "Cookies."

Jake raised his eyebrows. "You have something against cookies?"

"Not really, it's just my mom…she has this unnatural obsession with cookies. She thinks they make every situation better."

"I agree with your mom," Jake told her bluntly.

Rae rolled her eyes. "Then you can have them."

"_All_ of them?" Jake looked excited and surprised.

Rae suddenly felt bad for wanting to give away Silena's cookies. Her mother wasn't much of a cook, but she worked really hard learning how to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies (Rae's favorite), and she did am amazing job every time.

"Half of them," Rae decided. "She packed me a dozen."

Jake laughed. "She must've expected you to share."

Rae nodded. "I think she thinks sharing cookies will make me popular. I have a feeling the cheerleaders I saw this morning might run away screaming if they saw something with that many calories."

Jake laughed. "Lana Oller might," he agreed. "Kelli and Breanna too actually. But Gabi's not like that."

"Gabi?"

"My girlfriend."

Rae wondered why she felt so put out when he said girlfriend.

"She's the head cheerleader, and she eats healthy for the most part, but cookies are her weakness. Maybe if you share, it _will_ make you popular," Jake joked.

"I'm never telling my mother that," Rae decided, making Jake laugh yet again.

"Okay, go pick out a table. I'm gonna get my lunch before the line gets too long."

Rae nodded and sat down at the closest empty table she saw. So Jake was going to join her for lunch? She wasn't sure how she felt about that. In homeroom, they had assigned seats (which the cheerleaders looked upset by because they had clearly strategically chose seats where the every girl was in a perfect position to talk to every other girl), and Jake sat next to the pretty brown haired girl Rae identified as the leader of the popular girls. She now guessed that was Gabi, Jake's girlfriend. Their last names must be close to each other alphabetically. Now that she thought about it, she remembered her homeroom teacher placing 'Shay' next to 'Saunders.' The brown haired girl took that seat. Her name must be Gabi Shay.

In the four classes they had however, in which students could sit wherever they wanted, Jake sat next to her. He said it was so she could have a friend near her. Rae asked him what in the world made them _friends_, considering they'd only had one conversation, but in both of those classes, they had partner activities, and had to pair up with the person next to them. Jake and Rae, both very smart, were among the first pairs to finish every time, and had quite a while to talk after they were done. Rae didn't comment, but Jake insisted that made them friends as he walked her to lunch.

Rae unwrapped her sandwich and saw, to her delight, it had everything she wanted. Two slices of mozzarella cheese, ham, turkey, and a light layer of mayonnaise. Rae took everything else out too, and divided the cookies into two neat piles.

She looked up to see the table in front of her was where the cheerleaders were sitting. She didn't get what was so impressive about them. During the morning assembly, where two of the class presidents, the principal, and a counsellor gave speeches, the cheerleaders performed a routine. They dropped a girl twice, one girl fell once, and during the big finale, in which the head cheerleader-Gabi Shay- did an admittedly impressive flip, the girl behind her tripped and knocked over all the other girls. The routine ended with Gabi being the only girl standing, wearing a bright smile to try and cover up for the other girls as they stood as fast as they could to strike their final pose. No one got hurt, so the whole thing was pretty amusing.

Rae went back to her lunch. She dipped a carrot in the hummus and popped in in her mouth. She looked up again just as Jake finished paying for his lunch. He made a move to go over to Rae's table, but then heard someone call, "Jake! Over here!"

Jake and Rae both looked for the source of the voice and Rae's expression turned sour. Gabi Shay. Rae didn't want to admit it, but Gabi was one the prettiest girls she ever saw. Her eyes constantly changed color, too fast to keep up with. When they were blue, her eye shadow enhanced them, when they were green, her top enhanced them, and when they were brown, they matched her hair. She guessed guys lost themselves staring into her eyes.

Rae knew who Jake would rather sit with, and looked down at her sandwich. Jake looked at Gabi who waved him over. He hesitated, and looked back at Rae, but then he noticed she wasn't even looking at him. He shrugged and took a seat next to Gabi.

Rae looked up again and rolled her eyes. Of course he chose to sit with his girlfriend. It only made sense. He would've sat next to her in class too, except Gabi didn't share any classes with Jake and Rae so far. Jake would never choose Rae, a girl he barely knows, over Gabi, his clearly gorgeous girlfriend. And it's not like Rae cared. She didn't even _like_ Jake. He was arrogant and annoying and hot…and smart…and funny…and easy to talk to.

'Stop!' Rae commanded herself. She could not be falling for Jake. He wasn't her type. He seemed too perfect, so he must be hiding something. Besides, he wasn't exactly the nicest guy ever. As he walked with her from biology to art, they passed by a dorky looking red headed boy, and he'd coughed "Nerd." When a girl had fallen right in front of him, he just laughed. Of course, from the look the girl was giving him, Rae guessed he may have had a reason to not help the girl up, which is exactly what Rae did. That girl was in her math class and biology class, and she saw her again later in English. She saw the boy Jake called a nerd in those classes too, come to think of it.

Rae realized her thoughts had gone way off track. She was supposed to be convincing herself not to fall for Jake. Not that she _was_ falling for Jake…

Rae looked up for a minute to see an African American girl staring at her. The minute she saw Rae's face, the girl's eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets, she spit out her drink (it was a good things she was sitting at a table by herself or she would have some very angry friends), and she looked like she just saw a ghost. Rae felt very self-conscious and looked back down at her food, wondering why that girl had such an odd reaction to her.

In the next minute, the girl plopped down in the seat across from her. She had black hair in several braids, and interestingly enough, blue eyes. Rae recognized her from her math, biology and English classes as well. She didn't remember what her name was, but she remembered when the biology teacher called her name in attendance, one of the cheerleaders said something like, 'She only answers to Classless-a."

"Hi!" the girl said brightly.

"Uh…hi?" Rae replied questioningly. Rae wasn't shy, but she wasn't outgoing either. She wasn't very good at making friends. She was surprised that this girl, who seemed to be terrified of her at first, randomly decided to sit with her, out of the blue, instead of with her own friends. Then again, maybe her friends weren't around, considering she was sitting alone.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Um, Rachel Dylan. You can call me Rae. And you are?"

The girl smiled. "Alyssa Ashcroft."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Okay, what's this bright idea of yours?" Caty asked as she, Nina, and Misha sat down together at lunch. On the other side of their table were Brian and his friends Nick and Will. The six of them had this arrangement for years. They'd always sit at the same lunch table, just on opposite sides. The six of them, except for Brian and Caty, were sort of friends.

"Caty, I need your help with my homework," Lilianne cried, sitting across from Nina.

Caty groaned. "God Lili!" she cried, catching the attention of the three boys. "I'm in the middle of something here!"

"Aunt Iris won't be too happy to hear that," Lili sing-songed.

"Fine, what?" Caty asked. She noticed Brian looked surprised at the conversation between the two. Maybe he'd finally believe Caty and Lili weren't friends. "What could you possibly need help with on the first day of school?"

"I didn't read the book I was supposed for summer reading. Can you tell me what happens?" Lili held up a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's _The Scarlet Letter_.

Caty sighed. That was one of her favorite books, but she wasn't sure how to explain the story. "Lili, that's kind of difficult to explain."

"Why don't you just go online to find out what the story is?" Nina asked.

"Because not even sparknotes goes into as much depth as Caty does when she's explaining what happens in a book."

Nina opened her mouth to say something, then closed it when she realized Lili was right.

"Lili, I want to help, but I don't how well I can do. The last time I read that book for honors lit in eighth grade. Even if it was an easy book to explain, I can't remember it."

"I can," Misha offered. "I read that book last year. It was like my six hundredth time reading it."

"Really?" Lili asked, delighted.

Misha nodded. "But, you have to help us first."

"With what?" Lili frowned.

"Okay, so remember how Brian campaigned for himself in Debate Team?" Misha asked, lowering her voice so much that Caty, Lili, and Nina had to lean in to heat her.

Lili nodded.

"Well, today in precalc, he told Caty he liked her idea during the student council meeting. Brian never says anything nice to Caty. But this time he did and he gave her a shy smile while he said it."

Lili realized where this was going. "If you're asking me if Brian likes Caty, it's possible."

"What?!" Caty asked, shocked.

Nina looked surprised for a minute, then smiled. "That actually makes a lot of sense. I mean, think about Caty. You two have been at each other's throats since you were five, but you've also had to work closely together for all the clubs and stuff. And the reason you compete is because you're trying to see who is smarter. In a way, you must admire each other's drive and intelligence, and competitive attitude. One of you was bound to fall for the other."

"Ew!" Caty whisper-squealed. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!"

Lili looked surprised at Caty's reacting. "Caty, you know Brian's pretty cute."

"Ew!"

"But he _is_!" Lili insisted, and Misha and Nina nodded.

"Lili, you and your friends tease him relentlessly. How can you possibly think that?" Caty asked. "I mean…ew!"

"Caty, we tease him because he's a nerd. But we all agree he's cute. I mean, his hair, his eyes, his _everything_!"

"Ew!"

Lili sighed. "Gabi always said if he wasn't such a nerd, he'd be just as popular with the girls as Dalton Drew. Maybe even as popular as Jake Saunders.

Caty stared at Lili incredulously. Dalton Drew and Jake Saunders were the hottest, most sought after boys at Sheffield. Even most senior girls had crushes on the junior boys. And Lili was saying had Brian chosen a higher ranked social circle, he'd be right up there with them?

Caty looked at Brian and took in his appearance. He had these amazing sea green eyes that had a calming effect no matter how you felt. Those eyes were so expressive and she always did love them. But looking at him critically, she realized he had more going for him than his eyes. He had this black hair that always looked messy and it worked wonders. The messy look completely worked for him. He had a toned and muscled body, and he was of a pretty good height. She knew from their summers at the pool (Caty and Brian lived in the same town home neighborhood, so they spent their summers with their friends at the community pool) that he had six pack. She was impressed by it the first time she saw it. That was before she realized the six pack belonged to Brian Din. But maybe that was problem. To her, Brian was always her rival, her competitor. Maybe if she looked at him as just another boy…yup, that did it.

"You're right. He's _hot_," Caty admitted. "But I still don't want him to like me. I mean…ew!"

"No, you're looking at this all wrong. This is an opportunity," Misha said. "Alright guys, keep up with me on this. And Lili, I hope you like this idea, cuz I'm going to need you back me up."

Lili looked surprised that one of Caty's friends was actually looking for her support, but nodded nevertheless.

"I don't think Brian's head over heels for you or anything, but I see the beginnings of a crush. So, if you work on it, you can _make_ him fall head over heels for you."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Well, you're worried about what his eval will say right? If he's into you-"

"-he'll write you a great evaluation!" Nina finished for Misha.

Misha nodded. "And not just that either."

"What else?"

"If you can make him fall hard for you before March, when Ms. Mandel will write the letter, he may actually ask Ms. Mandel to write one for you."

"You think?" Caty asked.

"It's like you and Misha and editor-in-chief position," Nina said. "You said you'd decline to position if you got it for Misha because she's your best friend and you know it's her dream to be a journalist and being editor-in-chief will help immeasurably. Well, Brian knows it's your dream to study law, and getting this internship will help immeasurably, and if he's in love with you, of course he's going to want the most impressive teacher to write a recommendation for you."

"But he wants this internship too," Caty protested.

"Not in the same way," Misha said. "Like, you want the editor-in-chief position because it'll look good on college applications, but I want it because it's valuable experience for my future dream career, which is why you'll let me take it. This is the same thing. Brian wants the internship because it'll look good on college applications, but he's not sure what he wants to do in college, and if he doesn't major in law or poly sci, this won't matter as much, but it is valuable experience for your future dream career."

Lili nodded. "She's right. This is a great plan. You were freaking out about both things this morning. This could be the solution to both. And, if Brian writes you a great eval and you want to be a little evil and write him, not a _bad_ eval, but a less than spectacular eval, well that'll increase your chances a little."

"And he may sort of like you now," Misha said, "but before this year, he's been the biggest jerk on the planet to you, so writing him a not so stellar eval would be good revenge, especially for an internship he doesn't want to need as much you do."

"Even if I do agree to this," Caty said, "I've only had one boyfriend, and we only lasted three weeks. How am I supposed to get Brian to fall in love with me?"

Lili smiled, knowing this is where Misha needed her the most. "What are cousins for Caty?" Lili asked.

"Really?"

"Sure! This'll be fun!" Lili promised.

Caty took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm in. Thanks Lil."

"No problem. Now Misha, about this book…"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Babe, what were you doing with the _new girl_?" Gabi asked as Jake took a seat next to her. She said new girl as if being new was a highly contagious disease.

Jake gave Gabi a peck on the cheek before answering. "You mean Rae? She's pretty cool. We were partnered up for activities in math, biology, and English. She's state identified like me, so we finished the assignments pretty quickly and got to talking."

"Well why did you walk into homeroom with her?" Gabi asked.

"She was lost. I was showing her the way. You don't mind, do you?"

Gabi wanted to scream that of course she minded and Jake was not allowed to speak to that girl ever again, but she made the mistake of looking up into his eyes. Most people, including Jake, told Gabi she had the most beautiful eyes they'd ever seen. They changed color, sometimes slowly, sometimes really fast, and sometimes, you could see all three colors in her eyes at once. And Gabi had to agree that her eyes were amazing, and her best feature, and she knew how to perfectly enhance them, but she thought Jake Saunders had the most beautiful eyes ever. They were hazel, and like all hazel eyes, they too changed color. Maybe not as rapidly or vibrantly as Gabi's kaleidoscope eyes, but they changed just the same. Mostly they were these amazing caramel color and Gabi's anger melted away after looking into them. She couldn't be the jealous, clingy girlfriend if she wanted her relationship with Jake to last. "No, of course I don't mind. I think it's really sweet that you're helping her."

"Really?"

"Of course! In fact, you've inspired me to extend some kindness. What's her name?"

"Rachel Dylan. But she lets everyone call her Rae."

"Girls, I think we should give Rae a special audition for the cheerleading."

Breanna, Lana, and Kelli smirked, knowing the only reason Gabi wanted to give Rae an audition was to keep her away from Jake. The other girls wore knowing smiles as well. But Jake didn't know that.

"Wow Gabs, that super sweet of you," Jake said, smiling.

"Wait, what's a special audition?" Lilianne, the newest addition to the group, asked.

"A special audition is pretty much an invitation to our group," Lola explained. "You got one. It's basically a guarantee that even if you can't make it onto the squad, you're still part of the group. Eve and Andria both got special auditions."

Lili nodded. "Oh okay." She got up.

"Where are you going?" Breanna asked.

"I need help from my nerdy cousin. I didn't do the summer reading."

The other girls nodded, and Lili went to join her cousin Caitlin Lewis at her lunch table.

For twenty minutes, Gabi was able to enjoy lunch. Lana hadn't made any jabs at her this morning, even though she had the perfect opportunity when Rae walked into homeroom with Jake. She had a plan to make Jake off limits to Rae. And Jake was acting like the perfect boyfriend. But her good mood vanished when her phone began to ring.

She took it out of her bag, thinking it was either Stephanie or Carlie, two cheerleaders that had missed the first day of school. But her phone had a picture of a 27-year-old woman with dirty blond hair and blue eyes. On the picture was written the name 'Sienna.'

"Ugh," Gabi muttered, declining the call.

"Let me guess…Sienna?" Jake asked. Gabi nodded.

"What does the step-monster want?" Breanna asked, hearing Sienna's name.

"Who cares?" Gabi spat.

"Um…" Jake hesitated, then said, "Maybe Eva's in trouble."

"Good."

"Or maybe Luc is."

At the mention of Gabi's brother, her eyes widened and she gasped. What if Jake was right?

Gabi grabbed her phone and immediately called Sienna back.

"Gabi?"

"Why'd you call me? Is Luc okay?"

"What? Yes, he's fine," Sienna said. "I just wanted to let you know I'm making dinner tonight and I wanted to know if you had any requests."

"Yeah, one," Gabi said, calming down. "See if you can burn yourself alive!" She hung up.

"Wow Gabs, harsh," Jake commented.

Breanna glared at him, and Lana and Kelli, who heard Gabi's conversation with Sienna, exchanged 'He dug his own grave' looks.

"Harsh? You think that's harsh?" Gabi started.

"I just mean you may have hurt her feelings," Jake cautioned.

"Really? Well, do you think my feelings weren't hurt when my dad announced he was going to get married to this slut who was half his age and is probably only after his money? And how do you think my feelings were after Daddy decided to take Eva, his _step_ daughter, to his father-daughter work picnic instead of his actual daughter?"

"I know having Sienna and Eva become part of your family hasn't been easy for you-"

"They are not part of my family Jake!" Gabi screeched, attracting the entire table's attending. "That seven-year-old she-devil should go live with her dad, because at least she still has both parents. And the step monster can burn in hell for all I care."

She got up from the table and stalked out of the cafeteria.

"Gabi, wait!" Jake cried.

Brenna gathered up her stuff and Gabi's before getting up as well. "Jake, you're a real jerk," she said before running after her best friend.

"I…" Jake looked helplessly around the table. "What did I say?"

"Nothing," Lana assured him.

Jake sighed. "I know she hates Sienna and Eva but I didn't she'd react that badly."

"She overreacted," Lana said soothingly. "You know Gabi. She's such a drama queen."

Jake nodded, but knew there was more to it than that. And he was right.

Bree was the only one Gabi told about everything that happened with her mother, brother, step mother, and step sister. She didn't want Jake to know how screwed up her life really was. Jake was practically perfect, and a lot of people thought he was fake or hiding something, because nobody was perfect, but Jake really was. He was smart, handsome, athletic, and had the most loving family Gabi had ever seen. And she was afraid that if she didn't seem just as perfect, he wouldn't like her anymore. So she kept up appearances. But she realized now, _she_ was fake and hiding something. It wasn't like she hadn't thought of telling Jake about her family before. But even if she was being fake, she couldn't. He could break up with her. Or worse, he could look at her with pity in his eyes. And that was the last thing she wanted.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Alyssa didn't really notice the new girl at first. She heard 'Rachel Dylan' being called during attendance for each class, and even though Alyssa realized Rachel had to be new, because everyone in Sheffield knew everyone else, even if they weren't all friends, she didn't really care.

Rachel would be one of three things. The first was popular. If she was really pretty, she'd be in with Gabi Shay and her group of mindless zombies by the end of the day. If she was athletic, there was no way Layleen Fullbody, the captain of the girls everything, would let her get away.

The second thing was artsy. If she was into the fine arts, she'd get snatched up by the art geeks who spent all their free time in the art studio, sculpting, drawing, or painting-unless Alyssa was there, in which case the art studio doubled as a ghost town. If she was into the performing arts, Rachel's new best friend would be drama freak Jade Crane, the same girl that replaced Alyssa as Ellie's best friend six and a half years ago.

The third thing was smart. If Rachel was smart, or into the more serious, academic clubs and honors societies, she'd immediately be accepted by all nerds alike. She'd be in a tug of war between Caty Lewis and her group of 'what could be more important than studying' nerds, Brian Din and his group of 'I embrace the fact that I'm teased relentlessly' nerds, and Shelia Breslin and her group of 'you have to be _invited_ to join _our_ study group' nerds. Considering the fact that Rachel was in all of Alyssa's honors classes, and the only popular person in the honors classes was Jake Saunders, and he was an anomaly, meant that Rachel was probably in the smart category.

What Alyssa didn't expect was to see Rachel walk into the cafeteria with Jake Saunders by her side, but not get invited to sit at Gabi Shay's popular table. This meant Rachel was contesting Gabi, even if the poor new girl didn't know it. And she was sitting alone, meaning she hadn't been defined and grabbed up yet.

Alyssa thought about joining Rachel. Maybe she didn't have to be a friendless loser for life. But Rachel was really pretty, and the fact that she held an actual conversation with Jake, opposed to the conversations full of blushes and high pitched giggles he held with the wannabe populars, meant she was smart. So she could be snatched up by either group. Just when Alyssa was going to abandon the idea of befriending the new girl, she looked up and Alyssa nearly died. She had the same exact face of the girl Alyssa had been dreaming of; the face of the girl surrounded by the pink glow; the girl Alyssa didn't know.

Alyssa immediately plopped down in front of her and introduced herself.

"Hi!" she said brightly.

"Um…hi?" Rachel replied.

"What's your name?" Alyssa asked.

"Um, Rachel Dylan. You can call me Rae. And you are?"

Alyssa smiled. "Alyssa Ashcroft."

"That's a pretty name."

"Thanks. So…I see you're in all my honors classes."

"Uh, yeah. I'm state identified," Rae said.

"Impressive. Me too. I see you haven't been integrated into either of the cliques that would want you."

"And which cliques would those be?"

"You're pretty enough to be part of Gabi Shay's group."

"The _cheerleaders_?" Rae asked and said cheerleaders so distastefully, Alyssa had to smile.

She nodded. "Yeah. And smart enough to be part Caitlin Lewis's band of nerds."

Rae smirked. "As fun as that sounds, I think I'll pass."

Alyssa laughed. "Yeah, you wouldn't fit in there anyway. You're not filled with nearly as much hot air as that girl. You're not as snobbish as Shelia and you can stand up for yourself, unlike Brian."

"And they are…?"

"The leaders of the other nerd cliques. The nerds are split into three sub-groups. Shelia and her friends who think they are God's gift to the Earth, Brian and his friends, who just let people like Gabi Shay and Jake Saunders walk all over them and tease them until they are reduced to tears, and Caty and her friends who…Actually, Caty's friends are pretty sweet. It's Caty that has a stick up her butt."

Rae laughed. "Well, I'm not into cliques anyway."

"Good to hear."

"So where do you fit in?"

"I used to be best friends with one of the girls obsessed with drama, but we drifted apart. If Gabi Shay hadn't made me a social outcast, I'd probably fit in with the artsy kids."

"Social outcast?"

"Yeah. In sixth grade, I barreled into Gabi by accident and spilled both our lunches on her new some brand name or the other dress and she called me Klutzcroft. She and her friends also call me Classless-a, but that's a slightly more embarrassing story that I'm not ready to talk about yet."

"That's okay," Rae promised. "So does that mean you have no friends?"

"Not one."

"Well consider that situation rectified," Rae replied.

Alyssa smiled and the two talked for the rest of the lunch period.

"So what do you your parents do?" Rae asked.

"Mom is a judge, just like my grandmother was. And Dad is a music professor at Juilliard. He commutes to New York every day."

"That's impressive," Rae said.

"What about your parents?"

"You have to promise not to tell."

"Tell…what?" Alyssa asked.

"My mom is Silena Shane."

Alyssa's eyes widened. "You mean the women that designed the entire wardrobe of Gabi Shay and every girl in her group?"

"Yeah…and my dad is Frank Dylan."

"The guy who invented the phone, computer, television, and tablet that everyone on this planet owns?"

"Yup."

Alyssa's mouth dropped open.

"And that reaction is why I don't tell people," Rae said.

"You must live in a huge house!"

"The white house with the teal shutters-"

"On Larson street," Alyssa finished. "Yeah. I live on that street too. I live in the first house, the white with the blue tiling."

"That's a pretty big house too," Rae said.

Alyssa nodded. "It used to belong to my grandmother, but she and my grandfather moved once they retired and gave the house to my parents. My mom was pregnant with me at that point, so my grandparents wanted them to have a house."

"Did your mom buy the house from your parents or did they just give it to her?"

"They gave it to her."

"Then you must come from money too," Rae commented. She smiled. "And you seem pretty down to Earth. Are all the rich kids like that here?"

"Don't count on it," Alyssa replied dryly. "You know who else lives on Larson street? In the house on the end of the street, the white with the orange tiling? Gabi Shay."

"Of course," Rae rolled her eyes.

Alyssa giggled. "But now you can boast that you live in the biggest house on the street. Your house is the only one with a guest house."

"I'm not telling anyone else who my parents are."

"You don't have to tell them to tell them where you live."

"I don't really want to tell them that either."

"Your choice I guess," Alyssa shrugged as the bell rang. "I have APUSH next. You?"

"Same," Rae said.

The girls gathered their stuff and Jake showed up just as they were ready to leave.

"Where are you going without your guide?" he teased.

"I have a new guide," Rae replied coldly.

Jake just grinned and Alyssa wondered why Rae's cold tone made Jake smile. Jake looked over at her. "Sorry, I don't remember your name."

"I think what you mean is, I don't know what your real name is," Alyssa replied, glaring.

Jake cleared his throat, now uncomfortable. Years of calling her Classless-a had left his mind blank with her actual name.

"Alyssa," she sighed, knowing keeping her name from him wouldn't really help anything. "Alyssa Ashcroft, _not_ Classless-a Klutzcroft."

Jake nodded.

"Are you in APUSH with us?"

Alyssa nodded.

"How was your lunch?" Jake asked Rae as the three headed to class. "I'm sorry I didn't join you. Gabi wanted me to sit with her."

"I don't care. She's your girlfriend, you _should_ sit with her," Rae replied breezily.

"Why did I see Gabi run out of the cafeteria?" Alyssa asked.

"Something I said upset her," Jake said, running a hand through his hair. He actually seemed upset. "I mean, I _get_ she doesn't _like_ her step mother, but she doesn't have to be so outright rude when Sienna is trying so hard to…" Jake stopped when he realized he was revealing Gabi's personal problems to two girls who didn't even know her. "Anyway, she got mad at me, and Bree got mad at me on her behalf, and went after her."

"Breanna Kramer doesn't have a mind of her own," Alyssa said, rolling her eyes.

"You're stereotyping."

"No, I'm recalling. I used to be best friends with Ellie," Alyssa said.

"That was years ago. They're both different now."

"Who's Ellie?" Rae asked. "And which one is Breanna?"

"Breanna is the one with the long brown hair and the heart keychain on her backpack," Jake said.

Rae gave him a blank look.

Alyssa giggled. "You'll know her soon enough. She's Gabi's best friend. You'll be able to recognize her as the girl that doesn't have a single original thought. And Ellie is Breanna's cousin. She and her friends will be performing at the Halloween Dance."

Rae nodded as the trio took their seats in APUSH. The teacher just gave them a syllabus, a textbook, and gave them the rest of the period to talk. Alyssa was surprised. This was the first class in which the teacher didn't jump into the material right away. That's what she liked about honors classes. The teachers always taught. Oh well. Her mother called in a favor to the school (she was a respected alum), and got Alyssa all her textbooks over the summer so she could outline them before school started.

That afternoon, Alyssa invited Rae over to her house. She had to figure out why she dreamed about this girl. More than that, Rae seemed cool. Maybe Alyssa would finally have a friend again.

Rae immediately accepted the invitation, and looked extremely happy. Yup. This could be the start of beautiful friendship.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie woke up in a cold sweat. She shot up into a sitting position, breathing hard. She reached to her right and flipped the light switch on. Her clock said 3:37am.

'Not again,' she thought, crawling out of bed.

She exited her room. Across from her, her parents' room door was open and the room was empty. Her parents still weren't home. What they did past 3 in the morning, she didn't know.

"Jason?" she called. No answer.

Ellie crept downstairs. "Jason!" she tried again. Still no answer. Great. What was the point of having an overprotective older brother if he wasn't around enough to be overprotective?

Ellie went back upstairs and grabbed her phone. She needed some comfort. She needed to talk to someone familiar to calm herself down from the dream she just had. She scrolled through her contacts twice, not sure who to call. Jade would be cranky Ellie woke her up and Milly was too heavy of a sleeper to wake up to her phone. She could call Adam, but she relied on him too heavily as it was. Jade warned her that if she kept relying on Adam, he may think she'd always need his help, and never move on from her.

As she started to scroll down her contacts a third time, her finger paused on the first name on the list: Alyssa Ashcroft.

Alyssa Ashcroft was Ellie's ex-best friend. They'd met in day care when they were three. Alyssa marched right up to Ellie and introduced herself.

_"Hi! My name is Alyssa. It means noble one. What's your name?"_

_ "My name's Elizabeth, but everyone calls me Ellie. I don't know what that means."_

_ "I can ask my mom for you!"_

_ "Okay!" Ellie agreed. "Uh…what does noble mean?"_

_ Alyssa shrugged. "I don't know."_

_ For some reason, both girls found that funny and burst out laughing. They became best friends instantly. The next day, Alyssa told Ellie the meaning of her name._

_ "My mommy said that Elizabeth means promise of God. But Ellie means sympathy or compassion. You can choose which one you like better."_

_ "Thanks! What's sympathy? And what's compassion?"_

_ Alyssa shrugged. "I don't know."_

Ellie smiled at the memory. As the two grew up, Alyssa knew the definition of every word. She was always the smart one out of the two. They were inseparable. At least, they were until fifth grade. Half way through, Alyssa and Ellie got in a big fight when Alyssa found out about a secret Ellie was hiding, and the two ended their friendship.

To everyone on the outside, it seemed like Ellie got into drama, made new friends, and dropped Alyssa. The truth was, Ellie stopped talking to Alyssa because she didn't want to be harassed about her secret. Alyssa knew that's why Ellie was ignoring her, and after half a school year and an entire summer of trying to get Ellie to talk to her, she got tired of it, and decided to give up.

It was true that around the same time as their fight, Ellie did get more into drama and became friends with Jade and Milly, girls she only previously knew by name, but Adam was the one who got her into drama. Adam was friends with both Ellie and Alyssa since kindergarten. Adam did try to get Alyssa into acting as well. If Alyssa wasn't so shy, and refuse to act or sing like the others in the drama club, she and Ellie may have repaired their friendship.

But Alyssa stuck to the fine arts instead of performing arts, she and Adam drifted apart when he spent the entire summer at theater camp and Alyssa spent her entire summer trying to fix things with Ellie, and by sixth grade, they only said hi to each other in the halls. When Gabi Shay humiliated Alyssa and started calling her Classless-a, Adam pretty much stopped talking to her. He and his friends was already teased relentlessly by Gabi by being "drama freaks." He didn't need more teasing for being friends with a friendless loser. By the time Alyssa developed her other nickname, Klutzcroft, Alyssa's friendship was pretty much a forgotten memory for Adam.

But Ellie never forgot. Alyssa was amazing. She was smart and ambitious, and a terrific artist. Ellie spent all her free time at Alyssa's house. Alyssa's parents were like her own, and God knew they were much better people than Ellie's own parents.

Ellie sighed and tapped Alyssa's contact name and realized to her dismay, she only had Alyssa's home number on her phone. Right. They were too young to have cell phones when they were friends. Ellie wrote down Alyssa's home number in her phone number book, and when she got her cell phone in seventh grade, she didn't have the heart to not put in Alyssa's number.

Ellie sighed. Alyssa was in most of the dreams she'd been having lately. Along with Gabi Shay, who Ellie hated, Caty Lewis, who hated her ever since Ellie dragged her grade down on a partner project they did in sixth grade (that girl clearly could not let go of a grudge), and a girl she'd never seen before. But those were normal dreams.

Well, okay, not normal. They weren't even dreams really. Just an image of a dark, scary, depressing castle, and Alyssa, Gabi, Caty, no-name girl, and Ellie herself flying, with different color glows surrounding them. But tonight, she had a real nightmare.

It still starred Alyssa, Gabi, Caty, Ellie, and No-Name, but this time they were doing more than flying. They were fighting. There was a terrifying monster. It was an ugly, scaly, green and yellow snakey-lizardy thing with sharp fangs, a vicious cry, creepy green eyes with no irises, and black hair everywhere. It was huge (even Gabi, who was the tall side, was only half his size), and could crush or eat the girls if they weren't able to fly away from his grasp. In addition to flying away every time he made a grab for them, the girls were fighting back.

Along with the lizard monster were other creepy looking creatures. The girls seemed to be evenly matched with them. Ellie was throwing them back, though she couldn't see how. Caty was knocking them back with blasts of water, Alyssa was scaring them off with blasts of fire, and Gabi was lifting them in the air using vines. No-Name seemed to be doing the most damage. She was trying to keep Snake Man busy by shooting lightning at him. Every few bolts seemed to hurt and paralyze him for a second, but he just shook it off, forcing her to fight harder.

Eventually, the lizard got tired of getting shocked, and he shot a spider web out of his mouth, throwing No-Name against a brick building, and trapping her there with the web.

Alyssa was the first to notice No-Name was in trouble. She called to her (though Ellie couldn't hear what she said-it was only thing in her dream she couldn't hear), then flew over. She started using a little flame to cut through the web, but in the next second Snake Dude used his web slinging power to trap Alyssa as well.

Alyssa yelled out to Caty. Caty looked back and saw Alyssa and No-Name were in trouble. With most of the other creatures stuck or unconscious, Caty tapped Ellie on the shoulder, and the two flew to help Alyssa and No-Name while Gabi fought Mr. Ugly.

She raised vines from the ground and started slapping him around. He tried to throw webs to stop the other girls, but thanks to Gabi, his aim was way off.

Caty covered the webs trapping Alyssa and No-Name with water, and Ellie took a deep breath and blew on the webs, freezing them. Together, Ellie and Caty kicked the webs, and the desired effect was achieved. The part of the web they kicked broke. Ellie went to No-Name's left and Caty went to Alyssa's right, intending to kick the other side of the web and free the girls. Before they could, Snake Dude's webs trapped them as well, though it was completely accidental.

Caty and Ellie both cried out, distracting Gabi. She looked back for a moment, allowing Snake Dude the time he needed to compose himself. He grabbed Gabi by using his tail. She squealed and struggled. He threw her, and she landed fifty feet away.

"Gabi!" Caty cried in fear.

Snake Dude slithered over to the other girls and grinned evilly. "You're done now Gaurdianssssss," he hissed. "But firsssst…" He got in No-Name's face. "The Heart of Kandrakar if you pleassssse."

"Sorry, my hands are kind of occupied at the moment," No-Name said snarkily. Both dream Ellie and real Ellie were impressed at how No-Name managed to stay brave even face-to-face with green, tall, and scaly.

Green, tall, and scaly hissed angrily. "Very well. I will pry it from you dead form," he decided.

"Good luck with that," No-Name replied, smirking, clearly knowing something Snake Dude didn't.

Caty hissed out No-Name's name, but again, Ellie didn't hear the name. She heard everything else Caty said thought. "Not the time for smugness and jokes."

"Aw, you like my smugness and jokes, don't you?" No-Name asked Snake Dude.

Snake Dude didn't answer. He just glared at them, then opened his mouth. This time, instead of shooting webs at them, Ellie saw a ball of fire forming. They really _were_ done!

And that was when Ellie woke up. She had no idea how she could've possibly dreamed of that. She was one of the few people who actually remembered her dreams when she woke up from them, but she could usually make sense of why she had them. She ate too many cupcakes when she dreamed of turning into one, she ate a midnight snack when she dreamt an evil ghost was stealing all the little siblings of the world, she just quit her job at a restaurant when she dreamt of a waitress trying to murder her, she was doing a project on owls when she dreamt everyone in the world became nocturnal. But what was the reason for this dream? No research on lizards done, no scary movies watched, no midnight snacks eaten. And what was with dreaming about that girl she didn't know and all those powers they all had? And what were those weird words Snake Dude said? Guardians and Heart of Kandrakar?

Ellie took a deep, shuddering breath, and, even though she felt bad, she called Adam. He didn't answer the first time, which made sense. Adam always said if she needed him at some odd hour, to call twice, and he'd know she needed him. Ellie called again and Adam answered this time.

"Hello?" he muttered sleepily into the phone.

Hearing his voice made Ellie feel even worse, but still she said, "Hey Adam, it's me."

"Ellie?! What's wrong? Are you okay?" Suddenly Adam sounded more awake, making Ellie feel guilty, and a little silly. He sounded genuinely worried, and here she was calling because of a stupid nightmare.

Still, she knew she needed to talk about this and she knew Adam wouldn't mind or judge or tease her.

"I'm okay, I just…I had a really bad nightmare and I know it's stupid but I need to talk…"

"Of course. I'm listening. What was it about?"

Ellie repeated the entire nightmare to him. When she was done, she felt a lot better.

"Whoa, that's crazy," Adam said. "And you couldn't hear any time someone said the name of the girl you didn't know?"

"Nope. Jade said something about not being able to dream about someone you don't know, so maybe that's why. You can't make people up."

"But you were able to see her face," Adam argued. "So if this snake guy can breathe fire, doesn't that make him a dragon?"

"A web slinging dragon," Ellie replied, laughing a little.

"You think the threat of death was because you hate the people in the dream? I mean, Snake Dude flinging Gabi the way you described had to have killed her."

"I hate Gabi, but I don't want her to _die_," Ellie said. "I mean, sure she called us drama freaks, but she could've done so much worse. I mean, you've seen the way she treats Brian Din, and poor Frank will always be scared of her."

Brian Din was a nerd who Gabi picked on more than anyone, even Alyssa. And Frank Schaeffer was another drama kid who Gabi humiliated as badly as she did Alyssa. Luckily, Frank was already friends with the drama kids when that happened, and they didn't abandon him.

"And Caty may not be my biggest fan, but I don't hate her. I definitely don't hate myself, and I don't think I would have anything against a girl I never met before."

If Adam noticed Ellie didn't say anything about Alyssa, he didn't say anything.

"Well, do you feel better now?"

"Yeah, I do."

"If it'll help, I'll try and figure out why you had the dream."

"No, don't bother yourself Adam. I think all I really needed was to talk about it, so thanks."

"Anytime," Adam said. Then his voice turned serious. "I mean it El. I'm always here for you to talk…about _anything_."

"Why do I feel like you're hinting at something?" Ellie asked.

"Probably cuz I am," Adam replied, and Ellie could hear the smirk in his voice. "Anyway, you still have a couple hours before you have to wake up. You should get some sleep. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It was just a dream."

"Okay. See you in a few hours El."

"See you Adam. Thanks again."

"For you, always," Adam replied before hanging up.

Ellie sighed. She felt a lot better about the dream, but now she couldn't get to sleep because she felt bad about not being able to return Adam's feelings. Since when was someone liking you a problem?

Ellie rolled over and sighed again as she heard the front door open.

"El?" Jason's voice called.

Ellie kept quiet and closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep when Jason opened her door to check on her like he did every night (or early morning on days he didn't come home til the current hour).

"Sleep tight baby sis," he whispered, closing the door, and within a few minutes, Ellie fell back asleep.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you think? I have chapters 3 and 4 done, as well as a few pages of a future chapter. I am also halfway done with chapter 5, so my updates will be pretty fast as long as people want me to continue. Review guys! Please and thank you!**

**Also, do you think my chapters are too long? I don't want to make your eyes bleed. If the chapters are too long, let me know, and I can cut them in half.**

**~IndusLotus2001**


	3. The Silver Dragon

**A/N: Chapter three guys! I'm really excited because I didn't think I'd get this far. I didn't know how many people still read W.I.T.C.H. fanfics and how many people read next gen fanfics. I know I myself am a fan of stories with the original characters, but I'm glad this story is getting better reception than I thought! I didn't want to make your eyes bleed with this ridiculously long chapter, so I decided to make this a double update. For my reveiwers, this means your shout-outs are split up between the two chapters.**

**Enjoy guys!**

**SilvenArrow: I love the name Piper too. I could never quite get into OITNB, though maybe I just didn't try hard enough. I always think of Piper McLean, who is a character from the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. I love all his books, and ever since I read the first one and saw he used the name Piper, I fell in love with and tried to find a way to use it. Thought I found it until I changed Piper's name to Gabi, but like I said, I'd rather her name be Gabrielle, and the reason will be revealed later on. Honestly, for Xahria, I just looked up names beginning with X, and that's the one I liked best. It fit better than Alyssa did, but I traded acronyms because GRACE had three names I wanted (Gabi, Rae, and Ellie) and one name I really liked (Caty), while PIXIE only had two named I wanted (Xahria and Ellie). It still had one name I liked (Piper), but again, I needed Gabrielle. Yes, Gabi's overprotectiveness of her brother is a trait she got from me, my brother is my first priority. And you will see more of Luc, I just don't know when. I already PMed you about Ellie's dream, and this chapter is more filler, but the next one gets to the guardian stuff!**

**Emily: How is this at all necessary? It's weird typing out your shout out while you're sitting right next to me reading the unedited version of this chapter. Yes, I know we discussed that about Gabi, but she's supposed to be a bitch, and while I could see someone going by that nickname being a bitch, Gabrielle to me sounds like someone who is sweet. Besides, it'd be a bit weird if she forced everyone to call her Gabrielle. Someone like Lana would wonder why and not even Bree knows the entire story of that name. Also, I'm unsure about the couples. I had a plan, and then they sort of changed, forming into the couples you foresaw. I'm going to see if I can change it back, but we'll see.**

**WaterAmulet: I supposed I could've used a different acronym. I played around with MAGIC for a little while, but it didn't work out. All that acronym gave me was Gabi, and I didn't know I was going to name a character Caty back then, so it didn't even give me that and I didn't want to use anything with 'G' and 'A' because then I'd be tempted to name the popular girl Alicia, and I didn't want the back story behind Gabi's name to go to any character besides the popular girl. I ran into the same problem with GRACE, but then I thought of the name Alyssa, and I had names for all the other letters, plus this acronym allowed me to use Rae as well, which is what I always wanted to name the leader. I love overprotective older brother characters too. Unfortunately, although you will see more of him, I don't think he'll play a very big role, but you never know. I have a way of making minor characters play bigger roles than I originally intended. Hope this update was fast enough and hope the chapters are to your liking.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Do you want a drink?" Alyssa asked as she and Rae entered Alyssa's kitchen.

"Coke if you have it," Rae replied.

Alyssa tossed her a can, and grabbed a water bottle for herself. "Mom thinks soda is evil," she said. "But Dad insisted we always have some in the house. His band was featured in a coke commercial once."

"You dad was in a band?"

Alyssa nodded. "Wreck 55?"

Rae's eyes grew huge. "You're kidding!"

Alyssa shook her head. "Nope."

Wreck 55 was one the biggest bands in the country until they broke up seventeen years ago. Even so, their songs continued to play everywhere, and the band had a rather large following of all ages, even though most of the teenagers that are fans weren't even born when band broke up.

"So what's the real reason the band broke up?"

"Besides the fact that all the members grew too busy with their kids to keep playing?" Alyssa asked. "It had to do with my mother's friends."

"What do you mean?"

"My mom used to be best friends with Wreck's lead singer's girlfriend. He and my dad were original members. The other two members quit when they all turned fourteen, so the boyfriends of my mother's other friends joined, and that's the Wreck 55 that became famous, but it was hard for them to stay in touch after my mom and her friends fell out of touch with each other."

"That's a really stupid reason for them to break up."

"I agree. Especially since I know my dad misses playing so much. But if they really wanted to make it work, they would've. Their wives shouldn't have any say in it."

Rae nodded. "So where are the other members of the band now?"

Alyssa shrugged. "The other guitarist still lives in Heatherfield, and perhaps the keyboardist too, but the drummer and lead singer both moved away."

"So your dad was the bassist?"

Alyssa nodded.

"He's my favorite," Rae admitted. Then she thought of something. "I saw a million of the cheerleaders in Gabi's group wearing Wreck 55 t-shirts over their cheerleading uniforms."

"Yeah, they always wear those on the first day."

"But Gabi had a Wreck 55 keychain on her backpack and one of them had a Wreck 55 charm on her cell phone."

"So?"

"So, clearly all the popular girls love your dad's band. So why aren't they your friends?"

"Think about why you don't want to tell people your mother is Silena Shane and your father in Frank Dylan. I have the same reasons not to tell people my dad was part of Wreck 55."

"You mean…no one knows?"

"Well, Ellie, my old best friend does. And Adam, another one of her friends. And now you. But no one else." Alyssa paused. "Well okay, one other guy, but that's because his father was the guitarist for Wreck."

Rae smiled. "You could've been popular but you chose not to be. I knew I liked you for a reason."

Alyssa smiled back. This was going great! All Alyssa wanted was a friend before she started senior year. Now here she was, the first day of junior year, and she made a friend already! Maybe all she needed to do was be confident and walk right up to someone and try. Then again, between her loud clothing, her weird hairstyle, and what her classmates called her "unnatural" love of school, maybe not. She didn't have a lot in common with most kids. And no one really wanted to be friends with Classless-a Klutzcroft, the girl that was so uncool, she was dropped by a drama freak, one of the lowest social circles in school, in fear that they'd be dragged down socially. Being average was the way to go. Being average made you someone Gabi Shay didn't pay attention to, meaning she never teased the average kids. No one would want to drop down from that rung on the ladder.

Rae was the new girl and had no friends. She didn't want to be in a popular clique (good thing, because she'd have no chance once people found out she was friends with Classless-a), and she accepted Alyssa even after she knew about her miserably low social class. And she finally found someone she had things in common with. Rae was rich but didn't care, had famous parents that she didn't want anyone to know about, and as far as Alyssa knew, didn't see the appeal in Jake Saunders. Alyssa may have only approached Rae because she'd dreamt about her, and wanted to know why, but she found she genuinely liked Rae, and didn't even care about her dream anymore.

Rae and Alyssa finished their drinks and did their homework together. Alyssa's father had a late class to teach on Thursdays, so he didn't make it home for dinner, but Rae got to meet Alyssa's mother, who invited her to stay for dinner.

"So Rae, how do you like Sheffield so far?" Mrs. Ashcroft asked her.

"It's only been one day, but it's fine," Rae said. "I mean, Alyssa and I are friends, so that's good. I'm not shy, but I'm not really outgoing either, so I think it's cool I was able to make a friend on the first day."

A huge smile broke out on Alyssa's face. She liked Rae, but she wasn't sure if Rae considered her a friend as well. She was happy to know the feeling was mutual.

"It's always hard at first," Mrs. Ashcroft agreed. "I went to Sheffield myself, and I was the new girl in sixth grade. Luckily, I met a group of nice girls right away, and they were my best friends all through school."

"Until college," Alyssa said. "They all went to different colleges and tried to stay in contact, but found they couldn't."

Mrs. Ashcroft shrugged. "It's just as well. I have new friends now. My mother always said the friends you stay in contact with are your true friends and the friends you don't are people you will lose eventually."

"That's such a depressing thing to say," Alyssa groaned. "But you said some people in your group kept in contact."

"That's right. Most of us went to college in the New England area, but one girl went to college in California, and she and the girl she was closest to in our group remained best friends."

"Are they still best friends?" Rae wondered.

"I'm not sure," Mrs. Ashcroft admitted. "I don't really know the whereabouts of most of my old friends."

"Rae, where do you want to go to college?" Alyssa asked.

Rae shrugged. "Yale is my dream school, but we'll see."

"That's where I want to go too," Alyssa said. "I want to double major in art and math. You?"

"Chemistry and physics," Rae obliged.

"Do you think you can get in?" Mrs. Ashcroft asked.

"Rae's really smart Mom," Alyssa said. "She's in all my honors classes and she's state identified. And she was top of her class at her old school. She would've been valedictorian if she stayed."

"But Alyssa told me she's top of her class here and her GPA is higher than mine, so she'll probably beat me out," Rae said.

"Jake's GPA is higher than yours too," Alyssa said.

"Really?" Rae looked surprised. "I know he's state identified, but…"

"You didn't think he was that good." Alyssa finished. "Yeah, common misconception. I didn't know either, til class ranks came out last year. I was first, Jake was second, and Caty Lewis was third. I don't think she was too happy to be beaten by Jake. This year, the ranks of the top 5 are still the same, but you may change that. You may know Caty actually. She's in all our honors classes."

"That narrows it down," Rae said sarcastically.

Mrs. Ashcroft wore a wistful smile at Rae's sarcasm as Alyssa giggled.

"Red frizzy hair, these really amazing electric blue eyes?"

"Oh, yeah!" Rae said. "She fell today and I helped her up. She fell right in front of us, Jake and I, and Jake just laughed and she glared at him, but she had the glare on her face before Jake even started to laugh so I figured that's why he laughed instead of helping her up."

Alyssa nodded. "I don't really like either of them, so I don't too much about their story, but word is, they actually used to be friends last year before Jake won president. Now they hate each other."

"Isn't it a bit extreme to hate a friend of yours just because he's president? I mean, she was sitting down there with the rest of student council during the welcome assembly, so she must still be part of it."

"Yeah, she's vice president," Alyssa confirmed. "But she hates being second best and she's a perfectionist and she's neurotic, and she should honestly be in Shelia Breslin's nerd group because she has the high and mighty act down. I don't know how her friends deal with her!"

Rae giggled. Alyssa spent the rest of dinner telling her about all the different kids at school. At one point, her mother turned it really awkward.

She's made chocolate cake for dessert and served each girl a slice. She sat back down at the table with the girls just as Alyssa finished telling Rae about Lilianne Morrison.

"You've told your friend about a lot of the kids you don't like at school sweetie," she said. "But you didn't tell her about your friends. Like Ellie and Adam."

"Ellie?" Rae asked uncertainly.

Alyssa cringed. Rae clearly remembered Alyssa telling her that Ellie _used_ to be her best friend. But her mother never knew they ended their friendship. She had already pretty much hated most of the kids at school when she was still friends with Ellie and Adam. If her mother knew she wasn't friends with Ellie and Adam anymore, the only two kids she liked at school, the two kids who she used to bring over after school every day, one of whom pretty much lived at her house, her mother would constantly hover and worry about how Alyssa was "adjusting." Good grades and great artistic talent wasn't enough for her parents. They had such amazing experiences with their best friends while they went to Sheffield, they constantly worried about Alyssa's lack of friends. Alyssa didn't know too much about her parents' teenage years, but she had a feeling they had experiences no normal kid had, and wished they wouldn't pester her so much about the friends she didn't actually have anymore.

"Ellie is Alyssa's best friend," Mrs. Ashcroft said. "She's a really sweet girl. She doesn't do too well in school, but when she sings…it's like magic. And she can act as well. She became Alyssa's friend in day care and the girls met Adam in kindergarten. The three of them are inseparable."

"Adam's into all the drama stuff Ellie's into," Alyssa said quietly, letting Rae know Adam is also an _ex_-friend of hers.

"Those two used to come over all the time, but once they started Sheffield, I only see them when I'm at the mall and they're shopping for drama costumes or if I'm ever at the school."

"I usually go to their houses," Alyssa muttered.

"And how's Chris dear?" Mrs. Ashcroft asked.

At this name, Alyssa actually perked up. "Good. I saw him after school yesterday. He was working on that Golden Gate project while I was doing my palace."

Mrs. Ashcroft opened her mouth to respond, but the phone rang and she got up to go answer it.

"Hey honey!" she greeted.

"It must be my dad," Alyssa said. "Let's go to my room. We can bring the cake."

Rae nodded and the two girls headed upstairs.

"My mom doesn't know Ellie, Adam, and I stopped being friends halfway through fifth grade," Alyssa said.

"You don't have to explain," Rae said quickly, sounding sincere.

"I _want_ to," Alyssa said. "My mom and dad had these amazing times with their friends. I don't know much about it, but I have a feeling I could have all the friends in the world and more popularity than Gabi Shay and still not have the same experiences my parents did. Something tells me the things they went through in high school were out of the ordinary, though I don't know how. But I don't think they realize it was the experiences that made them so close to their friends. I think they think it's the friends that helped them gain those experiences, and maybe it was, so that's why they're constantly worrying about how I'm adjusting at school and making sure I have friends. I knew this from a young age, so when Ellie, Adam, and I ended our friendship, I didn't tell my parents.

"Adam was always into drama and he brought Ellie and I into it too. I was too shy to perform, so I didn't get into it, but Ellie ended up loving it. She became friends with Milly and Jade, the two drama club kids Adam was closest with. Whenever my mom sees them doing something with Milly and Jade, and asks me why I wasn't with them, I tell her they were doing something for drama club. She knows I'm more into drawing and sculpting and stuff. And I tell my mom I go over to Adam's house with Ellie every day and that's why they don't come here anymore, but really I'm in the art studio."

"Art studio?"

"I hung out in art classrooms ever since sixth grade every day after school, finishing assigned projects, or working on my own stuff if I had time. This year, I get to use a specific classroom known as the art studio. Only seniors and juniors in the honors senior art class get to use it. They have extra supplies, and special supplies not in the regular art classrooms, and if you were working on your own stuff, you had to bring your own supplies, but if you're in the studio class, you get to use the studio supplies even for your own projects."

Alyssa talked faster and more animatedly. She truly loved art and getting to use the studio was one of the best things about her life.

"And who's Chris?"

"Oh he's one of the juniors in the senior class. He and I are only juniors who get to take it and next year we get to take a college level art class for high school credit. Most people are too afraid to even be caught in the studio while I'm there because they're afraid Gabi will tease them for any association with me. But Chris doesn't care so he works on his stuff while I'm there. We're not really friends, because we're not really in the same classes and we don't talk outside of the studio, but we do talk a lot in the studio."

Rae nodded and Alyssa wished she could tell what she was thinking. Was she pitying Alyssa for living such a lonely life? Alyssa didn't want pity. She was okay with it. Everyone, including Adam, was under the assumption that Ellie dropped her out of blue, but that wasn't true. If Alyssa had to do it all over again, she would've had the same fight with Ellie she had in fifth grade because it was a fight they needed to have, for Ellie's sake.

"So what clubs are you thinking of joining?" Alyssa asked to change the subject. "I think you're on Gabi's watch list."

"Watch list?"

"You're hanging out with her boyfriend and Gabi's super possessive of Jake. She may be planning how to kill you as we speak."

Rae gave Alyssa a fearful look and Alyssa just shrugged. Gabi was cruel.

"But she may also want to recruit you for the cheer squad if she feels threatened because none of the cheerleaders are allowed to date Jake. Girl code or something."

"I don't want to date Jake. I don't like him," Rae said. "And I definitely don't want to be a cheerleader. I think I want to do academic decathalon and I definitely want to see if my grades are high enough to be in science honors society. What clubs are you in?"

"Set design, art honors society, national honors society, and math honors society. I could do the other honors societies too, but it'll be too much."

Rae nodded and Alyssa smiled. Her goal was achieved. The subject was changed.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

A Chinese-American woman in her early 40s waved her arm. The papers on the floor picked themselves up and floated back to her desk. The woman sighed. It was tiring her out more and more to use her powers. She knew what that meant.

She opened up her wardrobe. A small box inside it started to shake violently. She opened the box and took out the glowing pink jewel inside it. The jewel was hanging on the end of a brown chain made of twine.

The woman sighed. The necklace was burning to take its place with its new owner, but the woman didn't know who that was. And in just a few days, the jewel would get too impatient and blow itself up, taking its legacy with it. The world needed the new owner of that necklace. And it was this woman's job to find that person.

Sighing, the woman put the necklace in her apron pocket, closed the wardrobe door, and went downstairs. She walked to the door and flipped the closed sign to open. It was 11:00 a.m. and once again, The Silver Dragon was open for business.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

It was that same night that Rae and her mother climbed into the limo at 6 p.m.

"Where to Ms. Shane?" Harvey asked.

"The Silver Dragon please Harvey," Silena asked.

Harvey started the car. "First Chinese night since moving to Heatherfield, correct?"

"That's right. I'm pretty excited," Silena confirmed. She turned to Rae. "What about you sweetheart?"

"I guess so," Rae shrugged. Her phone beeped and Rae smiled.

"Is that Alyssa?" her mother asked.

Rae nodded.

"When do I get to meet this new friend of yours?"

"Soon Mom," Rae said. "I only met her yesterday. It's not like I'm hiding her from you."

"You just seem to be close and it's only been two days."

"Alyssa's not very popular at school and I'm the new girl. We don't really have a lot of other friends."

"What about that nice boy Jake Saunders?"

Rae looked at her mother incredulously. "How do you know Jake Saunders?"

"Oh did I forget to mention? He dropped by yesterday while you were at Alyssa's house. He wanted to see you. I guess he didn't know you were with Alyssa."

"How did he even figure out where we live?"

"Didn't you give him our address?"

"No!"

Silena shrugged. "Well he seemed like a nice boy. And cute too."

"Mom…" Rae said slowly. "It doesn't concern you at all that this boy, who you've never seen before, was able to show up at your house without me giving him our address?"

"Well, Alyssa knows where we live, doesn't she? Maybe she told him."

"Maybe," Rae said. It seemed highly unlikely, considering Alyssa hated Jake, but she hoped Alyssa was the one who told Jake where she lived, because otherwise Jake Saunders would prove to be a stalker. But she'd told Alyssa she didn't want anyone to know where she lived, so why would Alyssa divulge that information?

"So do you like him?" Silena pressed.

"Jake? I barely know him. And he has a girlfriend."

"He seems to like you," Silena replied.

"Then he's a bigger jerk than I thought, for being into me while he's dating another girl."

"He didn't seem like a jerk yesterday."

"Trust me, he is," Rae said firmly, and Silena got the hint to drop the topic.

When the two walked into The Silver Dragon, Rae saw two teenagers in aprons. They had slightly Chinese shaped eyes, but their eye color was navy blue. They both had black hair.

"Cara, go seat them," the boy, who looked abut Rae's age, said to the girl, who looked around thirteen.

"Hi, I'm Cara," the girl said smiling. "Follow me to your table."

"Thank you," Silena said as the two got to their table.

Cara walked away to greet a couple that just walked in.

"I'll be right back. I need to use the ladies room," Silena said, getting up.

The teenage boy walked over to their table.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Chris, and I'll be your sever today. Do you want to order drinks, or wait for you mom?"

"She probably wants lemonade," Rae said. "And I'll have a coke."

"Will do." Chris looked at her. "You're the new junior at Sheffield, right?"

"Uh yeah. I'm sorry, are we in class together?"

"Honors English and APUSH," Chris grinned.

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you," Rae said, embarrassed.

"That's okay," Chris said, sitting down next to her. Rae realized how hot Chris was. He had a mop of black hair, and dark blue eyes. He had an amazing smile and an impressive body. "My name is Chris Lyndon."

"Rachel Dylan," Rae said.

"I know that."

"You do?" Rae asked, panicked. Did someone know her real identity? Did Alyssa tell?

"Well yeah. You're the first new student we've had at Sheffield in five years."

"Oh." Rae relaxed. "Really, the only one?"

Chris nodded. "Misha Zollar was new in sixth grade, and now you. Oh, and I guess Lilianne Morrison, but she was invited into Gabi Shay's group of cheerleaders over the summer and introduced to everyone at Gabi and Breanna's parties, so most people don't even remember she's new. Other than that, we've all been at the same school since kindergarten." penultimate

"Wow. Did anyone move away?"

"Charlotte Welkner, one of the cheerleaders. But other than that, no. Everyone knows each other at Sheffield, so of course everyone notices when someone new arrives. When I heard your name during attendance, I knew you were new cuz I'd never heard the name Rachel Dylan before."

"Chris, if Mom catches you sitting down at a customer's table, she'll skin you alive," Cara said as she passed by their table.

"Mind your own business Cara!" Chris snapped. He looked at Rae and rolled his eyes comedically. "Little siblings," he sighed dramatically making Rae laugh.

"I wouldn't know," she shrugged. "Only child."

"Well aren't you lucky," Chris teased.

"I only wish I had a sibling so all my mom's attention wouldn't be focused on me."

"I have a little sister and my mom's attention is still focused on me," Chris replied. "Because Cara loves to lie to get me in trouble."

Rae laughed.

"Chris," Cara had come back to the table and tossed her brother something.

"What's this?"

"Your silver dragon apron. You're wearing your art smock again dumb-ass." She walked away.

"Art smock? Is that why there are different colored stains all over it?" Rae asked.

"That's paint and clay," Chris mumbled as he took off the smock and put on the apron. "I spend a lot of time at Sheffield's art studio, and I have work right after, so sometimes I forget to switch my smock for my apron."

His apron was clean and white with a little picture of a red dragon on it.

"Why's this place called The Silver Dragon if all the decorations have a hot colored theme?"

Chris shrugged. "The Silver Dragon sounds better than The Red, Orange, or Yellow Dragon?" he joked. "My great grandmother opened this place with her husband when they moved here from China. No one asked about the name."

"Wait, this is your family's restaurant?"

Chris nodded. "My great grandmother passed it on to my grandpa when he got married, though she still worked here, and my grandpa gave the restaurant to my mom when she got married. I get the restaurant when I get married, unless I move away or have a different career. Then Cara gets it."

"That's why she works here even though she's only thirteen?"

"Fourteen actually, but yeah. We all start here when we're twelve. Mom did, so she insists we do too."

"So what do you want to do when you grow up?"

"I would like to be an artist," Chris admitted. "My mom had a great talent for art, but she didn't pursue it in college like she should have. She did business instead. My sister thinks she'll be okay owning and running this place when she's older. I love this place, but I want to pursue art and make something of myself."

"That's really admirable," Rae smiled. Then she realized something. "Are you the Chris that works in the studio while Alyssa Ashcroft is there?"

Chris nodded. "Although that's a weird way to phrase that question."

"I just mean…Alyssa says no one else will work there while she's in there."

"Which is a shame," Chris said. "She's really talented, and she could help the other students if they let her."

"Alyssa's my friend and I'm glad someone else is nice to her."

"Well I can't take all the credit for that. We used to play together when we were little, but we grew apart as we got older because her friends Ellie and Adam didn't like me. I don't really know why. But we never forgot playing together. Our dads used to be in a band together."

"Your dad was in Wreck 55 too?"

"Oh she told you? Well, yeah, my dad was-"

"The guitarist," Rae finished. "I remember Alyssa saying the guitarist still lives in Heatherfield."

Chris nodded. Before he could say anymore, Silena came back and Chris jumped up. "Your drinks," he groaned.

"Drinks?" Silena asked.

"Rae ordered your drinks, but I never put the order in," Chris said.

"That's okay. Mom, this is Chris Lyndon. He goes to school with me."

"It's so nice to meet you!" Silena gushed. "I'm okay that you didn't put our order in since you were talking to my daughter."

Chris laughed and Silena looked at Rae, giving her a ,'He's cute too! What do they put in the water here?' look.

"Chris, you've been at this table for a while. Is something the matter?" a friendly looking Chinese lady asked. She looked about SIlena's age.

"No, nothing's wrong. I just know this girl," Chris said, looking at Rae. "This is Rachel Dylan. Rachel, this is my mom."

"Hi. Um, you can call me Rae by the way."

"Hello Rae. I'm Hay Lin," the woman said. She shook Rae's hang and immediately squealed.

"Is everything alright?" Silena asked as Hay Lin dropped Rae's hand like a hot potato.

"Oh yes, just…Chris, I need you to help me with something," Hay Lin said nervously.

Chris, looking freaked out, followed his mother. As they passed Cara, he handed her the drink order. "Put this order in. Mom needs me for something else."

Cara didn't look too happy about being told what to do, but nodded anyway.

Rae looked around the restaurant and noticed a table with four kids around her age. The three girls looked unfamiliar, but the boy was in her honors pre-calc and honors biology class.

"Ellie, shut up!" the black haired laughed, addressing the brunette.

"It was Adam who said it," the auburn haired girl defended the brunette.

"Yeah! Not my fault," the brunette said.

Rae realized with a start this may be Alyssa's ex-friends Ellie and Adam. That would probably make the other two girls Jade and Milly.

"Thanks a bunch Mil," Adam said to the auburn haired girl.

Yup, Rae was right.

In the next second, the brunette, Ellie looked up. When she saw Rae, her eyes became as wide as saucers, she gagged, and paled to the point that Rae was extremely concerned. She was also confused. Why did everyone react like that when they saw her? Alyssa looked like she was going to explode when she saw Rae, and now Ellie looked ready to pass out.

"El? You okay?" Adam asked.

At this, Jade and Milly, who weren't paying attention before, looked at Ellie.

"Yeah. Fine Adam," Ellie said convincingly.

'Guess that's why she's in drama club,' Rae thought. It looked like Jade and Milly believed her because they returned to their meal. Adam still looked concerned.

Ellie looked at Rae again, and looked ready to die, as if she just a ghost. She looked at the other girls surreptitiously, as if trying to make sure they weren't paying attention. Then she leaned close to Adam and said something.

Adam looked at Rae as well. He looked surprised, but it seemed like he was surprised by what Ellie said about Rae, not by Rae herself. At the very least, he didn't react the way Alyssa and Ellie had. Come to think of it, Jake didn't either. Maybe only girls reacted that way to her? But that made no logical sense. Rae had half a mind to walk over there and demand what was so strange about her that they had to stare. She probably would've if she wasn't with her mother.

Cara headed over to their table, carrying the drinks, but Chris grabbed them out of her hands.

"Hey!"

"This is my table Cara. Go serve 81."

"81 isn't part of my section."

"It is now. I'll take 52 for you," Chris said.

"Fine," Cara huffed. She went over to a different table while Chris set the drinks down in front of Silena and Rae.

"Thank you," both said.

"Sure. Still need a few minutes to order?" he asked. He looked only at Rae and seemed surprised. So Chris was reacting strangely to her now as well. What was wrong with her?

"Rae?" Silena asked.

"I want the shrimp lo mein," she said. "And the fried pork dumplings as an appetizer for both of us."

"And I'll have the beef chow mein as my main course," Silena said.

Chris wrote it down.

When Rae and Silena ordered dessert, Gabi Shay walked in with three of her friends. Alyssa had pointed them out as Breanna, Lana, and Kelli that morning. At the same time, Alyssa walked in with her mother and a man that Rae guessed was Alyssa's father. He had the same blue eyes, and looked like an older version of Wreck's bassist. How did no one recognize him? With them was an eleven-year-old boy Rae guessed was Alyssa's brother John, who was at a friend's house yesterday. Alyssa looked just like her mother, except for her eyes, which she got from her father. John looked exactly like his dad, but inherited his mother's dark eyes.

Rae waved and Alyssa smiled, then nudged her mother. Mrs. Ashcroft smiled and the four made their way over to Rae's table. Alyssa and Rae began a conversation while her parents introduced themselves to Silena. John just looked bored.

Chris walked over with the dumplings.

"Hey Lyssa," he said as he put the plate down.

"Hi Chris," Alyssa smiled.

He looked surprised for a minute as he put a hand against his suddenly bulging apron pocket. He turned towards Alyssa and the surprised look stayed on his face. A second later, he looked nervous as he said, "Um, Rae, Lyss, could you come over tomorrow?"

"What?" Rae asked, surprised. She barely knew Chris and he was inviting her over to his house? But then again, he invited Alyssa over too.

"Why?" Alyssa wanted to know.

"I need help with our APUSH homework and since you're both in that class, I thought you could help?"

To Rae, this sounded like a lie, but Chris seemed nice enough and Alyssa already agreed.

"Sure," Rae said.

"Great. Three o'clock?"

"Sounds good. But…where do you live?"

"Here," Chris said.

"The second floor of this place is Chris's family's apartment," Alyssa explained.

"Do you need me to put two tables together?" Chris asked Alyssa's parents.

"No thank you Christopher," Mrs. Ashcroft said.

"Then follow me to your table," Chris said politely. He sat the Ashcrofts, then passed by Gabi Shay's table. He stopped, looking surprised and putting a hand to his pocket again. Why was he acting so weird all of a sudden?

Chris walked up to Cara, who had drinks in her hand. "Is that for 68?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll take it. You can have 79."

"Alright. Why do you keep switching tables around on me?" Cara asked.

"No reason," Chris said dodgily as he grabbed the drinks and delivered them to table 68. It was Gabi's table. Breanna, Lana, and Kelli all smiled flirtatiously at him, but Chris focused on Gabi, who took no notice of him.

A few minutes later, Chris gave Rae and Silena their entrees, then passed by Ellie's table and repeated the actions he did at Gabi's table.

He walked over to Cara. "What are you doing?" he asked as she took out her pad.

"I'm going to ask 91 if they want dessert."

"I'll do it!"

"That's my table Chris!"

"You can still have the money Cara. I just want to take their order."

"Why? Ellie Kramer is at 91. She hates you. Come to think of it, Adam isn't your biggest fan either."

"Mom was going to tell you after we close, but I guess I'll tell you now. They've finally surfaced. The heart recognizes them."

Cara's eyes widened while Rae struggled to understand what Chris just said.

"Seriously? Who are they?"

"I'll tell you later, but I have the heart and I need to spend a little time at 91 to make sure. So if that means enduring Ellie and Adam's glares while I take their order, then that's what I have to do."

"Is that why you kept switching with me?"

Chris nodded.

Cara suddenly looked very happy. "Finally," she said. "Go ahead." So Chris walked over to Ellie's table.

'What heart? What are they talking about?' Rae wondered.

After taking 91's order, Chris said something to Ellie. She glared at him and shook her head, but Chris begged and she reluctantly agreed to whatever he asked of her. He then went over to Gabi's table and asked Gabi something as well. She looked surprised, but agreed. Her three friends giggled.

At that moment a frizzy red haired girl walked in with two women, a man, and another girl around her age. The girl looked like one of the cheerleaders, and waved at Gabi and her friends as Cara led them to a table. Four more kids walked in and joined the family.

Rae recognized the red haired girl as Caty Lewis and figured the cheerleader was her cousin Lilianne Morrison. According to Alyssa, Lilianne had two sisters and two brothers. Those were probably the four other kids, one the women was probably Lilianne's mother, and the other two were probably Caty's parents, though they looked awfully young to have a sixteen-year-old daughter. Lilianne looked just like one of the women, so she could guess which one was Lilianne's mother. The other woman was pregnant. She looked to be in the early stages, as if she just recently started to show. Rae didn't know it, because she and Silena left shortly after, but Chris would behave strangely at that table as well, and ask Caty something too.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So what exactly happened?" Cara Lyndon asked sternly as her family closed the restaurant for the day.

"I'm wondering too," Mr. Lyndon said, looking at his wife and son.

"It was Mom who figured it out," Chris said.

"I told you how the heart's been reacting lately, right?" Hay Lin asked the members of her family. Everyone nodded.

"Well, the heart vibrated when I went near Chris's new friend Rachel."

"Rae," Chris corrected automatically.

"Right. And when I shook her hand, she gave me a shock and the heart shocked in my pocket."

"The heat means the heart is near it's new owner, right?" Cara asked.

Hay Lin nodded.

"That's great. You found her!" Mr. Lyndon said.

"Not just her," Chris said. "For the other guardians, the heart vibrates and gives you a different sensation. The heart grew hot in my pocket near the fire guardian, cold near the water guardian, began flying around near the air guardian, and vibrated much more violently than ever before near the Earth guardian. I convinced all of them to come over tomorrow at three so Mom can explain."

Mr. Lyndon looked nervous. "Do you want me to call someone else?" he asked his wife. "Taranee lives here, and I think Irma is still around here too."

"No, I can handle it," Hay Lin sighed. "They won't want to see me anyway."

Mr. Lyndon pulled his wife into a hug. "Well, we'll all be there to help you," he said.

"I know. Thank you Eric."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you liked that guys. I really wanted to put the guardian stuff in this chapter, but it got way too long, which is why I split up this chapter and did a double update. Thanks for reading!**


	4. The Guardians of the Veil

**A/N: Here's chapter four! Below are the rest of the shout-outs. Thanks so much for reading guys!**

**Guest: Thank you so much! I hope this chapter is to your liking.**

**Misa: Looks like you were able to review this time. I'm glad! And I'm happy to hear you would've signed in and PM'ed me if it didn't work, that's the highest compliment! Yes, you are right, Taranee married Nigel, which is where the last name Ashcroft comes from, and had Alyssa. I originally planned to make Taranee the new principal at Sheffield, but that was before I planned to make Wreck 55 famous, and I wanted Alyssa to live in the same big house Taranee lived in, so I made her a judge so that Taranee would have the money to have a house like that. Then I realized even with money, the only way Alyssa would live in that house is if Taranee's parents gave her the house so I took that path instead. You got glimpses of Taranee and Hay Lin in the last chapter. There will be more to come in future chapters. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Shay: Thank you! I always hope people think my stories are well written. I try my best, although sometimes I get too into it and my writing suffers a little. I'm trying to actually edit each chapter before I post it, instead of what I usually do, which is read the chapter after I post it and curse myself for not editing. Anyway, I hope you like this new chapter, and if you like my long chapters, you'll love this one!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

It was an understatement for Ellie to say she was shocked when she saw No Name from her dream in the Silver Dragon the night before. She pointed it out to Adam. He asked if she was sure if that was the girl-if she wasn't confused or scared. Ellie knew it was her. According to Adam, that was the new girl, Rachel Dylan. She'd attracted the attention of Jake Saunders, and was friends with Alyssa Ashcroft. Ellie wasn't sure how to feel about this. Jake was her crush and Alyssa was her best friend…okay, _ex_-best friend, but still. She haunted Ellie's dreams and now she was in Ellie's life, stealing away her friends.

Okay, so Jake was technically hers. Technically, he was Gabi's, so if Rachel was stealing Jake away at all, she'd be stealing from Gabi. But Ellie always hoped if there was a chance someone could steal Jake from Gabi, it'd be her, not the pretty new girl. And she hadn't talked to Alyssa in six and a half years, and she was kind of happy Alyssa finally had an actual friend, but she couldn't help but be jealous of Rachel.

Besides being jealous, Ellie was also creeped out at seeing the girl from her dreams in real life. She was hoping she'd never see her again. Adam said she was in honors pre-calc and honors biology. If she hung out with Jake and Alyssa, two of the smartest kids in school, she was probably in honors everything. Considering Ellie wasn't in honors anything, she figured she wouldn't see her again. At least, that's what she thought until that afternoon.

As she walked to Chris Lyndon's house, she saw two girls walking in front of her in the same direction. She didn't recognize the one with short black hair, but she recognized the one with the braided black hair.

"Alyssa!" she called out.

Alyssa looked back. "Ellie. Hi," she said, startled. She stopped and her companion looked back as well. Ellie paled. It was Rachel Dylan.

"Hi," Ellie replied, trying to ignore Rachel.

"Oh, uh, Rae, this Ellie Kramer," Alyssa said.

"Nice to meet you," Rachel said uncertainly. Clearly Alyssa had told her she and Ellie used to be friends. "Rae Dylan."

"Hi. So where are you guys headed?"

"Chris Lyndon's house," Alyssa said.

"Oh me too," Ellie said, surprised.

Alyssa and Rae were surprised too, and the three resumed walking, this time side by side.

"I thought you hated Chris. Why are you going to his house?" Alyssa asked.

Ellie shrugged. "He didn't give me a reason, but he said he'd buy me three new sets of sheet music if I came over. I figured it'd be nice to actually save my pay check for once."

"Oh yeah, you work at Applebee's, right?"

Ellie nodded.

"Are you in APUSH?" Rae asked.

"Uh, no."

"I didn't think so. Chris invited us over because he said he needed help with the APUSH homework. I thought that was a lie, and now it's confirmed. He wouldn't invite someone who isn't in the class over at the same time if he really needed help. Which brings me back to this question: Alyssa. How well do you know Chris?"

"Really well Rae," Alyssa said. "He's nice and talented and maybe he lied and I don't know why, but it's nothing to worry about."

"I don't like the guy, but he doesn't seem bad," Ellie piped up. "His dad and Alyssa's were in a band together." Then she gasped. "Ooops! I'm so sorry Lyssa, I didn't mean to let that slip!"

"That's okay. Rae knows already," Alyssa smiled.

Ellie tried to smile back, but she knew she gave Alyssa a grimace instead. She couldn't help it. Another pang of jealousy shot through her. Rae was friends with Alyssa for what, three days now, _maybe_? And she already knew Alyssa's dad was the bassist of Wreck?

"Wow, Klutzcroft decides to walk the streets of Heatherfield," came Gabi Shay's taunting voice. "No one is safe!"

"You're Gabi Shay, aren't you?" Rae asked, looking at Gabi.

Gabi nodded. "And you're that new girl that's trying to steal my boyfriend."

"You can have Jake," Rae said, rolling her eyes. "I just wanted to say Alyssa is worth ten of you and if you keep calling her names, being friendless like Alyssa was is going to seem like popularity."

Gabi looked shocked that someone had threatened her. Alyssa was surprised as well.

"Rae, you don't have to do that. I've gotten used to the names."

"Because you've been called Classless-a and Klutzcroft for so long, the names don't seem like a big deal anymore, but they are. I mean, how many people in school even remember what your actual name is? Jake didn't. And that's not okay with me."

Ellie suddenly felt bad. No wonder Alyssa told Rae the secret of Wreck 55. In the three days Rae and Alyssa had been friends, Rae had already done more for her than Ellie had done in their five and a half years of friendship. She wasn't a very good friend.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are-"

"I don't think I'm anyone. I know I'm Rachel Dylan."

Ellie and Alyssa laughed in spite of themselves and Gabi huffed. She took a deep breath and started over.

"Listen, I know you're new and you don't really know how things work at Sheffield, but let me help you out. Ellie is a drama freak. The only people lower than them when it comes to the Sheffield hierarchy are the nerds, and Classless-a."

"Didn't I just tell-"

"You can't threaten me hun," Gabi interjected Rae. "I can make your life miserable with the snap of my fingers. Now, as I was saying, Classless-a is a friendless loser and on the lowest level of the Sheffield totem pole. I, on the other hand, am on the highest level. I'm head cheerleader for the JV team, a shoo-in to be the only junior accepted to the Varsity team, the most popular girl in school, and I'm dating the hottest, smartest boy at our school."

"Your point?"

"Well, I don't do this often, but I want to offer you a special audition."

"Which is…?"

"I'm going to let you try out for cheerleading before official tryouts begin, with a guarantee to be part of the popular crowd regardless of whether we let you on the team or not."

"Wow, sounds like an offer I can't refuse," Rae said, sarcasm pouring out of her mouth by the liters.

Alyssa and Ellie laughed again, and Gabi glared at both of them before turning her glare on Rae. "You don't know what you're refusing. I'd advise you to think about this."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie noticed movement and saw Caty Lewis heading towards them.

"Hey guys," she said hesitantly.

Ellie remembered seeing Chris talk to Caty at The Silver Dragon. "Caty, are you headed to Chris Lyndon's house?"

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?"

"We're all headed there too! Uh, well Rae, Alyssa, and I are. I don't know what Gabi's doing here."

"I'm actually headed to Chris's house as well. Why'd he invite you over?"

"He said he wanted our help with APUSH homework, but I think that's a lie," Rae said.

"Especially since I'm not even in APUSH and he invited me over at the same time," Ellie added.

"Well he asked me over for help with APUSH too," Caty said. "Which seemed strange because he was tutoring people in honors US History last year. And I mean, it's only been two days. What could he possibly need help with already?"

Rae and Alyssa exchanged 'duh!' looks as they realized Caty was right.

"Chris told me he wanted a date with Della Crane, one of my cheerleaders," Gabi said. "He wanted my help talking to her."

"The same Della Crane that asked him out yesterday and he turned down?" Ellie asked.

"Really?" Gabi asked.

Ellie nodded. "His locker is next to mine. She asked him out right in front of me."

"Anyway, Chris Lyndon is one of the most sought after guys at Sheffield. Why would he need help approaching any girl, especially Della? I mean she's pretty and all, but out of all the cheerleaders and pretty girls at Sheffield, she's probably the least pretty," Caty pointed out.

"So that was a lie too. Why does he want us all over?" Rae wondered out loud. "I'm getting nervous about this. Lyssa, you sure we can trust him?"

"He may have lied to us all, but I know Chris pretty well, and he's trustworthy," Caty broke in.

"Then maybe we should just go over there and see what it is he really wants," Ellie suggested. The others nodded and they resumed walking a second time.

"So, you're Rae Dylan, the new girl, right?" Caty asked.

"Yeah."

"You're ranked number four in our class, lowering Misha Zollar to number 5 and knocking Shelia Breslin out of the top 5, thank God. Shelia needs to be taken down a peg."

"Or ten," Ellie muttered, earning a giggle from Alyssa.

"I'd like to invite you to sit with my friends and I at lunch and join our study groups. We're in all the same classes, if you didn't know."

"No thanks," Rae said.

Caty's mouth dropped open and Gabi laughed.

"Please! Why would she wanted to be branded a nerd? I just offered her a special audition for the cheerleaders."

"The only reason you did that is to keep Rae away from Jake," Alyssa said, rolling her eyes.

"Who I don't like!" Rae said, her tone exasperated.

"That's not it. She's too pretty to not be part of my crowd," Gabi defended.

"Wow, you take shallow to a whole new level," Caty intoned, prompting laughter from the other girls.

"Rae doesn't want to be in the nerdy crowd. She wants to be a cheerleader," Gabi insisted.

"I think I've probably said this sentence more times in the last three days here than in the rest of my life, but I don't _want_ to be a cheerleader and I don't _want_ to be popular!"

Both Gabi and Ellie looked shocked. Why wouldn't someone want to be popular? Especially when Gabi Shay was making it so easy?

"Then why won't you join us?" Caty asked.

"Because I'm not interested in being part of any one clique. That's not what I want from high school. Besides, no matter what people say, I like Alyssa and I'm going to continue being friends with Alyssa. And I'm interested in joining any group that won't let Alyssa in."

"What?" Caty asked, confused.

"Alyssa Ashcroft is ranked number 1 at Sheffield," Rae said. "And I know you didn't invite her to join your group or else she'd be part of it already. No one chooses to be friendless." She turned to Alyssa. "I'm right, aren't I? Caty didn't offer a seat at her lunch table and spot in her study groups to you?"

"Well no, but I don't mind if you want to-"

"I _don't_ want to," Rae said firmly.

"Well what if I invite Alyssa now?"

"Too late now," Rae snapped.

"What if I stop calling her Classless-a and Klutzcroft?" Gabi suggested, throwing in a promise she couldn't keep as a last attempt to get Rae to join her group.

"No! You guys were both terrible to Alyssa and trying to be nice to her to get what you want isn't the same as genuine kindness, which is what someone as awesome as Lyssa deserves!"

Alyssa looked at Rae in awe. Ellie knew no one ever stuck up for her like that before. It was supposed to be Ellie's job before she stupidly deserted the best girlfriend she ever had. Jade and Milly were awesome, but they weren't Alyssa. Alyssa came and talked to her because she thought Ellie looked lonely that day in daycare, building a tower with blocks on her own. And she was.

Milly only talked to her because she was impressed with Ellie's voice. Before that, when Ellie first joined drama club in fifth grade, she didn't give her a second look. And Jade was jealous of Ellie and only grudgingly accepted her because she and Milly were best friends. Eventually she and Jade grew to respect each other and became friends in their own right, but in the beginning, Jade didn't even like her! Adam was her only true friend in drama club at first, and even though she loved Milly and Jade dearly, she never felt like to she could confide in them like she could with Adam and like she used to be able to with Alyssa. And Adam was amazing, but Ellie needed a real female friend sometimes.

At that point, they'd reached The Silver Dragon. The five walked in and Chris and his sister took off their aprons.

"Jamie, we're taking our break now, you and Stella have to come back," Cara said.

"But we only got half an hour!" the boy Cara was looking at complained.

"We discussed this," Chris said patiently. "We may take a long break today, and if we do and we can't give you the other half hour of your break, we'll take your shifts for tomorrow and still give you guys the money."

Jamie nodded and walked up to a blond girl who was sipping an iced tea. He said something, jerked his thumb over at Chris and Cara, and put on his apron. The girl sighed and did the same.

"Hi," Chris said, walking over to the five girls.

"You're offering to take shifts without being paid and lying to us?" Gabi asked, her voice challenging. "You must really want us here."

"You lied to them?" Cara asked.

"What did you want me to say Cara?" Chris shot back. "Anyway, I'm sorry I lied to you guys. I don't need help with APUSH or Della. But everything will be explained soon. Come downstairs to the basement with us."

"The basement?" Rae repeated. "I barely know you, yet you invited me over to your house under false pretenses and now you want to lead us into your basement? If you're gonna kill us-"

"Rae, there's no way they're going to kill us. There are a million people up here. They'd hear us screaming," Alyssa assured her.

"Actually the basement is sound proof," Cara said.

"Not helping Car," Chris snapped.

"Oh I know. I wasn't trying to be helpful," Cara replied.

Gabi laughed. "Okay, I like you. What grade are you in?"

"Eighth."

"You gonna try out for cheerleading next year?"

"I was planning on it."

"Why don't you contact me during the summer and I can set you up with a special audition, okay?"

Cara's eyes lit up and she nodded.

"For someone who said she doesn't give out special auditions a lot, you just offered two today. And one for my cousin over the summer," Caty said.

"Shut up nerd," Gabi said, her tone bored.

Chris cleared his throat. "Um, if you guys will follow me."

Rae looked ready to protest, but the other girls followed Chris and Cara, so she sighed and just walked along with them. Downstairs were a man and woman in their early forties. Ellie recognized the man as Eric Lyndon, the guitarist of Wreck 55.

"Alyssa. It's nice to see you again. Tell me, how's your father?" Eric asked.

"Hello Mr. Lyndon. It's nice to see you again too. He's good."

"Does he know you're here today?" the woman asked.

"No, I didn't mention it. Why?"

"Just wondering if your mother might've said something."

"Your mother?" Rae asked Alyssa.

"They used to be friends," Alyssa replied. "Hay Lin and my mother."

"Wait. Hay Lin, you're one of the best friends Mrs. Ashcroft made in high school?" Rae asked and the woman-Hay Lin-nodded.

"But we're not here to discuss history," Cara broke in.

"That's right. Sit down girls," Hay Lin said.

The girls exchanged looks. Chris sat down, and Gabi, reluctantly, sat down next to him. Rae sat down next to her, then Alyssa, then Caty, then Ellie. Cara sat down next to Ellie.

"As most of you know, I'm Hay Lin," Hay Lin said.

"And I'm Eric," Mr. Lyndon said.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Gabi asked.

At that question, Eric began placing items in front the girls. In front of Gabi, he put down a potted plant. The plan inside was nothing more than a sprout. He gave Rae an encouraging smile, as if to say 'I don't have anything for you, but you do belong here,' then put a candle down in front of Alyssa. He put down a glass of water in front of Caty, and told her not to drink it, then put down a stack of papers in front of Ellie.

"What are these for?" Rae asked, feeling more and more apprehensive by the minute.

"I'm going to tell your girls a story," Hay Lin said, which didn't answer Rae's question at all. "We live on the planet Earth and we are under the misconception that our world is the only world out there. That is not true. There are many other worlds out there, such as Meridian. It was 44 years ago when Meridian was ruled by an evil king named Phobos. A veil was put into place in order to separate the evil of Meridian from the other worlds. My friends and I were given special powers to battle the evil, defeat the king, and return to Meridian it's rightful ruler." At this point, Hay Lin jabbed a finger in the air and a picture appeared.

Rae, Alyssa, and Ellie were shocked and mesmerized. Gabi and Caty looked terrified. The picture in the air showed a beautiful palace set upon a luscious hill. In front of the palace floated the image of a girl around Cara's age. She wore a pretty blue and teal dress, her dirty blond hair was in elegant braids, tied at the end with silver bangle looking clips, she wore a necklace with a gold chain and a green pendant, and she wore a gold tiara with a red jewel in the middle.

"31 years ago, my friends and I defeated Phobos and put Phobos's sister, and the true heir of Meridian, our friend Elyon, on the throne. Even though our duty to the worlds was far from over, the veil dropped. But six years ago, Elyon was dethroned yet again and imprisoned with the rest of her family. Now, a new evil has taken over Meridian. No one knows who this new king is or where Queen Elyon and her family is being kept. Another veil has been dropped to separate the evil of Meridian from the other worlds, but it is time once again for people with special powers to rise up, defeat the evil king, and reunite Elyon with the throne."

The picture disappeared and Gabi and Caty looked ready to bolt.

"While this all interesting," Rae said, "why are you telling us this?"

"When my friends and I received this powers, we were known as the Guardians of the Veil."

"Guardians?" Ellie repeated. Did this have anything to do with that terrifying dream about the Snake Monster? She sure hoped not. She'd had enough of Mr. Ugly in her dreams. She didn't need to meet him in real life.

"Yes. And now, the legacy has been passed on. You have been chosen as the new Guardians of the Veil."

The girls all looked at each other. Ellie wanted to scream that this was all crazy and leave, the way Gabi and Caty looked like they were about to, but in her heart, she knew this was all real.

"So what does that mean exactly?" she asked.

"Each of you will have a special power," Hay Lin said. "Now I know most of you don't believe me, but here's my chance to prove it to you."

"I don't want this to proven," Caty muttered.

"I do," Rae said.

"Each of the guardians have power over one of the four elements," Hay Lin.

"But there are five of us here," Alyssa said.

"Be patient Lyss, we'll get there," Chris said. "Mom, I'll take over this part."

Hay Lin nodded.

"Okay, let's start with you Gabi. You have power over Earth. The simplest form of your power to to make plants grow. Try it with the sprout in front of you."

"How?"

"Will it to grow. Make it grow."

"No! This is stupid and fake and you're all putting me on. You can't humiliate the most popular girl in school! Not unless you want the rest of your high school career to be miserable."

Chris raised his eyebrow.

"You probably don't want to talk to him that way," Cara said airily.

"And why not?" Gabi asked, whirling on her.

"Hey, I'm saying this for your protection," Cara said.

"Why don't you show her honey?" Hay Lin suggested.

"You sure about that?" Eric asked apprehensively.

Hay Lin nodded.

"Okay," Chris shrugged. He got up, let out a yell, and before all their eyes, he was no longer Chris Lyndon. Instead, he was taller, buffer, and had longish black hair and wore a gold mask. He also had black wings, like a dark angel or something.

"Oh my _God_!" Rae cried and Gabi shrieked and jumped back. Caty screamed as well as Alyssa and Ellie, frozen in shock, just stared.

"Told you," Cara said smugly.

"Wh-wh-how…"

"Seems like you're humiliating _yourself_ now," Caty smirked, suddenly not so terrified of the dark angel.

In an instant, the dark angel transformed back into Chris. "I got that power from your sister," he said.

"My…_who_? I don't even _have_ a sister!" Gabi cried.

"Oh sorry. I meant your step sister. Eva."

Gabi glared at Chris, braver in front of his human form. "Eva is _not_ my sister or my step sister. She's a she-devil and _not_ part of my family. Got it?"

"Sure," Chris said, putting his arms up in surrender. "But she's the Heart of Earth."

"The what?"

"That's going to be hard to explain without showing the Heart of Kandrakar," Cara said, making Ellie shudder. Another thing Snake Dude said in her dream. "And we can't do that til you use your power. Unless you want Chris to turn back into Shagon. That's his angel form's name by the way."

"Fine. I'll do it," Gabi said. "But I'm warning you, if you use this to try and embarrass me, I'll ridicule you out of Sheffield and blackball your sister for cheerleading."

"So much for liking me," Cara muttered.

Gabi looked at the plant in front of her, sighed, and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she shot her hand out toward the sprout and waited. Nothing happened.

"You need to be more open to it than that. Really want it. And really _believe_ it," Hay Lin urged.

"How am I supposed to believe in something so ridiculous?"

"Think about the picture Hay Lin drew in the air," Alyssa said. "And the way Chris just turned into Shagon. Those things are supposed to be impossible too, but they still happened right in front of our eyes. So maybe you can make that sprout grow too."

Gabi sighed and tried again. This time, the sprout grew taller until a bud formed. As Gabi kept going, the bud opened up and a beautiful daisy was in the place of the sprout. Gabi looked both awestruck and proud of herself.

"Wow," Ellie breathed. And suddenly, she wasn't so scared anymore. "Cool!" she squealed.

"Not cool," Caty disagreed.

Ellie ignored her. "What can I do?"

"Patience," Hay Lin said.

"A word you don't know the meaning of," Eric joked, earning him a jab in the ribs from his wife. He glared at her, she giggled and stuck her tongue out at him, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

'Aww,' Ellie thought.

"So who is next?" Rae asked.

"Alyssa," Chris said. "You have power over fire. In its simplest form, you can create flames. Light that candle."

'Shit. Lyssa and fire? Not a good combination,' Ellie thought.

"What? No! I _hate_ fire!"

"The previous fire guardian did as well. She was terrified of fire, as I see you are," Hay Lin said. "But eventually, she learned to face that fear and became more powerful than the fire guardian before her. You may be scared of fire, but it is your element. It bends to your will now. You control it. You don't need to fear it any longer."

Alyssa took a few deep breaths. "Alright. Fine. What do I do?"

"Same thing as Gabi. Will yourself to light the candle and it will happen."

Alyssa nodded. Seeing Gabi use her power probably helped her believe more. Ellie definitely believed anything was possible now.

Alyssa took another deep breath and looked at the candle. She shot a finger out to it, and in a few seconds, the candle was lit.

"You did it!" Rae cried as she and Ellie clapped.

"Good job, both of you," Hay Lin said, smiling at Gabi and Alyssa.

"Okay, Caty? You next," Chris said.

"Let me guess. My power is water?"

"Yup. In its simplest form, you can control water in front of you. Try it with the water."

Caty nodded, took a deep breath, and waved her arm over the water and toward the candle. The water moved and put out the flame.

"Neat," Ellie said.

"Not neat. I hate this," Caty disagreed.

"Are you kidding?" Alyssa asked. "You just had the easiest time with your power and you don't even _like_ it?"

"Why would I _like_ it?" Caty asked incredulously. "I don't want to have freaky powers or fight evil. This is too much for me."

Ellie, getting impatient, said, "Whose turn is it now?"

"Yours," Hay Lin smiled. "You have power over air, which is the element I controlled when I was guardian. My grandmother had that power before me."

"Your grandmother was a guardian?" Ellie asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "The guardians were first formed 3,000 years ago. They always existed. Before we found you, my friends and I were still considered the guardians."

"Cool," Ellie smiled. She was loving this. She always felt weak and vulnerable, but with the ability to control an element, she suddenly felt powerful. "So what do you want me to do?"

"In it's simplest form, air just forms gusts of wind. Use your power to make to those papers in front of you float," Eric said.

Ellie nodded. She waved her arm at the pages and in a few seconds, they picked themselves up and floated in the air.

"Oh awesome!" Ellie said, dropping her arm. The papers dropped too, in a mess. "Oh!" Ellie waved her arms again and willed the papers to put themselves back in a neat pile. They did.

"Okay, is it my turn yet?" Rae asked.

Hay Lin nodded, then opened up an ornate gold box. A beautiful, glowing pink jewel floated out of it. It hung on the end of a chain made of twine.

"Whoa. Pretty," was all Ellie could say.

"Who gets that?" Gabi asked, clearly hoping it was her.

"This is the Heart of Kandrakar, the source of your powers. Four of you control one of the four elements, water, fire, Earth, and air," Hay Lin explained. "One of you unites the others and allows you to use your abilities, with the help of the Heart. She is known as the Keeper of the Heart, the leader." The jewel floated over to Rae. Rae held out her hands, mesmerized, and jewel set itself down in her hands. "The Heart has chosen you Rae, to lead."

"Lead? I'm not much of a leader," Rae admitted.

"_I_ am," Gabi said greedily, lunging for the Heart. Chris held her back.

"The Heart has chosen Rae," Hay Lin said sternly. "Only she can unite you and lead you. And don't worry Rae, the old leader didn't think she had it in her either, but she eventually grew into her role and did amazing. She was a lot like you actually-tomboy, short hair, new in Heatherfield and at Sheffield for only a few days before she found out she was a Guardian. And she was closest to the fire guardian."

"Really?" Rae suddenly felt better.

"Time for the next step. Hay Lin will go with you, but the rest of us need to stay here," Chris said.

"We need to get back to work," Cara said. "If we go back right now, we can give Jamie and Stella their other half hour and won't have to take over their shifts."

Chris nodded and the siblings rushed upstairs.

"Come on," Hay Lin said, leading the girls up the stairs and outside. She took them to a clearing a few blocks away from the Silver Dragon. The only things near the clearing were old, decrepit, abandoned buildings.

"Why are we here?" Gabi asked, looking around distastefully.

"To practice with your powers. In your human form, you can use your powers to a limited extent. You are much more powerful in your Guardian form. Rae? Go ahead and unite the guardians."

Ellie hopped from foot to foot, excitedly and anxiously. She could feel even more powerful than she already did?

"How?" Rae asked.

"Take out the Heart. You'll know the rest.

Rae nodded, took out the Heart, and dangled it in front of her. She had an overwhelming urge to say two words, so that's exactly what she did.

"Guardians, unite!" she cried.

Suddenly, Rae started to float in the air. Before the other girls could comment, they were floating as well. The next thing Ellie knew, she was being surrounded by a swirl of air. It was a nice sensation.

She hear the voices of the other girls, first Rae, then Caty, then Alyssa, and then Gabi.

"The Heart!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

After Gabi said her piece, Ellie had an overwhelming urge to state her power as well.

"Air!"

Ellie felt a surge of power as the girls looked around at each other in awe. They weren't in their old clothes anymore. Instead, they were a bit taller and in brand new outfits.

Rae was wearing a pink shirt with flare sleeves at the end that exposed her midriff. She had a teal skirt on over turquoise and green striped tights and shin high purple boots. Caty looked disgusted at the outfit she was wearing. She had on a teal, full sleeved, midriff top and a pink skirt over green and turquoise striped tights. Her skirt had a slit on the right side and she wore short purple boots. Alyssa's midriff top was pink, like Rae's, but it was sleeveless. She had on the same tights on as Rae and Caty, but instead of a skirt over it, she wore teal shorts and purple sneakers. Gabi seemed to love her new outfit. She wore a teal, off the shoulder midriff top, with full sleeves, a long pink skirt with a slit on the left side over turquoise and green tights, and knee high, high heeled purple boots. Ellie looked down at herself and realized her outfit was different too. Like the other girls, she had on turquoise and green tights under a pink skirt that went a little past her knees and had a slit on the right side. She wore a teal midriff top that had curled sleeves on her shoulders, and purple flats.

"_What_ are we _wearing_?" Caty cried indignantly.

"Uh, the cutest clothes ever," Gabi replied in her best 'duh' voice. "These look better than some of the things Silena Shane herself designed."

Rae flinched at the name Silena Shane, but Ellie didn't have time to dwell on why before Hay Lin spoke up.

"These are the outfits you get when you're in your guardian form," she said.

Ellie nodded. She remembered these clothes from her dream. Alyssa didn't look too surprised either.

"Um, guys?" Rae said tentatively. "Is it just me, or do we have…wings?"

"_Wings_?!" Ellie squealed excitedly. "Does that mean we can _fly_?" She started hopping up and down, not even caring that she looked like a dork in front of Gabi. She looked behind her and tried her hardest to flap her wings. It worked and she began to float.

"Oh wow!" Rae breathed.

"Man, I _hate_ heights!" Alyssa moaned.

"So did the old fire guardians. She got over that too," Hay Lin said.

"Who were the old guardians anyway?" Rae asked.

"We'll get to that tomorrow. Right now, you guys need to practice."

Rae took this to mean flying practice and immediately flapped her wings. She started to float as well.

Ellie started flapping her wings faster and went higher and higher in the air.

"Be careful!" Caty called. "You don't want people to _see_ us!"

Ellie wasn't listening. She just flew higher and higher until she was above the clouds. She giggled and gave a smile to some pigeons that were flying with her. Did they look confused?

It was a good five minutes before Ellie joined the rest of the girls. In that time, the others were trying out their wings. Rae kept crashing into things, Gabi kept saying she wasn't afraid of heights, but she felt sick every time she got a few feet off the ground anyway, Caty was feeling out the feeling of flying, going slowly so she wouldn't crash the way Rae was, and Alyssa kept refusing to fly no matter how much Hay Lin and Rae pushed her.

"Maybe if you stopped going so fast, _that_ wouldn't happen," Caty said in her best know-it-all voice when Rae landed in a dumpster.

"I'm not trying to go fast," Rae snapped. "I can't control these wings."

"I'm feeling super woozy," Gabi complained.

"This is the best feeling ever!" Ellie whooped.

"Why are you having such an easy time?" Rae complain-asked.

"The air guardian always has the easiest time flying," Hay Lin explained. Rae, Alyssa, and Caty nodded. That made perfect sense.

"What about my wooziness?" Gabi demanded.

"You'll get used to flying soon enough," Hay Lin promised. "But initially the Earth guardian is woozy when flying because their powers are stronger when on the ground."

"Lyssa, come on," Ellie said. "If you don't want to fly yourself, then let me take you."

"No way!" Alyssa refused. "I saw those aerial loops you did. Not happening. Never ever. Ever!"

"I tried to ask nicely," Ellie shrugged. She grabbed Alyssa and shot into the air. The African American squealed wildly.

"Ellie, no! Put me down. You know better than anyone I'm terrified of heights!"

"Flap your wings and I'll let go," Ellie taunted.

"What? But…no!"

"Come on Lyssa, what's the worst that can happen?" Ellie cajoled.

"Uh, I could fall and break all my bones or bleed everywhere or, I don't know, _die_!"

"You are _just_ like your mom," Ellie sighed. "Even so, I'm not gonna let go til you flap your wings."

"Elizabeth Kramer, you will fly me down there now!" Alyssa exclaimed

"You're not that scary Lyss," Ellie shrugged. "I promise I won't let you fall. I have air, so even if I'm not fast enough to catch you, I can use my powers to lift you."

Alyssa sighed, knowing there was no way to get out of this. She didn't even bother to point out Ellie couldn't possibly have control of her air powers. She started to flap her wings. When she got to a steady pace, Ellie let go, and to Alyssa's immense relief, she stayed in the air.

"Oh thank _God_!" she cried as she followed Ellie back down.

"Okay guys!" Hay Lin said, clapping her hands together. "My friends and I didn't do much training with our flying. Instead, we ended up getting more scratches and bruises from our mishaps in the air than in our battles."

"Battles?" Ellie squeaked.

"Bruises?" Alyssa squeaked at the same time.

In all the excitement, Ellie had forgotten about her dream. Snake Dude was most likely real considering No-Name was real in the form of Rachel Dylan and all the powers she'd dreamed up for herself and the other girls were accurate. She loved flying and the air power was pretty cool, and she was totally down for training, but Ellie was not a fighter…at all. She was more of a 'sit there and take it' girl, as her mother and brother knew. She could not fight. As for Alyssa, she looked ready to pass out at the prospect of having to go back in the air.

"See, you guys got hurt because of flying. _That's_ exactly why I don't like heights!" In her fear, she accidentally sent a fireball into the dumpster setting it on fire.

Caty squealed, then realizing she was water, sent some water from the lake into the dumpster. She missed.

"Calm down and concentrate," Hay Lin instructed.

Caty took a deep breath and tried again. This time she successfully put out the fire.

"And _that's_ why I don't like fire," Alyssa moaned.

"You're exactly like your mother, you know that?" Hay Lin asked.

"My mother?"

"Yeah. She was scared of fire. And heights. And spiders."

"They have _eight_ legs! How is that _not_ creepy?!" Alyssa cried.

Hay Lin laughed. "I think they're cute."

At this, all the girls gave her strange looks. Spiders may not be as scary as Alyssa thought they were, but they were definitely disgusting!

"Anyway, we need to avoid getting hurt when you fly, so we'll work on that today. Caty, you seem to have a good handle on the flying, but you can't go that slow forever. You need to work on your speed. Gabi, you need to be more comfortable in the air. Rae, by the end of the day, I want you to finish a two minute flight without crashing into a wall. Alyssa, you seem to be a pretty good flyer, but you need to be more comfortable too. Try to get over your fear. Rae, come here and let me patch up your cuts. And Ellie, you, like me, are a natural. As the air guardian, you should be able to be the fastest flyer, so just see how fast and how high you can go, but other than that, just have fun today."

Ellie, suddenly feeling better, grinned, nodded, and took off. Rae went over to Hay Lin so she could get patched up, not that she really saw much of a reason for that. She was just going to cut herself all over again.

Since it was early September, the sun didn't set til eight o' clock, so it was another four hours before Ellie came back down. The other girls were doing better. Caty was able to go faster, though not by much. Even though she didn't have Ellie's dream (as far as Ellie knew), she seemed to be the most scared about this guardian business, even with Alyssa fearing both heights and her power.

Speaking of Alyssa, she was doing better too. She wouldn't go too high, but she managed to go faster than the other girls, besides Ellie. Rae still couldn't control her flying too much, and she still crashed a lot, but she managed to stop herself half the time. When Ellie came down, Rae had just successfully completed her two minute flight with no crashes. Gabi was able to up fifteen feet before she felt woozy, which was triple the height she was able to go when they first started. And at one point, Ellie felt like she was going so fast, she could beat her brother's favorite superhero, the Flash, in a race.

"Alright girls, good job. You can head on home now," Hay Lin said after she finished patching Rae up for the fourth time that day.

"Wait, that's it? But what about our elemental powers? I didn't get to practice with air at all!" Ellie complained.

"You needed to get flying down first. Don't worry, we'll get to your powers. And as for you, you can practice little things without being in guardian form like making things move or blowing up Chinese lanterns. That's the way my grandmother showed me my powers."

"I don't have any Chinese Lanterns. Will it work on balloons?" Ellie asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "Yup."

"Cool!"

"Come back to The Silver Dragon at the same time tomorrow, and you guys can head directly down to the basement. We'll do a lot of explaining, so you guys can grab a drink on the house if you like," Hay Lin instructed.

"Including those amazing Shirley Temples Chris makes?" Ellie asked hopefully. "It's like the one good thing about him."

Hay Lin laughed and nodded.

"If you think I'm coming back to do more of this, you're _insane_!" Caty burst out.

"What?" Ellie asked.

"I don't want to learn to fly or control water or put out fires or battle and get hurt. I didn't ask for any of this! Take it away!"

"I can't," Hay Lin said. "You have the power, and it's yours until the next generation of Guardians are born. And actually, even then the power is yours until the Heart decides it's ready to move on to the next five."

"I'm stuck with it?!" Caty cried, looking disgusted.

"I wouldn't really call it stuck. In fact, you know how Ellie is really excited and thinks this is all cool? That's how the old water guardian reacted."

"I don't care! Just because Rae is like the old leader and Alyssa is like the old fire guardian and Ellie is like you doesn't mean I'm like the old water guardian. If you want to see them so badly, then you guys should've stayed guardians. I want no part in this!" Caty fumed. She looked at Rae. "Change us back."

"Uh, how do I…?"

"Just concentrate and ask the Heart to change you back," Hay Lin sighed sadly, obviously hoping none of the new girls would react that way, but expecting it anyway.

Rae nodded and did so. Within seconds, the girls were back to their old selves and Caty stormed off.

"Too bad. Classless-a almost got that nickname repealed with the guardian clothes," Gabi taunted.

"Didn't I warn you about calling Alyssa names?" Rae snapped threateningly. Gabi just smirked.

"Who cares? I have powers now and in case you haven't noticed, you're the only one of us who doesn't have any."

"That's not true! Rae is the one who can transform us. She gives us our power!" Alyssa reminded.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "She gives us _more_ power," she corrected. "But we can still use our powers without being in our guardian form. The only thing Rae can do is fly, and that's only when she _in_ her guardian form."

"You know, it is strange that Rae doesn't have any physical powers like the rest of us when she's the leader," Alyssa mused.

Hay Lin shrugged. "The old leader made it work."

"You know Caty's right. You should really stop focusing on the old guardians. Living in the past is super pathetic," Gabi taunted their teacher.

"Shut up Gabi," Rae muttered.

"Whatever. I have power now, and I only need what I can get in human form. I'm out too."

"Wait, what?" Alyssa asked.

"I'm not doing this saving the world stuff. It's not our world, it's not my problem."

"Why did you spend so much time training with you flying if you were just going to leave?" Rae demanded.

"Honestly? At first I wanted the Heart. But then it fused with you when you changed us. I stayed because everyone else did and I didn't know we were allowed to leave."

"You're not," Hay Lin protested.

"Nerdy Caty did," Gabi snorted.

"We have to get her back."

"She doesn't want to be here," Rae said.

"It doesn't matter. The Guardians are always stronger together and will only succeed if all of you work together. No matter what the guardians always do worse in battle if one of you is missing, even if you do win. With two of you missing…"

"Tough," Gabi said as she too walked away.

"Now what?" Alyssa asked

Hay Lin sighed. "I'll work on getting them back. You guys just make sure to show up tomorrow. And Rae? Make sure you keep the Heart close to you at all times and don't let anyone take it away. Without it, you have no chance in a real battle."

Rae nodded and with that, the other three left as well, their heads spinning with the events of the day.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Finally, I got to the guardian stuff. From here on out, the chapters should be shorter and more to the point, now that all the girls know about their powers. So what did you guys think? Let me know!**


	5. Lineage and Heritage

**A/N: Hey everyone! I'm back with chapter five (which was originally supposed to be four). I changed my ideas of what will happen in this chapter a lot so I hope you guys like it. Sorry for the long wait. The editing process took quite a while. Thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming!**

**Additionally, than you to Shydae for the favorite and follow, and thank you to ivyheart21 for the follow. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

**Here are the shout-outs:**

**SilvenArrow: Yeah, double updates are one of my favorite things that authors do! My favorite fictionpress authors actually sometimes does triple updates (but it usually takes months for her to update, so I understand why!) Ugh, Irma is going to be a hard one to figure out. I had a plan for who she ended up with, but then I started reading the comics and after I put out chapter 2, I found another person I'd rather have Irma end up with and now I don't know what to do! Anyway, all of your questions will be answered in this chapter, so I hope you like it!**

**Misa: I hope you're not disappointed by the long wait for this update. Hopefully the content will make up for it. I had a hard time editing this chapter, and actually ended up taking out three sections, deciding to put it in the next chapter instead, which resulted in me changing this chapter a lot, so it took a while. As for the history of the girls, who they married, and why they aren't friends anymore, all of that will be explained bit by bit unfortunately. You'll see a little bit of the old guardians in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

**Emily: No. Just…no. If you want a proper shout-out, maybe don't give me all your comments before I publish the chapter. Just because I let you read them and be my unofficial beta before I do the final edit doesn't meant I need to know all your thoughts before I publish. Love you too though!**

**WaterAmulet: I know usually Ellie is short for Eleanor, but I don't particularly like the name. I became an RA at my college this year, and one of the other RAs goes by Ellie short for Elizabeth (although her name is spelled Elisabeth), so I chose to use Elizabeth instead of Eleanor when I started this story. And actually, I was hoping to have Ellie save Jason from a potential G.R.A.C.E. threat. Great minds! Yeah, I actually didn't even intend to make the new characters like the old ones, but they turned out that way anyway, Rae being hesitant and tough like Will, Ellie being enthusiastic and full of energy like Hay Lin, Alyssa being brainy and loving school like Taranee, and Gabi being popular and self-centered like Cornelia. I think Caty is going to differ from Irma a lot. She's going to have darker undertones to her character that I want to delve into and develop. Matt and Will were probably my favorite W.I.T.C.H. couple, but Hay Lin and Eric quickly replaced Caleb and Cornelia as my second favorite. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Taylor: Are you new reviewer? Either way, you seem to be enjoying the story and I'm glad. Thank you for the review and the compliment. I look forward to hearing more from you. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Shay: I think the secret Ellie and Alyssa share will come soon, because I'm putting a bit about it in each chapter. Looks like I was wrong about shorter chapters. I forgot how long this one was and I don't think I can help but write long chapters! At least you enjoy the length. Hope you like this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That night, Ellie dreamt that she, Rae, and Alyssa were standing in a familiar looking alleyway, and got enveloped by some blue light. The alleyway was the side of The Silver Dragon. She, Jade, and Milly sometimes ran lines there because no one would interrupt and the alley had the same acoustics as the school auditorium.

The image of her dream was clearing up from the blue light when she heard the slam of a door and woke up.

"Jason, get back here!" a female voice called from downstairs. "Don't you dare walk away from me while I'm talking to you!"

"What are you gonna do?" Jason yelled back tauntingly.

'Smart,' Ellie thought sarcastically. Her brother's big mouth always got him into trouble.

"You don't want to find out," the female said threateningly.

"You can't tell me who to date Mom," Jason replied.

'Maybe she should,' Ellie thought. She didn't like her mother any more than Jason did, but she also hated Jason's new girlfriend Wanda. She was such a bitch and so fake around Ellie's parents. Didn't she know she didn't have to impress two people who were never at home? Ellie didn't get why Jason and Wanda dated anyway. They couldn't possibly like each other! Jason was into music and poetry and black and white, foreign films and Wanda was into parties, clothes, and make up.

"I can as long as you live under this roof!"

"Then maybe I'll move out," Jason threatened.

Their mother laughed at that. "With what money? You have no idea what it takes to live on your own!"

'Right,' Ellie thought. 'You're not here enough to know Jason has a job and he works almost 60 hours a week and, I guess you don't care enough to remember that he did live on his own for the past two years.'

"I can do it," Jason said stiffly.

"But you won't," their mother taunted.

Jason said nothing and Ellie heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She prayed they were Jason's. Her mother would know if she was faking being asleep.

Jason opened her room and door and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. He walked into her room, closed the door behind him, and sat on her bed.

"Hey baby sis. How was your day?"

"Not a baby Jase," Ellie said, rolling her eyes, her tone indicating this was a conversation they had a lot. "And it was fine. I just hung around with some…people."

"Your drama friends?"

Ellie promised herself she'd never lie to Jason so she shook her head. "No, just some other people from school."

"Anyone I know?"

"Um, Alyssa was there."

"Really?"

Jason had look that was a cross between happiness and skepticism on his face. Jason had no idea what split up Alyssa and Ellie. He really liked Alyssa. She was smart-quick as a whip actually, but also high energy, which was good because Ellie was also high energy. They could keep up with each other. He always found it amusing how Adam often complained of headaches while hanging around them. Sometimes the poor kid would just stare at his two female companions with an 'I can't deal with this anymore' look on his face.

Alyssa was also talented and artsy, like Ellie. She forced Ellie to study for school, practice her music, and ran lines with her for plays, even though it wasn't until she and Alyssa stopped being friends that Ellie became brave enough to try out for plays. He thought Alyssa was a good influence, but he also didn't like that Alyssa and Ellie ended their friendship when Ellie needed a friend the most. He wasn't sure if that was Alyssa's fault, but he also didn't know how hard she'd tried to get Ellie back, or that she'd found out Ellie's secret, so he always blamed her a little for abandoning Ellie.

"What did you guys do?"

Ellie paused. She couldn't lie to Jason, but she also couldn't tell him about the guardians thing. "We went to The Silver Dragon."

"Didn't you just go there for dinner on Friday?" Jason asked, sounding worried. "Is Mom not cooking proper meals for you? You know I can make you lunch or dinner if you need-"

"No Jason, it's fine. We didn't go there to eat. We went there to hang out with a couple of the employees there."

So far so good. She wasn't telling the whole truth, but she wasn't lying either. Ellie and the other did go to The Silver Dragon, and since the entire family worked at the restaurant, they did hang out with some of the employees.

"Okay."

Ellie smiled. It was sweet that Jason wanted to make her lunch and dinner, but he already did so much for her, she couldn't bother him with the fact that her mother didn't, in fact, cook her proper meals."

"You _can_ move out you know. If you want," Ellie said.

"Ells," Jason said sternly. He sighed. This was another conversation they had a lot. "I left you for two years. That wasn't fair. I'm here now and I'm staying."

"You deserved to leave. You always stood up for me before and now you're doing it again. I don't want to keep you from your life and I don't want you to get hurt."

"And I don't want _you_ to. I'm staying," Jason said and Ellie knew that was the end of that conversation.

"How was your day?" Ellie sighed.

"Good. Markus started work today and I got to train him."

"That's good." Markus was Jason's best friend since forever, and Ellie really liked him. He was always nice to her, and he agreed that there was no reason Jason should date Wanda.

"Ellie," Jason sighed. "Mom got fired yesterday. That means she's going to be around the house a lot. She'll be here when you get home, even if you have drama after school. And she's not going to like when you come home late because of rehearsal."

"I know."

"Maybe you should take it easy with the plays this term."

"I can't. I'm in the third year theater class. I have to do either the school play or the community theater play as fifty percent of my grade."

"Maybe I can get you out of it?"

"I don't want you to. I know what I'm in for, but it's okay. This is what I want to do with my life. I'm willing to take the risks."

"I'm not. I don't want you to," Jason sighed. "Okay, is there any specific day you know you'll be home late?"

"Halloween," Ellie said. "You know Sheffield holds an annual Halloween dance?"

Jason nodded. He was 25 now, but he went to Sheffield himself.

"For a few years now, they decided some of the students could perform at the dance if they wanted to, but for the third year music class, we have to perform. It's thirty percent of our grade."

"Okay. I'll make sure to be home that day."

"I didn't tell you that so you would come home."

"I know. I'm going to be there anyway."

Ellie tried to tell him she didn't want him to risk his neck for her, but before she could, she yawned.

Jason chuckled and looked at the clock. "It's 2am, why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I was, but I had a dream…" Ellie trailed off, making it seem like the dream woke her up, not Jason slamming the front door behind him. He didn't need to feel about waking her up.

"Are you okay?"

Ellie nodded. "Just tired."

"Okay. Sleep tight baby sis."

"Not a baby Jase. Love you."

"Love you too." Jason kissed her forehead and left. Ellie settled back under the covers, closed her eyes, and played the image she saw in her dream of her, Alyssa, and Rae being enveloped by the blue light, trying to get more. However, the information from that dream was long gone.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Gabi woke up Sunday morning, all she wanted to do was take a long shower.

After leaving the other girls at the clearing, she'd gotten a text from Bree asking if she could come over. Gabi went right to Bree's house. Bree was upset because she finally asked Dalton out and he rejected her. Gabi didn't know why any guy would be stupid enough to turn Bree down, but then Lana sent a group text to all the cheerleaders announcing she and Dalton had gotten back together. Of course this meant Gabi went right over to Lana's house, Bree in tow, to yell at the evil bitch for stealing the boy Bree had a crush on, not once, but twice.

This, of course, made Lana question why Gabi didn't stick up for Kelli when Bree dated her ex Joel or why she didn't stick up for Lana when Skylar dated Jeremy Long, the guy Lana was after. Gabi sticking up for Bree was a clear display of favoritism that Lana was definitely going to point out to the other girls. This meant Gabi and Bree had to get to school extra early and do some major damage control if they didn't want Lana to take over the squad.

Gabi still felt drained and wanted a shower, but to her dismay, the door was closed and the shower was running when she got to the bathroom.

"Luc, hurry up in there!" Gabi called in a voice uncharacteristically gentle. That tone was only reserved for Luc, one of her favorite people in the world.

"It's not be Gabs," eleven-year-old Luc said, coming out of his room.

"Then who…? It better not be that little she-devil!"

"Actually, the master bathroom shower is acting wonky so…"

"The _step-monster_ is in there?!" Gabi cried, outraged and Luc nodded grimly.

"That's my mommy you're talking about," Eva informed her step-siblings as she walked by them.

"No one cares," Gabi replied.

"You have to be nice to me. Daddy said," Eva replied airily.

"Don't you dare call him 'Daddy,'" Gabi growled. "He's _my_ dad, not yours."

"He's my daddy now too," Eva said snootily. Gabi's face turned red and she got ready to kill the seven-year-old she-devil.

"Gabs, no!" Luc cried as he saw his sister ready to pounce. Hearing Luc's voice, Gabi calmed down.

"Good job _Elena_," Eva said, making Gabi shake in anger. Elena was her real name, but she preferred Gabi. And anyone with half a brain knew never to call her that in the morning unless they had a death wish. Catching Luc's eye, Gabi calmed down again. It would not be smart move to try and kill Eva. The girl had their dad wrapped around her finger the way Gabi used to.

"At least you know how listen to _someone_," Eva went on. "It isn't Mommy or Daddy, but at least you can listen to _Lucifer_."

Luc winced at that and Gabi got angrier than ever before. Luc, understandably, hated his full name and Gabi was ready to go after anyone who upset her brother, and Eva upset him every time she interacted with him by calling him Lucifer.

"Eva, if I were you, I'd walk away right now," Gabi said in a low voice.

"If I were you, I wouldn't make threats," Eva replied haughtily.

Gabi just turned back to the bathroom door and started banging on it. "Sienna, I need to take a shower right now!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Luc and Eva both jumped at Gabi's voice and the loud banging must've scared Sienna because the shower stopped immediately. Gabi turned to her brother and the she-devil and smiled triumphantly. Her smile melted off her face when she saw her dad, Daniel Shay, coming up the stairs, an angry look on his face.

"Gabi!" he snapped. "Why were you yelling?"

"Uh…I was just…yelling at Luc," Gabi said, realizing how stupid that was. She had never, _ever_ yelled at Luc. "I mean yelling for Luc. I was yelling at Eva on Luc's behalf."

"Don't lie to me," Daniel said dangerously.

Gabi sighed. "I was yelling at Sienna to get out of the shower."

"And banging on the door?"

"Yes."

Predictably, Daniel began yelling at Gabi. Eva was smirking the whole time and Luc kept shooting Gabi sympathetic looks, which she was grateful for.

Sienna came out of the bathroom, fully clothed while Daniel was still yelling.

"Gabi, apologize to Sienna for forcing her out of the shower."

"It's okay Daniel," Sienna promised.

"It's not okay with me. Like it or not Gabi, Sienna and Eva are part of this family and this is house is now as much theirs as it is ours."

Gabi scowled. "You may consider them part of this family, but the she-devil and step-monster are no family of mine," she said.

"_Elena_!" her father said sharply. Usually when he called her Elena, she was in trouble and she usually shut up, but this time she didn't care.

"Dad, you married a woman half your age who was stupid enough to get knocked up when she was a sophomore in college, by a guy who bolted the minute he found out she was pregnant, and she wasn't able to get a degree or a proper job, and she gave birth to that _thing_ in front of me and you can't even see she's just a gold digging bitch."

Eva didn't seem bothered by what she said, nor was she offended on her mother's behalf. She seemed almost gleeful. There was no way Gabi wasn't getting in trouble for that, especially since Sienna's eyes were filled with tears.

'_Fake_ tears,' Gabi thought bitterly.

"Elena Rose Shay," her father said, his voice deceptively calm.

"Oooh use of the full name," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. "I'm sorry that you don't care about Mom anymore, but Luc and I don't think it's right for you to try and replace her…or _me_!"

"Gabrielle," Daniel sighed, and Gabi knew his anger was gone. "I'm not trying to replace your mother with Sienna and I am definitely not replacing you with Eva. I will always love you and I will always love your mother. But that doesn't mean I don't have room in my heart for Sienna and Eva too."

"I won't," Gabi replied snarkily.

"Elena," Sienna started, and Gabi turned around to face her, a glare on her face.

"Don't call me that! It's Gabrielle!"

"I'm sorry," Sienna apologized. "Gabrielle. I'm not trying to replace your mother. I want to get to know you and your brother, and be an accepted member of your family. Do you think that could happen?"

"Don't count on it," Gabi shot back.

"Gabi!" Daniel exclaimed.

Gabi ignored her father and glowered at Sienna. "My mom is dead and I don't want a new one."

"I know how you feel about your mother-"

"No you don't! You can't possibly know how I feel! Both your parents are alive and all your siblings too. The only person you've ever lost is Eva's dad, who came back into your life. I don't know why you didn't just marry _him_."

"I didn't love him Gabrielle."

"Like you actually love my dad. You only want his money."

"Elena!" Daniel was back to being angry.

"What can I do to prove to you I'm genuinely in love with your father?"

"Nothing!"

"Look, when I was little girl, I lost someone close to me too. My best friend."

"Let me guess. She was imaginary?" Gabi taunted and Luc stifled a laugh.

"No. Her name was Polly and she was a cocker spaniel."

"A cocker spaniel?" Gabi choked out. Luc gave Sienna a look of shock and anger. "Are you seriously comparing our _mother_ to your _dog_?"

"I know it's not the same-"

"It's not even _close_," Luc said darkly and retreated into his room.

Gabi grew angrier. Luc was a pretty happy go lucky kid and he rarely got angry. Gabi wanted him to stay that way. He dealt with too much tragedy for an eleven-year-old kid.

"Nice going," Gabi muttered to Sienna. "I don't need another mom. My first one was perfect. She understood why I would have a sleepover with Lana even though I hate her and why I go by Gabrielle instead of Elena. And I definitely don't need a gold digging slut living in my house for two months until you and my dad are done with each other, so just stay out of our lives while you're here. And maybe next time you're sad about losing someone, you could remember that Luc lost his mother because she gave _birth_ to him!"

Gabi retreated into her room as well, slamming the door behind her, completely forgetting about the shower she wanted so badly just ten minutes ago.

She walked up to her mirror and sighed, fingering the picture of mother in the right corner. Feeling a breeze, she realize her window was open and walked over to close it. She noticed the potted plant on her window sill. It was just a bud now, but it was supposed to grow into a really pretty flower. Gabi wasn't sure what. Breanna bought the flower for her after it was already planted, and told her it was a surprise. Smiling, Gabi raised her arm toward the bud and willed it to grow. The bud opened up to reveal beautiful pink petals. It was a chrysanthemum! Those were her favorite flowers (mainly because they were her mother's).

Gabi smiled. She really did like this power, but how far could she take it? She noticed one of leaves in the tree outside her bedroom window was browning, ready to fall off.

'Could I…?' Gabi wondered.

She put her hand outside the window and willed the leaf to stay alive. It took a few tries and a lot of concentration, but eventually, the leaf was completely green and healthy again.

Gabi was awed. She wondered…She ripped a leaf of off the chrysanthemum, and tried to make a new one grow back. It did.

Wow. If she could do all this in human form, she could only imagine what she could do in guardian form. Maybe she _should_ train with the others. Maybe she could even learn how to stay in guardian form forever. She could wear different shirts and skirts over her guardian clothes. Silena Shane was coming out with a new line of Fall sweaters. She could use those to hide her wings. And she could use the full strength of her powers to control the cheerleaders. There was no way anybody would follow Lana after she displayed what she could do.

But in order for that to happen, Gabi would have to swallow her pride and go back to The Silver Dragon that afternoon. Strangely enough, the thought didn't bother her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Lili and her family first moved into Caty's house, she couldn't wait for them to move out. It got crowded easily. The house was small-it used to be just for Caty and her parents, with an extra guest room. Then Lili moved in with her mother, her younger sisters Libby (age 15) and Layla (age 14), and her younger brothers, twins Leo and Liam (age 10). But now that it was moving day, Caty had to admit, she would miss the noise.

She would also miss Lili a little. Yesterday, after she got home for guardian training, she, Misha, and Nina had a sleepover. Lili joined them and the four spent hours talking through the 'Get Brian to fall in love with Caty' plan and they all had a lot of fun. It felt like old times with Lili.

After Nina and Misha left that morning, Caty thought Lili would go back to ignoring her cousin, but she was actually pretty nice to Caty. Maybe this was the beginning of a new era.

When Caty came downstairs for lunch, she saw her mother Iris and Lili's mother Dawn talking at the kitchen table as Lili's siblings ate at the dining table. Once they were done, Lili, Caty, and their mothers would eat. Her dad had a business lunch that day, even though it was Sunday.

"What about Katherine?" Iris suggested.

"Oh that's beautiful!" Dawn agreed.

"Katherine?" Caty asked Lili.

"Their discussing baby names."

"I thought your mother was having a boy."

"She is."

"Oh." Right. Aunt Dawn wasn't the only one that was pregnant. "My mom is only sixteen weeks in."

"That's good enough to know the sex," Lili replied. "She went to an ultrasound this morning, before any of us were up. Now she and my mom are trying to think of girl's names starting with 'C.' They've already gone through and rejected Charlotte, Chelsea, Cassandra, Carly, Claire, Ciara, Courtney, Carla, Clara, Christina, Crystal, Cara, Callie, and Cecily."

"Wow."

"Yeah. They seem to like Catherine right now."

"C? Catherine with a C? That's almost exactly my name! What if she takes my nickname?"

"Would she?"

"Every Catherine in our school goes by Katie."

"They go by Katie with a 'K,'" Lili pointed out.

"It's still my name!" Caty cried.

"Or she'll go by Cat or Cathy or Cate. She may even choose to be called Catherine."

"I don't care! It's still pretty much my name! How did you deal with it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Lili rhymes with Libby and Lilianna is similar with Layla."

"Lili is my nickname, so my mom wasn't really stepping on my toes by naming my sister Libby."

"And Layla?"

Lili shrugged. "I guess it didn't matter to me as much."

"Or maybe Catrina," Iris said.

"Hmmm. No, I think Catherine is the best. I also liked Kathleen."

"Kathleen?" Caty asked.

"Also with a 'C'" Lili warned.

"Great," Caty muttered.

Fifteen minutes later, Caty, Lili, and their mothers sat down to lunch.

"I've got some exciting news for you Caty," Iris said.

"Oh? What is it?"

"I went to an ultrasound this morning. You're going to have a new sister. And I've decided to most likely name her Cathleen or Catherine, both with a 'C.' I have to check with your father first, but I think he'll be okay with it. Isn't it great?"

"Yeah Mom, I'm thrilled," Caty said sarcastically. "I mean, I've never heard better news or more original names in my life."

Lili giggled and Iris looked upset. "Caty!" she exclaimed. "Why can't you get excited about this baby? Lili is excited about her new brother."

"Hardly," Lili said. The last thing she needed was another crying, snotty baby in her life.

"Gee, I wonder," Caty said at the same time, so loudly, she drowned out Lili's words. She put down her fork. "Excuse me, I'm not hungry."

She grabbed her water glass and walked into the room she'd been sharing with Lili. Libby and Layla had been sleeping in the living room but they switched with Caty and Lili for the sleepover yesterday. Caty wished Layla, who slept on her bed, remembered to make it in the morning. She sighed and started to make her bed when Lili entered.

"You know, babies are annoying, but they're also cute. It might not be so bad."

"Easy for you to say. You were never afraid your parents would love you less with the arrival of a new baby."

"Why on Earth would you think that?" Lili asked. "Sure your hair is always a frizzy mess and you're really conceited sometimes-"

"Gee, thanks Lil!" Caty said, but she was laughing.

"You're also really smart," Lili finished. "You're like the perfect child. Every parent's dream. You're like a genius, and an overachiever, you're good at everything you take on. Student council, soccer team, ecology club, Key club…and you never get in trouble."

"Yeah, I guess," Caty agreed.

"You know why your parents are so thrilled to have a baby? So they can have another one of you, same frizzy red hair and bright green eyes and…" Lili stopped when she realized Caty was ready to cry and realized her mistake. "Oh. Oh Caty, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking."

"Yeah, so what else is new?" Caty bit out. "I'm _so_ glad you're moving out today."

"It was a mistake Caty."

"A mistake? What kind of person forgets her own cousin is adopted? You know why I'm so scared my parents will stop living me? Because they adopted me when they weren't able to have a child. Now they're going to have a biological daughter and won't need me anymore. And you couldn't even remember. Just…get out!"

"Fine! But for the record, if your parents stop loving you, it won't be because you're adopted. It'll be because you're such a self-righteous brat!"

'Bitch,' Caty thought, closing the door. She sighed and put her head in her hands. Caty always felt confident before. She had full control over all the events of her life. Now she felt like she was losing control. She ended up as vice president of Student Council instead of president, to Jake Saunders, a person she hated more than Gabi Shay, Brian was definitely going to win Debate Team captain, there was no way she could get him to fall for her, her mother was having a baby, someone she could call her "real" child, her pre-calc class already seemed hard, and Lili was probably going to be meaner than ever now.

Looking up, Caty noticed the glass of water on her desk. Well…there was one thing she could control. She stood up, and although she didn't really want to, she lifted her hand toward the glass and willed the water to rise. It did and the next thing she knew, there was a ball of water next to her hand. She shot her hand toward a sunflower her mother placed in the window. The water rushed over to the flower. Caty closed her hand in a fist and the water dropped, watering the sunflower.

Caty smiled. Yesterday she was completely freaked out by the whole guardian thing, but today she finally felt in control again for the first time since summer. She may not be able to control the way her life felt, but she could control what water did. And she liked that feeling. She needed it. She knew what she had to do.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Hay Lin was extremely surprised when both Gabi and Caty called the Silver Dragon that afternoon, apologized for being "such a selfish bitch" in Gabi's words and a "stiff, judgmental coward" in Caty's words, and told her they would come to The Silver Dragon that afternoon like she asked them to.

She was also relieved because, even though she told the other girls she'd get Gabi and Caty show up, she had no idea how she was going to go about doing that. Now she could tell the girls everything they needed to know.

It was especially important because of what she and Eric woke up to that morning. In their bedroom was a fold and when Hay Lin went through, she saw it led to Kandrakar. The guardians could go to Kandrakar whenever they wanted or needed to, like they could with other worlds…except on their first visit. The first visit to Kandrakar was when they were summoned. Which meant the Oracle was summoning the new guardians and Hay Lin, as their mentor, could not show up in Kandrakar without all five girls.

She just hoped everything was okay. It was unusual for the Oracle to summon the new guardians this early into their training. They had no practice with their elements and they barely learned to fly. These girls were worse off than W.I.T.C.H. was the first day they transformed and failed to save Caleb from Cedric. If the Oracle was summoning them, he either wanted to see their progress (which was none at all), or he needed them for something, which they were not ready for.

Hay Lin sighed. She wished Will was still around. Then this burden would be hers. The other girls always thought she would be the best at explaining all the guardian stuff, and while that may be true, and while her husband and children were the new Regents of Earth, she was the one who held the least air of command. She couldn't control these new girls, especially not Caty, who arguably had one of the most powerful powers (the mind control she would eventually develop), or Gabi, who seemed to be as power hungry as Nerissa. She needed to keep a close watch on them. The last thing she needed was to mess up with the new guardians.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Okay, so maybe we should start with the Hearts," Hay Lin said when all the girls were seated in front of her in the basement.

Alyssa subconsciously placed a hand over her chest. "Our hearts?" she asked.

"Not _your_ hearts, _the_ Hearts," Hay Lin corrected. "Like the Heart of Kandrakar."

"What about it?" Rae asked, taking the jewel out of her pocket.

"Every world has a Heart," Hay Lin began. "Usually in the form of a gem such as that one. The Heart is the source of the world's power."

"So Kandrakar is one of the alternate worlds?" Alyssa asked.

"Exactly. Kandrakar is the place where the aurameres are held and guarded."

"And aurameres are…?" Gabi asked.

"The source of your power. It's where you get your elemental and shapeshifting abilities. Kandrakar also houses the Oracle, and the other members of the Council of Kandrakar. Some members, such as my grandmother when she was alive or my friend Caleb are human. Others, like Luba, the guard of the aurameres, or the Mage when she was alive, are not."

"And what's the council?" Rae asked.

"That's actually not important right now," Hay Lin said, seeming to get flustered.

"Okay, so do all worlds have a Heart?" Alyssa asked, trying to help her get back on track. "Like that place you showed us yesterday? What was it called?"

"Miranda!" Ellie cried.

Everyone looked at her like she was stupid and she blushed.

"Meridian," Hay Lin corrected, giggling. "Yes, Queen Elyon is the Heart of Meridian. A few years into her reign, she put all her powers into a green jewel that Queen Elyon wore around her neck since she was fourteen. The necklace was a present from her late mother, Queen Weira. It is now the Heart of Meridian. I can only hope that even in captivity, she still has it on her."

Caty thought about this for a moment before asking, "Does Earth have a Heart?"

"You mentioned something about that yesterday, didn't you?" Gabi asked.

"Yes. As I said, most of the Hearts are jewels, but sometimes, it's a person, like with Elyon or the Heart of Earth. When my friends were guardians, the Heart of Earth was Lillian Hale, the younger sister of Cornelia Hale, the previous Earth guardian. The enemy we were facing at the time found out about Lillian's power and planned to steal it. Cornelia was worried about her sister-Lillian was only six or seven at the time. So, she got Lillian to give up her power by telling her a bed time story. Lillian gave the powers to Matt, the boyfriend of the leader of the guardians, Mr. Huggles, Matt's pet door mouse, and Napoleon, Lillian's pet cat and familiar."

"Familiar?" Caty repeated. "Was Lillian a witch?"

"Yes. The Heart of Earth is considered a witch and Napoleon became her familiar when she accidentally granted him the power of speech. Of course, Lillian didn't know about her powers or Napoleon's ability to talk until she was much older, at which time she took back the powers. She was so powerful by then that she was able to take back her powers, but Matt, Napoleon, and Huggles were able to keep the powers and forms they were granted when Lillian gave up her powers. They were known as the Regents of Earth."

"Regents. People who take hold of and wield powers of royalty or powerful beings until those beings are ready to wield the powers themselves," Alyssa murmured.

"Thanks Wikipedia," Gabi said, rolling her eyes, making Ellie giggle.

"So, is Lillian still the Heart of Earth?" Caty asked.

"No. Cornelia was chosen as the guardian of Earth because it was her sister who was chosen to be the Heart of Earth. But the Heart of Earth changes whenever new guardians are chosen, and this time, the Heart of Earth's power is transferred to a girl named Eva Carson."

"The she-devil," Gabi muttered. Everyone looked at her questioningly. "Eva's mother Sienna married my father."

Caty and Ellie frowned at the way Gabi phrased it, but Rae and Alyssa remembered Gabi had some sort of vendetta against Sienna and Eva, thanks to Jake.

"So Gabi was chosen as the Earth guardian because Eva is the Heart of Earth?" Rae asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "Now remember when Chris turned into Shagon?"

The girls nodded. None of them could forget.

"Shagon is an Angel of Malice. Luckily, he's been on our side for the most part. Shagon is form Matt took when he was a Regent, and even after. He only lost the power when Eva became the Heart of Earth."

"So how is Chris Shagon now?" Ellie asked.

"Chris babysat Eva once," Gabi said slowly.

"That's right. Cara and Eric came over to help as well. And he managed to convince Eva to give up her powers to him, Cara, and Eric. They are now the Regents of Earth."

"How did he manage that? If Eva knew she had powers, she'd never give them up willingly," Gabi said.

"He said he was playing make believe and she gave them up through the game," Hay Lin said. "Chris has the powers of Shagon, which are the powers of flight and lazer beams that he can shoot through his eyes, as well as enhanced strength. Not super strength, but enhanced. Cara has super strength and speed, has the ability to become intangible and invisible, as well as fly. She also has wings, but they are white, and other become a little taller, she looks pretty much the same when she transforms. Eric looks like a taller Shagon when he transforms. He can also shoot lazers and fly, and he also has telekinesis. He can also transfer his powers to other people should he need to."

"I can't believe Eva had all those powers," Gabi murumered.

"She has those and more," Hay Lin said. "But I'll explain more as time goes on. For now, I'm going to tell you the reasons you were chosen as guardians…or, why the Oracle chose you."

The girls nodded, all anxious for this.

"Like I said, the old Earth guardian, Cornelia, was chosen as the Earth guardian because her sister was the Heart of Earth and needed someone older and wiser to watch over and protect her. Gabi, you were chosen as the Earth guardian for this reason as well. Because Eva is the Heart of Earth."

"What about me?" Ellie asked excitedly.

"Unfortunately, I do not know the reason you and Caty were chosen. That will only be revealed as time goes on."

"But you know why I was chosen?" Rae asked as Ellie's enthusiasm seemed to drop below zero. "Because I can't imagine why on Earth I would be chosen as the leader of anything."

"The old leader of the guardians, also known as the Guardian of Quintessence, was Will. She was, as all the Keepers of the Heart are, chosen by the Heart, and only the Oracle knows why the Heart chooses who it does. To this day, the Oracle refuses to tell us it's reasons, but Rae, you were also chosen by the Heart. It's important to know that the Heart never makes mistakes, so it choosing you as the leader was not a mistake."

Rae nodded.

"Why were you chosen?" Caty asked.

"I was chosen for a continuity of spirit."

"A what?" Ellie repeated.

"Continuity of spirit?" Alyssa mused. "As in, you were chosen because your grandmother was chosen."

"Exactly! You're just as smart as your mother," Hay Lin smiled.

"But if Gabi was chosen as the Earth guardian for the same reason as the old Earth guardian and Rae was chosen as the leader the same way as all the other leaders before her, then shouldn't I be chosen for the same reason as you?" Ellie questioned.

"That's what I thought at first, but that's not how it works. See, one guardian that is chosen is always part of the same lineage as a guardian before her, but it's always a different element. In my grandma's time, Nerissa, the leader of the guardians was the niece of the old Keeper. In my time, I was chosen. In your time, one of you is the descendant of an old guardian."

"You're about the same age as my mother," Rae said. "So it must be one of our mothers or aunts."

"Maybe it's _my_ mom," Gabi said. "There's no way a mother would be able to hide powers like these from. My mom died a long time ago though." She finished with a hint of sadness in her voice and Alyssa was surprised someone like Gabi Shay was capable of feeling any emotion.

"But Hay Lin just said the reason you were chosen is because the Heart of Earth-"

"Lives in your house!" Rae finished quickly for Ellie, knowing she was about to say 'Because the Heart of Earth is your sister,' which would've made Gabi angry.

"Uh…yeah," Ellie said, confused. "So maybe it's _my_ mom because I'm not…I mean, my mom works a lot, so I don't see her a lot, so she could hide it from me."

Alyssa bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything. She knew what really happened behind closed doors at the Kramer house and she knew Ellie was going to say she's not what her mother would consider a daughter. At least, that's not the way she was treated. Alyssa really wanted to say something to help her, but she made a promise she never would. Besides, she ran into Ellie's older brother Jason a few weeks ago. He told her moved back home, which meant, for the time being, Ellie was safe.

"Weren't you _listening_?" Caty asked in her best 'Hello, are you stupid?' voice. "_Hay Lin_ was chosen to continue the lineage of the air guardian, and _you're_ the new _air_ guardian, unless you've forgotten."

Ellie glared at her. "I didn't forget. You figure it out then, if you're so smart! Who's related to an old guardian?"

Caty rolled her eyes. "_Obviously_ Alyssa."

"_Me_?"

"I think what she means is, Hay Lin just told us that she was chosen to continue the lineage of the air guardian and the Keeper in her grandmother's time was chosen to continue the Keeper's lineage," Rae said. "So it wouldn't be me or Ellie. That leaves, you, Caty, and Gabi. Hay Lin already revealed that Gabi was chosen to protect Eva, so that leaves you and Caty and Caty doesn't believe it's her mother."

"It _isn't_."

"Well it's not my mom either!" Alyssa shot back.

"It has to be one of ours," Caty replied.

"Why don't you just tell us who it is? You know," Gabi said to Hay Lin.

She smiled. "I could. Or I could show you." She motioned to a television in the corner of the room. "The girls and I recorded a video for exactly this occasion. You can refer to it any time you need help. I guess it's like one long video diary."

She turned on the TV and the picture showed a video paused on close of up a girl with bright red hair and brown eyes. Hay Lin pressed play and the camera zoomed out. The girl was wearing an orange shirt under a demin jacket, jeans, and sneakers. She smiled.

"Hi. Um, I'm Will Vandom I guess."

"You guess?" a teasing male voice asked from behind her.

"Matt! Shut up. This is weird," Will mumbled, turning to face the boy. She turned back to the camera.

"Uh yeah. So, we're making this video for the new guardians. I guess we'll just introduce ourselves. Like I said, I'm Will Vandom, and I'm the leader of the guardians, the Keeper of the Heart, and the guardian of quintessence. Now the new leader probably doesn't know what quintessence is yet. That's okay. For now, you'll just know yourself as the Keeper. You probably don't have a lot of power yet, except the power to unite the guardians and fly when you're in guardian form, but I'll let you in on a little secret. The Heart you control? It has a lot of power on it's own and it'll only reveal it's power to you. One of the things the Heart can do is create astral drops, duplicate versions of yourselves with no actual emotions or powers. That is the one power that the Heart can grant to any guardian. Watch."

With that, Will took out the Heart, and said the words, spord lastra, and a copy of Will appeared. She giggled. "Hi!" she said, her voice bit more high pitched than the real Will.

"That's my astral drop," Will said. With that, the copy disappeared. "Oh. Ooops. Okay, when you say astral drop backwards, you create one, and saying astral drop makes it disappear. Anyway, any guardian can make use of this power. Just a heads up, astral drops aren't smart, so if you any of you are thinking of letting an astral drop take a test for you or sit through a family dinner, don't. We let our astral drops put on a play for us and got detention for a month because they messed up so badly."

Hay Lin laughed at that, enjoying the memory.

"Anyway, other than that, the other powers of the Heart are only accessible to you. So figure all of those out while the rest of the guardians are practicing with their powers."

"Oooh, oooh, my turn!" a voice yelled. In the next second, a girl with chestnut brown hair and the most gorgeous blue-green eyes Alyssa had ever seen, appeared on the scream. "Hey guys! Irma Lair here! You guys probably know me because by the time the Oracle chooses new guardians, I'll be super famous."

"Does anyone know her?" Ellie asked.

The others shook their heads.

"Guess she didn't become famous after all," Gabi muttered.

"Maybe you'll know me from my radio show, Lair on the Air."

"Irma, I don't think you can you can use that name on a real radio show," Will said. "I mean, I think the school owns that now."

"What?! Maybe Sheffield will be gone by then?"

"Doubt it," Will muttered.

"Okay, whatever. Most likely, I'll be on TV. Or in movies. Or I would've written a book!"

There were 'yeah right' snickers from the background and Irma turned around, probably to give the perpetrators a glare.

"Anyway," Will said as Irma turned back to the camera, "maybe you should just say your piece."

"Okay! So, as I said, I'm Irma Lair, the guardian of water."

Everyone looked at Caty, who didn't seem to recognize Irma in the least.

"If you're anything like me, you thought this whole thing was the coolest thing that's ever happened to you."

Caty rolled her eyes. She was nothing like Irma.

"Anyway, water is a pretty easy power to get the hang off, so I would say use your time trying to control other liquids and creating ice. Since you're water, ice and snow are under your jurisdiction as well, but for the longest time, I had to depend on Hay Lin's help to make ice. There's nothing wrong with needing help, but it'll be much better when you can make ice on your own. And also, when you get the mi-"

"Alright Irma, that's enough!" Will said, cutting her off. She looked at the camera. "You'll all get some more powers as time goes on, but we'll leave the explanations of those powers for later." She looked back at the "snickerers." "Who's next?"

"Me, me!" a girl cried. Irma and will both got out the way as a Chinese-American girl with long black hair tied back in pony tails and brown eyes came bounding toward the camera.

Hay Lin squealed as her younger version smiled.

"That's you, isn't it?" Ellie asked.

Hay Lin nodded excitedly.

"My name is Hay Lin!" Hay Lin said. "Hopefully in the future, I'll be…" the girl dropped her voice to a whisper. "Hay Lin-Lyndon."

Both the Hay Lin on the screen and the Hay Lin in front of the girls blushed and laughed sheepishly.

"Anyway," the girl on the screen said, "I'm the guardian of air. My grandmother was the old guardian of air. I'm hoping my daughter or granddaughter will be the next air guardian. Because I'm air, I'm the best at flying. You should've seen Will when we first transformed. She kept crashing into things!"

At this, both Hay Lin and Rae smiled.

"And the first time we transformed, she turned us back while I was still in the air and I fell into the dumpster."

"My home yesterday," Rae muttered, making Alyssa laugh.

"It's actually kind of nice being to help Irma make ice, but you have a lot of powers of your own you need to practice with. You can do this while the other girls learn to fly. As an air guardian, your powers extend towards sound as well. I found soundproofing rooms and using my enhanced hearing really hard at first, so try to work on that. You can also control the temperature of air, making it warmer or colder, meaning you can turn any liquid into ice, so work on that too. And work on using your element as if you had telekinesis."

"Tele-what?" Ellie asked.

"Telekinesis," Alyssa repeated. "The ability to move things with your mind."

Ellie nodded as a new girl appeared on the screen. From her long blond hair to her sky blue eyes to the daisy in her hair to her gorgeous clothes to her perfect make up to her impressive height and figure, she was very beautiful. Even Gabi looked impressed at the girl's looks and style.

"I'm Cornelia Hale," she said, as if that was a great accomplishment. "If you want to see someone famous, look at me, not Irma."

"Anyone know _her_?" Ellie asked.

Again all the girls shook their heads, but Alyssa knew from the look on Rae's face, she was lying. She'd have to ask about that later.

"I'm the guardian of Earth and all I can say is that my power is awesome. Earth is everywhere and is everything. You don't just make things grow. You give things _life. Use_ that. _Embrace_ it."

Gabi smiled. Clearly she'd already embraced it.

"There's a lot you can learn to control and manipulate. Just be careful. You have the ability to make many things move and grow, and you will develop another power later on that won't have much to do with Earth and if you are unable to control it, things could get very messy. But if you're anything like me…you'll do great." Cornelia gave the camera a sexy wink and all the girls besides Gabi rolled their eyes. Gabi was exactly like Cornelia. If her mother wasn't dead, Alyssa would say she was the one carrying on the lineage.

"Okay, last one," a boy's voice said. "And then we get to go on camera!" The voice seemed to belong to Matt, the boy Will was talking to before.

"Someone likes the spotlight," Will teased as another girl came on screen.

"Will!" the boy-probably Matt-protested as the others laughed.

The girls focused on the final guardian. She was African American and skinny. She wore glasses. She had black hair and onyx eyes. Alyssa recognized her immediately,

"Lyssa, that's…" Ellie trailed off.

"Your mother," Rae finished

Gabi and Caty turned to look at Alyssa.

"I'm Taranee Cook," the girl said, adjusting her glasses. "I'm the guardian of fire."

Taranee went on to explain how she was afraid of her element and flight at first, but how she learned that fire bends to her will and she didn't have to be afraid of something she could control. Then she explained the hardest thing she had to learn was to breathe fire, but it was really useful and should be practiced. But Alyssa barely heard it.

"It was my mother," Alyssa said when Hay Lin paused the video and said that's all they needed for now. "All this time. I lived with her for seventeen years. We told each other everything and we were practically best friends. And I never knew."

"Well, it's not like she would tell you Lyssa. It's dangerous," Ellie said. "Maybe she thought her old enemies would come after you if she told you."

"And she thought she was done with that and she'd never know you were the one to continue the lineage," Rae added. "So she probably thought she wouldn't have to tell you."

"She didn't want to put you in danger. But now you can go talk to her and tell her you're a guardian and it's something else you can bond over," Ellie added.

"You always said she wanted you to have the experiences she had. The kind of experiences you said you couldn't have. But now you can because you're a guardian of fire just like her!" Rae reminded.

"I need to talk to her about this," Alyssa said decisively.

"But talk. Don't yell," Rae advised.

"Maybe…maybe you'll be with me when I do?" Alyssa asked hopefully. Over the last four days, Rae had proved to be a great friend. She'd waited for Alyssa to pack up and was ready to leave each class so they could walk together, made sure Jake addressed her by name every time he spoke to her, stayed after school in the art room with her for three hours on Friday just to keep her company, came over for lunch yesterday so they could go to Chris's house together, stood up for her against Gabi and Caty, slept over last night so they'd be together when they headed for the Silver Dragon again today, and even helped her practice with her power late into the night, helping her gain more control over fire, and start to shed her fear of flying (her fear of flames might take a little longer to extinguish). So maybe Rae would continue to do so?

"Of course, if you want me to be," Rae said and Alyssa smiled. She had picked a fantastic new best friend.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So? What did you think? I know that was sort of an abrupt ending, but I didn't want to make it too long. So the sixth chapter will take a little while to put out because I've only written half of it. I'll try to write the rest and edit as fast as I can. Review guys! Please and thank you!**


	6. Through the Portal

**A/N: I'm back! And I brought chapter 6 with me. Thank you so much to everyone for the continued support. A special thank you to M. 5 for following this story! **

**I want to apologize for waiting so long to post this chapter! School has been crazy lately. Yesterday was registration, the day before was signing up with housing groups, and we were celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. Between all of that, it was midterms week! I have one midterm next week, but the rest were taken care of this week, so this long wait won't be a regular thing.**

**That's all I have to say, so I'll just get on with the shout-outs and the story!**

**SilvenArrow: Thank you so much, I'm so glad you like it. Gabi's family story is definitely my favorite. I played with the idea of having Gabi's birth the thing that killed her mother and have her family resent/blame her, but then I wanted her to have a little brother, and I wrote her story differently. Good observation with Caty. I would say it does matter and you should hold on to that thought. Yes, your guess about Ellie's mother in your PM was right, and it wasn't too far a leap. At least I hope not. Otherwise, my foreshadowing skills leave something to be desired. And yes, we will get to see more of the guardians, in more than just video form. Finally, your question about Nigel will be answered in this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Taylor: Hmm, that is weird. But at least your name shows up now! I'm glad you like the story. Thanks for dropping a review, and enjoy this chapter!**

**Emily: Caty is sort of being a whiny brat (like Stephen Daedalus lol), but every adopted kid must feel the way Caty does at some point. Like in **_**Just As Long As We're Together**_**. And before you remind me, I know Alison was 13 in that book, not 16, but still. See you later! You can beta this chapter before we go tonight.**

**WaterAmulet: Yes, we did get to see more of Jason. I think he'll be a bigger character than I originally thought. Yes, Gabi's powers are developing fast, but the other girls' powers are developing fast too, which you'll see in the next chapter. Water has always been my favorite element, I always wanted to control water like Irma (or Katara in the ATLA series, if you watch that). There's a reason for that. Caty has darker undertones to her character, which will develop into a plot point. As for what happens between Alyssa and Taranee, I just wrote where the writing took me. I didn't set any rules, just wrote what came to my mind. Hope you like what I came up with. I really like the friendship between Alyssa and Rae too, which surprised me. I was afraid their friendship would be random and awkward when I first planned it out, but when I actually wrote about it, it seemed natural and I really like the way it developed. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Shay: I agree with you there! Longer chapters make the wait bearable. I actually wrote most of this chapter in a couple of days (I had the first part pre-written and wrote most of it pretty fast), but I had to study for midterms, so I had to take a break from writing for a while. I liked writing about Hay Lin explaining all of the Heart stuff, so I'm glad it didn't bore you. I like how the video scene worked out, a lot more than I thought I would. You'll learn how Rae knows Cornelia in this chapter. Thanks for the review and enjoy!**

**Misa: I'm sorry about the wait, but I'm glad you liked it, and it's okay you waited to review, since this chapter wasn't up yet. I was registering for classes, settling housing groups, and studying for midterms this week, so I was slow finishing this chapter. Hopefully the wait for future chapters will be better. Yes, you will find out more about Rae, somewhat soon. And you'll find out more about the other characters too. Caty hating Lili and Ellie not being a great student aren't really important, but everything else is. You'll find out more about Ellie's parents soon-ish, but no, they're not divorced. You will learn more about the old guardians in the next chapter, but for now, enjoy this one!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Monday started out the same way as always. Alyssa and Rae were accompanied to their every destination by Jake, who was hell bent on getting to know Rae better (and Alyssa too, in order to win Rae's favor).

As usual, at lunch time, he went over to sit by Gabi and the other cheerleaders, and as usual, the guys from the lacrosse team joined him.

Before Rae and Alyssa could find an empty table, Caty walked up to them. "Okay, so you don't want to join my group," she said. "But at least sit with us at lunch. Both of you. We have more in common now than brains."

Rae and Alyssa looked at each other and shrugged. Caty was right. They weren't really friends, but the guardian thing would work out better if they got along. Especially once the battles Hay Lin and the Oracle had told them about yesterday started.

Six faces looked up when Caty arrived at her usual table with Alyssa and Rae.

The girls smiled immediately. One had long black hair in soft waves, dark eyes, and brown skin. She wore a wolf hat. The other girl had shoulder length black hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"Hi," the girl with the wolf hat said. "I'm Misha."

"And I'm Nina," the other girl said.

Rae smiled and they sat down. The girls introduced the boys at their table. Brian, his best friend Travis, and their other friends Nick and Will.

"Those two girls are part of Caty's group," Alyssa whispered so only Rae could hear. "And the boys are friends with them, although Brian and Caty pretty much hate each other, and they are in different nerd groups."

Rae snickered. She couldn't understand how at this school, even the cliques were divided amongst each other into sub-cliques. This was definitely different from her old school.

"What do you think of the new book we were assigned in lit?" Misha asked, trying to make conversation.

"_Things Fall Apart_? I've read it already," Alyssa said. "It's actually one of my favorite books."

"It seems really rich," Nina said.

"It is. You could answer any expository essay question with it," Alyssa replied.

"Good," Misha said. "Because I always use _Heart of Darkness_ to help me on essays and I need a new source of information."

"_Heart of Darkness_ is like my favorite book ever," Rae said.

"I _hated_ it!" Misha cried. "I just use it because it works. _The Scarlet Letter _is my favorite."

"She spends every rainy Saturday reading that book," Nina joked. She smiled at Rae. "_Heart of Darkness _is my favorite too."

"What's your favorite book Caty?" Alyssa asked, genuinely curious.

"_The Awakening_."

"I thought that was really dry," Rae said.

"Me too," Misha agreed.

"It's perfectly exemplifies every aspect of romanticism."

"And that's good thing?" Rae challenged.

"Yes!" Caty insisted. "Romanticism is my favorite literary movement."

"Even over transcendentalism?" Alyssa asked.

"You _liked_ transcendentalism?" Misha asked, appalled.

"No," Alyssa giggled. "That was a joke."

The other girls laughed and the five began to talk about other literary movements. At one point Nina and Misha got into a heated debate about the Gothic period, and Alyssa took that opportunity to ask Rae about Cornelia.

"Yesterday, you seemed to know who Cornelia Hale was even though the rest of didn't. How do you know her?"

Caty, who was listening to her friends debate, turned to them. "You know Cornelia?" she asked frowning.

"Not really. Not personally anyway," Rae replied. "She and my mother met in college. I mean, my mother didn't actually go to college, but she met Cornelia while Cornelia was attending college. Lyssa, remember when your mother said she and her friends didn't keep in touch once they started college, but one girl went to California for college and she and another one of your mother's friends stayed friends?"

Alyssa nodded wondering where Rae was going with this.

"Cornelia's best friend was Elyon."

"As in….Queen Elyon?" Caty asked.

"I'm guessing," Rae said. "Elyon went to college in California and Cornelia went to F.I.T., where my mother would've gone if she hadn't decided to forego college. Anyway, Cornelia helped my mother out by modeling her clothes the summer before college, and my mother earned that job at the fashion company she worked at before starting her own company. She, Elyon, and Cornelia still talk all the time."

"So your mother had a connection to a guardian and the queen of Meridian," Caty murmured. "Wait, your mother has her own company?"

Rae grimaced. "Yeah, my mom is Silena Shane. Don't tell anyone though."

Caty's eyes grew wide. "I won't, but wow…my cousin really wants an internship with her this summer. You know that internship your mother has for the four college kids and one high school student? Lili wants to be that high school student. You'd think with a dream like that, she'd understand why the D.C. internship I'm applying for is so important to me, but Lili is too self-centered for that."

"If we're talking self-centered, it's Lana Oller," Alyssa said. "I swear, she's worse than Gabi."

"Who's actually not that bad. I mean, she hasn't been as mean as I expected her to be in the last two days," Caty commented.

The other girls nodded. Caty was right.

"Alyssa, did you ever talk to your mother about being a guardian?"

"No, Rae is going to come over tonight so I can," Alyssa said. "Um…do you want to come?"

"I can't, Jake called a student council meeting tonight," Caty said, rolling her eyes. "What he wants to discuss I don't know. Stupid Jake Saunders."

When the bell rang, the girls walked to APUSH together. Nina and Misha walked ahead of the other three.

"So did you tell Nina and Misha we were going to join you beforehand?" Alyssa asked Caty.

Caty nodded.

"They didn't seem too bothered by "Classless-a Klutzcroft" sitting with them," Rae said. "So why didn't you invite Alyssa before?" She had a knowing smile on her face.

Caty flushed. "I'm sorry Alyssa," she said. "You're the number one ranked in school, and I'm tied as number three with Brian and I was afraid that if we brought you in, I'd be overshadowed. I've already been fighting with Brian for the spotlight since first grade! But you'd easily outrank both of us and I need the leadership positions if I'm going to get into Yale for law."

Alyssa's mouth dropped open. "Rae and I want to go to Yale too, but not for law. Yale law is so hard to get into!"

"I know!"

"It's okay you didn't invite me. But I don't want to join any of the clubs you're in. I'm already busy enough, and I can't play sports, but you're really good at soccer."

"Speaking of clubs, how do you think we're going to keep up if we have guardian training every day after school?" Caty asked.

"I don't know, but this is seriously going to cut into my studying time," Alyssa groaned. "I'm only half way done with our English essay."

"The one due in two weeks?" Rae asked.

"I always get my assignments in early," Alyssa said. "Just like my mom. And I'm behind on studying for the biology test."

"The one two months from now?" Caty asked.

"I always study before exam dates are even set," Alyssa said. "Also just like my mom."

"Doesn't that stress you out?" Caty asked.

"Why should it? Studying and essays are so much fun!"

Caty looked at Alyssa like she was crazy. "I'm neurotic about my grades, but even I don't _like_ studying."

"I love school. School work relaxes me, and it was something that distracted me from Gabi and the cheerleaders teasing me all the time."

"Hey, why'd you leave without me?" Jake asked, catching up with Alyssa and Rae.

"Why would anyone wait for _you_?" Caty replied nastily.

"They'd be more likely to wait for me than _you_."

"Well Alyssa and Rae are obviously intelligent girls who know your company is less than desirable."

"Look who's talking. You're the one who makes me want to pull my hair out every time you speak."

"And you're the one who makes me wish I were deaf every time _you_ speak!"

"Caty!" Misha's yell made every head turn. Misha blushed and lowered her voice considerably. "Um, just, you don't want to get into an unnecessary fight, and anyway, class is gonna start soon."

"Oh…yeah."

The group entered their APUSH classroom. As usual, Misha and Nina took seats in the front, one table empty between them for Caty. The three always took seats in the front. Alyssa did too, usually, but since she became friends with Rae, she started sitting in the back in every class because Rae liked sitting in the back. It made her feel more invisible, and Rae liked feeling invisible. She hated when attention was focused on her, which is what made her more antsy and nervous around Jake, although she did a good job of hiding it.

Alyssa, Rae, and Jake took their usual seats in the back. Caty made a move to sit in her usual desk, then decided against it and joined Alyssa and Rae in the back. Sure Jake was with them and she'd much rather sit with her best friends than her worst enemy and two girls she had to get along with because it was necessary, but she liked what she saw of Alyssa and Rae so far, and everything about the guardians would be easier if she got along with them because she _wanted_ to, not because she _had_ to.

Jake didn't look pleased at Caty's change of seat, but Alyssa and Rae both smiled at her as she took a seat in front of new girl.

Caty wondered when everything with Jake had gone so wrong. They used to be really good friends when they were both freshman and moved up to the high school building of Sheffield. They were the only two freshman to join student council, so they were automatically made General Assembly members. Caty wasn't sure what possessed Jake Saunders, who was always kind of mean, especially to the people classified as nerds, like Caty herself, to be friendly towards her, but he flashed her a smile, made a few jokes, and Caty decided Jake Saunders wasn't as bad as everyone thought.

She soon discovered he was very smart. Ninth grade was when the students got their class rank, and Jake constantly challenged Caty, making her work harder to beat Jake for the number 2 rank (which she hadn't done yet). He helped her practice soccer so she could make the JV team as a freshman, always cheered her up when she was feeling down, helped her to beat Brian whenever the two had a rivalry, and he knew she was adopted. Not even Nina or Misha knew that.

Sophomore year had only brought them closer, until the last quarter of the school year when they realized they were both running for junior class president. Caty tried to explain she wanted a career in either law or politics, and if she went the politics route, being class president would be immensely helpful. He told her he understood, but he also wanted to be class president and he wasn't going to drop out of the race. At that point, instead of admitting Jake was being number 2 in class rank, she began to feel jealous, and when he won the election, she knew it was because he was the most popular boy in school. Jake didn't even bother to deny it when she accused him of winning on popularity alone. And all summer she had to work with him to plan some of the beginning of the year events such as the first day assembly and that Halloween dance and even though they used to be two peas in a pod, they couldn't seem to agree on anything anymore.

All of this wouldn't have been so bad, if Jake hadn't decided to fight dirty during the presidential race. This caused Caty to retaliate and they were so concentrated on the race that Jake was almost kicked off the soccer team and didn't get his History honors society application in on time, and Caty's chemistry grade dropped, meaning Brian beat her, and she was completely blindsided by her parents' announcement of the baby.

Caty and Jake pretty much blamed each other for all these events and couldn't forgive each other. Caty had to admit, at times she missed Jake. But most of the time, he just infuriated her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Alyssa paced around her room nervously as she waited for her mother to call her down for dinner.

"Lyssa, you're making me dizzy," Rae complained from her spot on Alyssa's bed.

"Then don't watch me pace," Alyssa snapped.

"If you're really this nervous, then let's do something to occupy ourselves."

"Like what? We already did all our homework and you won't let me study for our biology test anymore."

"Because it's two months from now. And by occupy ourselves, I didn't mean schoolwork. Why don't you paint something?"

"What?"

"You love art. Paint something."

Alyssa nodded and got out her art supplies. She had a huge easel set up by her window at all times. She squirted acrylic paint onto her palette and began work, using different brushes for different parts of the painting. Rae grabbed a book from Alyssa's shelf and began reading.

"What are you working on?" Rae asked after half an hour.

"Come here, let me show you," Alyssa said.

Rae stood next to her. Alyssa lifted her still wet painting and showed her the painting underneath it. It was beautiful peach castle with sea green tower tops, white flags, and flower garlands wrapped around the whole structure. It was atop a lushous green hill. In the corner was a photograph of the exact same castle. Rae figured that's what Alyssa was copying.

"It's pretty. What is it?" Rae asked, though she had an idea.

"This is Queen Elyon's castle. I asked Hay Lin for a picture yesterday and painted it last night," Alyssa explained. Then she showed Rae the painting she was currently castle. "This is also Queen Elyon's castle. At least, I'm pretty sure it is."

"If it is, I can't tell," Rae replied. The peach was replaced by black, the sea green was replaced by gray, the white was replaced with a murky brown. The flower garlands were now chains and the hill was black and droopy.

"I dreamt about Elyon's castle," Alyssa explained. "This version though, not the beautiful version. I have a feeling this is her castle looks now, since she's dethroned and an evil ruler took over. And in the dreams, we were there. The guardians I mean, even you, even though I hadn't met you before."

"Is that why you looked like you saw a ghost when you saw me in the cafeteria on Thursday?" Rae asked, looking relieved.

"Yeah."

"Good, because I thought there was something wrong with me! And you know, you're not the only one. Ellie looked at me like that as well when she first saw me at The Silver Dragon. I was so self-conscious!"

"Wait…do you think Ellie had the same dream as me?"

"Or at least something similar. That explains why she seemed scared of me when we ran into each other Saturday. And that explains why you randomly talked to me when you told me you're really shy. But why'd you have the dream in the first place?"

"Maybe it's a fire guardian power to have visions?" Alyssa asked, surprised that Rae figured out and didn't seem bothered by the fact that at first, Alyssa only talked to her because of the dream.

"You think it was a vision?"

"I dreamt about a person I never met before. I read somewhere that means the dream is a vision."

Before Rae could respond, Mrs. Ashcroft called them down for dinner.

"So, now you know why I approached you that day. Because of my dream. Are you mad?" Alyssa asked.

"What? No! You dreamt about me because we're connected, meant to come together and be friends, if only because we're both destined to be guardians. Like the Oracle said. And I don't really care why you approached me. Whatever the reason, I'm glad you did. I think if things are meant to be, they will be. We were meant to be friends, so who cares if you had a dream about me? If anything, the dream made us friends faster, and what's wrong with that?"

Alyssa smiled. Yup, she picked the best best friend ever!

When the girls got downstairs, they exchanged nervous smiles. "She doesn't looked much like a fighter," Rae commented.

"Well, she was a guardian when she was a teenager. Hay Lin said they got their powers when they were thirteen. It was a long time ago."

"So," Taranee said when everyone had food in front of the. "What did you want to talk about?" She ad Nigel looked at Alyssa expectantly. She'd told them that morning she had something important to discuss with them, something she wanted Rae to be present for, but something she didn't want John to be around for. Taranee asked if it could wait, and Alyssa said no, so even though she was reluctant to do so, Taranee let John have dinner and sleepover with a friend, although it was a school night.

Alyssa took a deep breath, unsure how to start. She looked at Rae for help.

Rae placed her hand on the piece of twine that held the Heart. As per Hay Lin's advice, Rae wore the Heart around her neck at all times, keeping the jewel hidden under her shirt. Surprisingly enough, the large jewel did not bulge under her shirt.

Alyssa understood. _Start with the powers_.

"Over the past couple of days, I learned I can do something amazing. Something almost unreal. And it's come to my attention Mom, that you have this ability as well."

Taranee and Nigel exchanged nervous looks, but decided to let Alyssa finish, in case they were wrong about what they thought she was referring to. Of course everyone should know by now Taranee was never wrong.

Taranee and Nigel looked at Alyssa, allowing her to go on. Alyssa sighed. She hoped they wouldn't play dumb. She got up and got out one of her mother's scented candles. She put it on the table, pointed her finger and concentrated. Rae got ready with her water glass in case the flame Alyssa wanted to conjure didn't hit its mark.

Alyssa took a deep breath and willed the candle to light. Just as it had Saturday at The Silver Dragon, it worked. Alyssa smiled and looked at Taranee, who looked nervous.

"So, you do continue the lineage," she sighed.

"You knew?"

"No, but I suspected. Yan Lin told us that the lineage would continue with either the fire or water guardian."

"Yan Lin…is that Hay Lin's grandmother, the old…er, even older, air guardian?" Rae asked.

"You know Hay Lin?" Nigel asked, surprised.

"She owns The Silver Dragon now," Taranee said. "But I haven't seen her in years."

"But she was working Friday, when you guys were there."

"That was the first time in years," Taranee said. "She never worked when we went there, which admittedly wasn't much."

"We usually order in from The Silver Dragon, and Chris is their delivery boy," Alyssa explained.

"So those friends you were talking about Mrs. Ashcroft," Rae said. "Those were the other guardians?"

"Yes."

"And Elyon too, right?" Alyssa asked.

"Why…yes. How much do you girls know?"

Alyssa told Taranee and Nigel everything Hay Lin had told them. At the end, Taranee looked outraged.

"What right did she have, telling you all of that?!" she cried, startling both girls.

"Taranee, calm down," Nigel cautioned.

"Calm down?! Nigel, she went behind our backs and told our daughter all about Meridian without our permission!"

"They had to know!" Nigel said. "Remember what Yan Lin said? If the Heart doesn't find the new guardians within sixteen years of the new Keeper being born, it will blow itself up and there will be no more guardians. Ever."

Taranee sighed, knowing her husband was right. "And I suppose you're a guardian too?" she asked Rae.

Rae showed Taranee the Heart.

"Of course. The first day I met you, you reminded me of Will. A little of Irma too, with your sarcasm, but mostly Will. It only makes sense."

"A lot of the new guardians are like the old ones," Alyssa piped up. "I knew I was always like you, but Rae is like Will, the new air guardian is like Hay Lin, and the new Earth guardian is like Cornelia. But Hay Lin says the new water guardian is almost the opposite of Irma."

"Which I could tell thanks to the video," Rae said.

"Video?" Taranee asked.

"Is that the video we made after you, Irma, and Hay Lin told us the secret?" Nigel asked. "The one where we all introduced ourselves?"

"You were in it too?" Alyssa asked.

Nigel nodded. "All the guardians were dating someone then, so we were all in it."

"Hay Lin said she'd show it to us in chunks, as we need it. So we only saw the old guardians introducing themselves," Rae said. "But we heard a boy, Matt I think his name was, getting excited as Mrs. Ashcroft introduced herself because after her, he could go on camera."

"So who are the other new guardians?" Taranee asked dully.

"Ellie is one," Alyssa said, hoping the mention of her "best friend" would make Taranee happy. She clearly was not thrilled by the news of Alyssa being a guardian. "Air."

"Who else?"

"Um, Gabi Shay is Earth, and Caty Lewis is water."

"Caty Lewis is that uptight girl on the honor roll you're always complaining about, right?" Nigel asked. "I thought the water guardian had to be loose and laidback. Irma had that attitude down."

"And have you guys trained yet?"

"Saturday we worked on flying. I hate heights, so you can imagine how that went," Alyssa said dryly. "Rae was no better. She kept crashing and bleeding and Hay Lin had to patch her up like four or five times. Gabi kept getting woozy the higher off the ground she got and Caty is too careful and uptight too fast. But Ellie had a really easy time of it. She could go really high and really fast and do tricks."

"And today?"

"We trained with our elemental powers a little," Alyssa said. "Caty worked on getting water to obey her, Ellie tried to use air as if it were telekinesis, Gabi tested the limits of her powers, I practiced conjuring flames and controlling them, which I'll admit I was reluctant about, because I'm afraid of fire too. And after she transformed us, Rae tried to find out all the secrets and powers of the Heart."

"So far I was able to make astral drops, and I found out the Heart can track the Keeper," Rae said.

"What about opening and closing portals?" Nigel wondered.

"I didn't practice that, but I know it can do that," Rae said. "We know about portals and folds and the differences between them. We actually went through a fold yesterday. We went to Kandrakar."

Taranee and Nigel's mouths dropped open.

"Did you meet the Oracle? What did he say?" Taranee asked.

Rae and Alyssa told the Ashcrofts what happened at Kandrakar.

Taranee, finally able to digest the information got up and looked at Alyssa. "The Heart needs to find it's keeper within a certain amount of time, or else, like Nigel said, it will blow itself up, taking the legacy of the guardians with it. And the world needs the guardians. It always has. But I refuse to allow you to take part in this."

"What? Mom!"

"Taranee," Nigel protested.

"No, listen. What the Oracle has said about what you have to face sounds worse than Phobos, Nerissa, and all our old enemies combined. I do not want any child of mine to have to face anyone on par with our enemies, and I definitely don't want them to face someone more powerful. I will not allow you to fight and put yourself in danger and get hurt."

"But Mom, you always said you had these amazing experiences in school because of your friends, and I always thought I didn't think it was the friends that gave you the experiences, but the experiences that made you so close with your friends, and I was right. The reason you and the other girls were so close was because of the whole guardian thing. So how can you deny me the same opportunity?"

"Alyssa-"

"Mom, you want to know why Ellie and Adam haven't come over in six years? It's not because we go to Adam's house after school. Every time I don't have a meeting for something, I'm in the art studio, not at Adam's house. Ellie and Adam _dropped_ me. El and I had a huge fight in fifth grade, and I got tired of trying to make up with her. I spend the entire summer trying to get her to talk to me. And you know how much pull Ellie has on Adam, so he would greet me all the time in the halls and talk to me in class, but he didn't hang out with me because Ellie didn't. Then, half way through the year, Gabi Shay humiliated me in the cafeteria and I got these terrible nicknames and Adam, who was already made fun of by Gabi enough, stopped talking to me completely, and that was the end of my friendship with both of them. I didn't _have_ any friend at all. Chris and I talked, sure, but we didn't really hang out either. Rae is the only person who has been my friend, and now, because of the guardians thing, Caty invited us to be part of her group, Ellie and I actually had a conversation…I doubt Gabi and I will ever be friends, but I'm finally part of something again. I need this!"

Taranee and Nigel looked shocked and heartbroken. They had no idea their daughter had suffered so much. Why had she hid it from them?

"Honey, I'm so sorry," Taranee said sincerely, "but I'm sure Rae will still be your friend, even if you don't continue to be a guardian."

"Continue? I've barely been a guardian!" Alyssa cried. "How can you deny me the same experiences you cherished so much?"

"I cherished the closeness my friends and I had. The experiences I could've done without!" Taranee cried.

"Well without those experiences, you wouldn't have had the closeness and I won't have that without these experiences either!"

"You shouldn't need or have to put your life at risk for friends! If you had told us what Gabi did to you, we could've transferred you to another school!"

"I liked this school!" Alyssa cried. Sheffield was one of the most prestigious private schools in the country and the place you'd want to be if you wanted to go to an Ivy League. Most schools only took one or two students for various Ivy Leagues. They took up to four students for each Ivy when it came to Sheffield because it was so hard to be ranked in the top 10.

"I'm not going to let you do this."

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"As long as you live under my roof, I can. And I say no way. This is all over Alyssa. You will have nothing to do with Hay Lin or the guardians any longer," Taranee said firmly. "And I _will_ contact Hay Lin to let her know of my decision."

"No Mom, that's humiliating!" Alyssa cried.

"Can I trust you?"

"Of course!"

"Then tell Hay Lin you're done and don't ever go into guardian mode again. Promise me that and I won't call her."

Alyssa opened her mouth to retort, then saw there was no changing her mother's mind. Her mouth set in a hard line.

"Fine," she muttered, stalking up the stairs, Rae following after her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

At lunch time on Tuesday, Ellie saw something that made her blood boil. As usual, Rae and Alyssa walked into the cafeteria with Jake. As usual, Jake had brought money and the girls had brought their lunch. Jake got on the lunch line and Alyssa and Rae looked around uncertainly. Their eyes fell on Caty's table. Feeling their stare, she turned to look at them and waved them over. They smiled and sat down and Caty's friends Nina and Misha immediately greeted them.

Ellie saw them sitting at Caty's lunch table yesterday, but she thought that was just a one day thing. First Rae was stealing her best friend, and now Caty?

Ellie knew it wasn't fair to be possessive of the girl she hadn't spoken to in over six years, but she couldn't help it. Alyssa wasn't just her best friend, but the best friend she's ever had. She did all the work to figure out what Ellie was hiding and tried to convince her to get help. She'd spent half a school year and an entire summer trying to get Ellie back when they stopped talking.

The last thing Alyssa had said to Ellie was, "I'm going to miss you El, more than you know. But that's okay. I'm walking away because of the promise you made and I'm not going to be selfish and demand your friendship as long as you keep that promise."

Alyssa was never selfish. She was such a good friend. And now she made Rae her best friend. It was only fitting. Rae was as good of a friend as Alyssa was. They deserved to have each other in their corner.

Caty turned her head and locked eyes with Ellie. Caty gave her a tentative smile and Ellie smiled back.

Ellie looked at her table. She was sitting with a bunch of drama kids, with her best friends close to her. Adam was next to her, Jade was across from her, and Milly was across from Adam. Jade and Milly were debating about something. This was common. The four had been a group for nearly five years, but Jade and Milly were friends since kindergarten, like Ellie and Adam, so the foursome often broke off into pairs.

"Guys," Ellie said, making Jade and Milly look up. "I'm going to go sit with Caty today."

"Caty…Lewis?" Adam asked.

Ellie nodded. "I need her help with my homework," she lied.

"Oh. Okay," Jade shrugged and went back to her conversation with Milly.

Adam gave her a ,'What are you really doing?' look, but Ellie just gave him a weak smile and left the table. Being an actress helped to fool Jade and Milly, but Adam could always tell when she was lying. She felt bad for lying to Adam. After all, lies were the reason she lost Alyssa. But what was she supposed so say? I'm sitting with Caty because she and I have elemental powers? Oh, and also she's stealing my best friend who I haven't talked to for six and a half years?

"Hey," she said when she reached Caty. "Can I sit here?"

Nina and Misha looked at Ellie, surprised, but Caty just shrugged. "Sure," she said. "But you may get bored."

Before Ellie could ask what that meant, Caty looked at Rae and said, "We list the elements in order and the loser is the first one to mess up or forget. Hesitation is allowed."

"Sounds good to me," Rae replied.

"The elements? Aren't there only four?" Ellie asked, sitting down. "And I didn't know there was an order."

Misha and Nina looked at her incredulously.

"Um, not the elements that make up the world. The scientific elements," Caty explained. "You know, like Hydrogen and Helium."

"Oh," Ellie said, feeling stupid. She was way out of her league here. She, Jade, and Milly were never in any honors classes and they were C-average students. Adam was in honors math and science classes and he was an A-average student in everything. That's probably why he and Alyssa got along so well. If he wasn't in love with her, he may have stuck by Alyssa after her fight with Ellie.

"You got this Caty. Your class rank is higher than hers," Travis said.

Oh, so Brian and his friends were interested too?

"Only because the year just started. You're going to be a chemistry major Rae, there's no way you can lose," Alyssa said.

"Alright," Brian said. "Let's do this. Go!"

Caty started.

"Hydrogen."

"Helium."

"Lithium."

"Beryllium."

"Boron."

"Carbon."

"Nitrogen."

"Oxygen."

This went on for a quite a while and Ellie was bored. She daydreamed, but tuned in just in time to hear Caty say, "Fermium."

Rae and Alyssa smiled and high fived as each other.

"Wrong!" Brian said, but he didn't seem as happy as he usually was when Caty got something wrong. "Einsteinium is after Californium. Then it's Fermium."

"Well, you didn't win yet," Caty said. "Not unless you can tell me what's after Fermium."

"Easy. Mendelevium. Then it's Nobelium, Lawrencium-"

"Okay, okay, you're a chemistry genius. I get it," Caty snapped.

Everyone else laughed until Rae gasped.

"What is it?" Alyssa asked.

Rae fingered the twine that held the Heart. "I…need to go to the nurse?" Rae was clearly a terrible liar.

"You do look a little green," Ellie backed up to make her story more believable. "Alyssa, maybe you should go with her. And I'll come too."

"And I need to use the bathroom," Caty said. The four girls rushed out of the cafeteria.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa asked once they entered the hallway.

"Remember what the Oracle said about the portals yesterday?" Rae asked.

Ellie recalled their entire trip to Kandrakar.

_Hay Lin just told them about portals and folds, the differences between them, and how she and the other guardians had to close portals in their time. She'd also told them there was a fold in her bedroom leading to Kandrakar and they had to go and meet the Oracle. _

_At first, the fold looked intimidating. Hay Lin stepped in without hesitation. The other girls all looked at Rae. She was the leader for a reason. Rae took a deep breath, then stepped into the fold as well. Alyssa immediately went in after her. The other three stared at each other until Gabi followed. Ellie went in after, and Caty came through last._

_In front of them student several people in pale blue robes._

"_Which one do you think is the Oracle?" Ellie whispered to the other girls as Hay Lin greeted everyone._

"_Probably the old one," Gabi replied, rolling her eyes._

"_Does that lady have…whiskers?" Alyssa asked._

"_And cat ears," Caty confirmed._

"_Girls, come on!" Hay Lin cried, ushering them forward. "This is the Oracle."_

_The Oracle was not old as Gabi had said. That man turned out to be named Endarno. The Oracle was young looking man with a kind face, but Ellie had a feeling he was thousands of years old and could be very scary when he needed to be._

"_So if you're an oracle…does that mean you can see the future?" Gabi asked._

"_Yes, it is among my talents," the Oracle confirmed._

"_So did you call us here to tell us our future?" Ellie squealed in excitement._

_The Oracle laughed kindly before answering, "No. I am not supposed to tell anyone of their futures. Just give them hints in order to prevent a disastrous one."_

"_Aren't people not supposed to mess with time?" Rae asked. "Like, aren't we not supposed to do anything to change the future?"_

"_That's what you may have been told, but that's not actually true. As the Oracle of all worlds, I don't just see one outcome. I see all possible outcomes, and it is my job to lead people on the path of the best possible outcome."_

"_Is that why we're here today?" Alyssa asked._

"_No. The reason you are here today is to familiarize yourselves with the world that provides you with your powers."_

"_Right. Because our powers come from the Heart of Kandrakar," Rae said. "Every world has a Heart, and that's the source of the world's power. So why does the Heart of Kandrakar reside on Earth?"_

"_We have no use for it here. Kandrakar's powers are that of the guardians, and since the guardians don't reside here, neither does the Heart," the Oracle explained._

"_Excuse me Oracle," the cat like woman interrupted, "but I really do need to get back. Maybe explain the rest by my post."_

"_Of course. Guardians, if you will follow me," the Oracle said as he followed the cat lady._

_The girls looked back at Hay Lin who smiled at them encouragingly before turning back to talk to the rest of the Council. _

_When the cat woman and the Oracle stopped, they were at a podium. Above the podium floated five colorful spheres. They were green, orange, blue, pink, and gray. The same shades as the glows surrounding the girls in Ellie's dreams._

"_These are the aurameres, the source of your powers," the Oracle said, motioning to the spheres. "A guardian borrows power from her life force when she uses her powers. The aurameres were created so that the guardians would not use up their life force by using their powers. However, the aurameres only exist for the current guardians."_

"_So that means…?" Gabi asked._

"_When a previous guardian, like Hay Lin, uses her powers, she'll drain her life force," Alyssa said._

"_Exactly. However, a previous guardian can borrow life force from a current guardian in order to provide the previous guardian with strength. The current guardian will feel extremely tired, but she will not suffer permanent damage."_

"_Why would we need to give up our life force to a previous guardian?" Caty asked._

"_The old guardians reached their peak many years ago, meaning they have powers you cannot even imagine, such as teletransporting. Should you need such a power before you learn it, you will need a previous guardian."_

"_Teletransporting?" Rae asked._

"_Not an important issue right now," the Oracle said. "I'd like to introduce you to Luba."_

_The cat woman-Luba-nodded at the guardians before going back to stare at the aurameres._

"_Luba guards and protects the aurameres to you may continue to draw your powers from them and not your life force."_

_Hay Lin joined them at that moment. "The aurameres symbolize your powers. Do you notice anything about them?"_

"_Each sphere has a symbol inside," Rae said._

"_That's right. Each of your elements has a symbol. You'll need to know these symbols eventually."_

"_How will we remember them?" Alyssa asked._

"_Why don't you draw them Lyssa?" Rae suggested._

"_Oooh, good idea!" Ellie agreed. "You're an amazing artist Lyss!" _

_Alyssa beamed. "Okay." She took out her phone. "I can take a picture and paint a larger picture later. We can hang it up at The Silver Dragon basement." She snapped a picture._

"_Now that that's out of the way," the Oracle said, "I need you girls to show me your powers."_

_The girls exchanged looks. After Hay Lin told the girls about the Hearts, she'd had them practice flying for a little while, then had them practice with their elements. After that, she explained to them about portals, and took them to Kandrakar. They weren't very good with their powers, but they followed the Oracle outside. Kandrakar was a truly a beautiful place._

"_Go ahead Keeper," the Oracle said, looking at Rae._

_Rae nodded, pulled out the Heart, and yelled, "Guardians, unite!"_

_As usual, Ellie felt a surge of power and the girls all yelled out their powers._

"_The Heart!"_

"_Water!"_

"_Fire!"_

"_Earth!"_

"_Air!"_

_After that, the girls demonstrated their powers for the Oracle. Rae couldn't really do much, so she demonstrated creating astral drops for the Oracle. The Oracle talked with Hay Lin about their progress and though Ellie tried to use her enhanced hearing, she couldn't hear much. She heart the Oracle say the words prophecy, important, all worlds, and make or break. She heard Hay Lin say the words too soon, not powerful, too much at once and I can't find it. However, not knowing what any of this meant, Ellie figured she'd just keep this information to herself._

_When Hay Lin told the girls to come back down, the Oracle gave Rae a map._

"_When Hay Lin was a guardian, her grandmother gave her and the others a similar map. Whenever a veil is put up, there are rips in the veil called portals. I assume Hay Lin told you about them?"_

_The girls nodded._

"_Well, it is your job as guardians to find and close these portals. What you should do is hold the Heart over the map and red X marks will appear on the map indicating where an open portal is. Once you find it, you must hold up the Heart and will the portal to close. Now, any of you can close a portal, but the Keeper has an easier time closing it than the rest of you. And only the Keeper can use the Heart to open a portal. As for folds, only the Keeper can open and close them."_

_The girls nodded again._

"_I have one more thing I can do for. May I have the Heart for a minute?"_

_Rae looked at Hay Lin who smiled and nodded encouragingly. Rae turned to girls back to normal and gave the Oracle the Heart and he closed his hand around it. It didn't look like he did much, but when he gave it back to Rae, he said, "Now the Heart will vibrate every time a portal opens when it's not supposed to. You don't have to constantly check the map like the old guardians had to."_

_Rae smiled and put the Heart around her neck again. Then the girls left. When they got back to Hay Lin's bedroom, she suggested Rae close the fold instead of waiting for the Oracle to do it on the other side. She agreed and even though it took her a good five minutes, she was finally able to close the fold. After that, Hay Lin sent them home, telling them they had to meet in The Silver Dragon basement every day after school and the same time on weekends for guardian training. Their light hearted and fun teacher said this so sternly and seriously, not one of the girls, even Gabi, complained. Alyssa reminded Hay Lin they all had obligations after school, so Hay Lin said to come directly after that._

"So there's an open portal?" Alyssa asked.

Rae nodded and took out the map. She held the Heart up over it. A red X marked a spot not far from the school.

"How far away is that?" she asked.

"About a five minute walk," Alyssa replied.

Rae checked her watch. "Okay, we still have twenty minutes left of lunch. Three of us will go to close the portal. One of us should stay here. If we're not back in twelve minutes, tell Gabi and come look for us at this spot."

"Who will stay?" Ellie asked.

"Well I'm the Keeper so I have to go. Who wants to come?"

"I'll come," Alyssa shrugged.

"I definitely want to!" Ellie volunteered. Rae wasn't her favorite person in the world but she really wanted to see a portal up close. Besides, in her dream, the blue light she, Rae, and Alyssa were engulfed in was in the same spot marked on the map. Maybe the light was a portal and she should follow her dream.

"I don't mind staying," Caty shrugged when Rae looked at her. "But you transform when you get close in case a monster comes out like Hay Lin said it could.

"I will. Okay, let's go," Rae said.

Four minutes into the walk, the girls hid in an alley and transformed.

"Guardians, unite!"

Ellie felt the familiar surge of power she loved.

"The Heart!"

"Fire!"

"Air!"

"You think we were far away enough that Caty and Gabi didn't transform?" Alyssa asked.

"I hope so. I have a feeling spontaneously sprouting wings won't go over too well with the Sheffield student body," Rae replied sarcastically, making Ellie laugh.

The girls took alleyways to the portal's location to avoid being spotted in their guardians form. When they got to the portal, Rae looked at the girls. "You know, Mrs. Taylor said she was going to give us a free period in APUSH. What do you have next Ellie?"

"Study hall."

"Do you guys want to, I don't know, go through the portal? It leads to Meridian, right? And we have to go there a lot to help the rebels and dispel evil. We may as well case the area and know our surroundings. It may help us in battle."

'Thinking like a leader already,' Ellie thought.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Rae?" Alyssa asked.

"It'll be fine. We'll stay close."

"But what if Caty and Gabi come looking for us?" Ellie asked.

"I'll just text Caty. We should be back before our next class. Caty shares all our classes, so if she doesn't see us in biology, she'll know something is wrong," Rae replied. "I forgot my phone. Could one of you do it?"

"You have to change us back."

Rae, who'd been practicing with the Heart, managed to just change Alyssa back. She pulled out her phone and texted Caty. Ellie wondered why she had Caty's number, but hadn't asked for Ellie's. When she was done, Rae said, "Guardians…uh guardian…Alyssa, unite!"

"Fire!"

The girls looked at each other. Rae went through the portal without hesitation and Alyssa followed immediately, just as a good best friend should. Ellie, who was super excited to finally see Meridian, followed her fellow guardians. Spending time in Meridian would be way more productive and probably more exciting than spending an hour passing notes with Milly and Jade while pretending to do homework while Adam rolled his eyes at the girls and actually studied. She was expecting adventure. She wasn't expecting to have to fight for her life

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**That's it guys! So what do you think? I only had half of this chapter pre-written and this was the last chapter that was pre-written. I do have part of a future chapter written, but I have no idea what chapter it will be a part of. That means the updates will be a little slower from now on because I have to start from scratch on the rest of the story. All my courses this semester are computer programming languages, so between schoolwork and all the clubs I'm e-board of, I won't have a lot of time to write, but I'll try to update as fast as possible, especially on the weekends. The upside to programming classes is not a lot of homework! And since midterms are over, updates should be faster than it was this time. Anyway, please keep reviewing guys! Favoriting and following are great, but it's the reviews that help me make the story better and encourage me to keep going, not to mention each one brightens up my day a little.**


	7. Meridian

**A/N: Chapter seven guys! And I recently discovered that this is my longest fanfiction story! It only makes sense considering each chapter is 20+ pages long! I guess I don't know the meaning of a short chapter…at least not anymore. My first ever fanfiction story embodied short chapters, which is probably why I updated four times in one day! Anyway, I know the last chapter wasn't very interesting, but hopefully this one will be better! **

**A huge thank you to DBT the awesome for the follow! Everyone who follows this story rocks!**

**Here are the shout outs!**

**SilvenArrow: As I said to you before, checking back every day is super sweet and the highest compliment, so thank you! It was my birthday, thank you! Of course there's going to be lots of tension, except for maybe between Rae and Alyssa. Of course Gabi's going to cause lots of problems and Caty is definitely going to cause some problems too. Of course Alyssa's not listening to Taranee! She knows being a guardian is her destiny. I wouldn't listen either! Hope you like what I came up with for this chapter!**

**Emily: Yes, I know you thought that. Jake's my favorite besides Jason and Luc too. As for the visions, it is an air guardian power. The reason Alyssa is having visions too will be explained later on. Yes I am beginning to forget things, but hopefully I'll remember them and can make up for it. And I hope you think the rest of this chapter is good too!**

**Taylor: Here's the next chapter. Hope it was a fast enough update and doesn't disappoint!**

**Shay: Thanks for the review and for understanding! Your wait paid off. Hope you like it!**

**WaterAmulet: Don't worry, as I mentioned to SilvenArrow, there will be a lot of tension within the group, especially with Gabi and the others and Caty and the others, as well as with Ellie and Rae. And Ellie and Alyssa will reconnect, but I don't think their friendship could ever be the same. Alyssa knows her duty as a guardian and isn't going to let Taranee stop her! You'll see what happens in Meridian this chapter. Hope you like it! And considering you reviewed like five minutes before I get this chapter out, it'll definitely be soon for you!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

At first, Caty didn't see any need to worry. Hay Lin said portals were easier to close than folds, and Rae managed to close a fold a couple of days ago. She got more worried when she received Alyssa's text. She knew Rae was daring and Ellie was excited by anything that had to with the guardians, but she thought Alyssa would have the good sense to not go through a random portal. It _should_ lead to Meridian, but it could lead anywhere.

And Hay Lin had told them all about the monsters and creatures that live in Meridian. How were they expected to protect themselves? Even after training yesterday, none of them could much. Gabi seemed to want to experiment with her powers more than anything, and spent the entire afternoon prettying up the little clearing where they practiced. Alyssa, who was getting better about flying and heights, was still deathly afraid of fire and managed to conjure up flames no bigger than what would be needed for a candle. Caty herself didn't have a great handle on her powers. She wasn't able to do much more than splash things. Ellie was able to move things around with her power, but seemed reluctant to develop offensive attacks. And Rae didn't have any actual powers.

At Kandrakar, the Oracle had told them they were facing a Dark Prince with more power than they could possibly imagine, with an equally powerful wife and children. He said, thanks to this his eldest daughter, the Dark Prince was more powerful than even Queen Elyon, which seemed to scare Hay Lin half to death. Clearly Elyon was a force of nature whose powers were larger than life, meaning this Dark Prince was not an enemy to be taken lightly. But the Oracle did not explain further and Hay Lin did not provide any extra information either. What if Ellie, Rae, and Alyssa ran into him? _What_ were they thinking?

Ellie wasn't the only reluctant to fight. Caty didn't really want to either. Normally, she refused to engage in any confrontations that weren't purely academic. She agreed to keep training so that she'd have one aspect of life that she could control. But if she had to go to Meridian and fight, even being a guardian would be out of her control, and she didn't want that. But in just two days, Caty found she wasn't willing to let her personal problems get in way of protecting Rae and Alyssa. And anyway, besides Gabi, who probably wouldn't be willing to help, Caty was the best at controlling her powers.

"Where did Alyssa and Rae go?" Nina asked when the bell signaling the end of lunch rang.

"I think Rae's got a really bad stomach bug," Caty shrugged. "Alyssa's waiting with her for Rae's mother to pick her up." She bit her lip. She wasn't as good an actress or lair as Ellie, and though Nina may be trusting enough to believe her, she doubted Misha would. However, Misha didn't question their disappearance. Instead, she asked about Ellie.

"She's been in the bathroom an awful long time."

Caty shrugged again. "Maybe she rejoined her friends."

"Speaking of," Nick said as he the boys joined the girls, "what was with the drama freak joining us anyway? We don't run in the same social circles at all. At least Alyssa and Rae have the brains we look for, but none of the drama freaks do."

"Adam does," Nina pointed out. "He's in honors pre-calc and honors biology with us."

"Still, Ellie doesn't," Brian pointed out.

"Ellie used to be best friends with Alyssa," Travis said. "Maybe they're rebuilding their friendship."

"They were friends? What broke them up?" Misha, who moved to Heatherfield after Ellie and Alyssa's falling out, asked.

"No one knows for sure," Caty said. "But rumor is Ellie dropped Alyssa once she got into drama and became friends with Milly and Jade."

"Why would she do that?"

"Well they're interests didn't really coincide, did they?" Nina replied.

"And you witnessed what Gabi did to Alyssa after that," Will added. "And that's how she became…a…well…"

"Friendless loser," Caty whispered, suddenly feeling bad about letting Alyssa have that status when she could've easily fit in with Caty and her friends.

"Yeah."

"Are they planning on coming back?" Brian asked. "Alyssa and Rae I mean."

"We have a free period, don't we? It's not a big deal," Nina said.

"Maybe not for us," Nick agreed. "But it's a huge deal for Alyssa. Remember, I paired up with her for the assignment yesterday. That girl is too tough on herself."

"She's with Rae in the nurse's office. She definitely cares about Rae more than school. At least, I should hope so," Misha said.

At that, everyone else in the group nodded and filed into the APUSH classroom. Caty was about to follow when Jake stopped her.

"Hey, do you know where Alyssa and Rae are?"

Caty paused. Her lie had worked so far. "Yeah. Rae has a stomach bug, so she's waiting for her mom to pick her up at the nurse's office. Alyssa's waiting with her."

Jake frowned. "Wouldn't Harvey be the one to pick her up?"

"Who?"

"Never mind. Is she okay? Maybe I should go check on her…"

"No!" Caty yelled and Jake jumped. "I mean, she's…really bad. Like throwing up everywhere. She doesn't want anyone else to see that. I was with her at the nurse's office, but she sent me to class because she didn't want me witnessing that."

"Well maybe that's because you two aren't close. Alyssa's there isn't she?"

"You two aren't close either! Yes Alyssa's there, because _they_ are close. You can't compare your friendship with Rae to Alyssa's."

"I met Rae first."

"And yet she still likes Alyssa better. You must've made a terrible first impression."

"If I did, then it's the opposite of the first impression I made on you!"

Caty opened her mouth to respond, but Misha poked her head out and said, "Are you guys coming? Mrs. Taylor is about ready to start class. It may be a free period, but you still have to show up."

Caty and Jake sighed and walked in. Misha and Nina had saved Caty's usual seat for her, but today Caty switched it up even more and sat in the middle of the classroom, right next to Chris Lyndon.

"Hey Caty," Chris said. "How's it going?"

Caty had a feeling by 'it' he meant guardian training. "What, your mom hasn't been filling you in?"

"An abridged version of each day," he shrugged.

"Well, that's about all you'll get from me too. Except…" Caty took her phone out and showed Chris the text Alyssa sent her.

"Found the portal," Chris read out loud, lowering his voice when he saw it involved the guardians. "Instead of closing it, Rae decided we should explore. We'll be back before APUSH is over. Tell Mrs. Taylor whatever you want."

"Anyone know where Rachel Dylan or Alyssa Ashcroft are?" Mrs. Taylor asked.

"Classless-a is probably embarrassing herself somewhere," Lana muttered. She and Gabi were the only cheerleaders in APUSH and APUSH was the only honors class they were in.

"Maybe she broke her leg trying to get here," Gabi added. "Klutzcroft through and through, right?"

All the kids in class snickered and Caty felt rage building up inside of her. Sure the cheerleaders were mean, but did the last four days really mean nothing to Gabi? Could she not see how awesome Alyssa was? Did she not feel bad about making her a social outcast for no reason?

And it was for no reason, wasn't it? Alyssa was sweet and shy and fun. There was no way she could've possibly done anything ever to anger Gabi, so Gabi really did tease her for no reason at all. That's how Gabi operated. It was so unfair!

"Rae has a stomach bug Mrs. Taylor," Nina spoke up. "She's waiting for her mother to pick her up. Alyssa's waiting with her."

Mrs. Taylor nodded and Caty realized this meant Rae couldn't attend any of her other classes. Now even a teacher knew she was "going home." Oh well. The fact that Nina told Mrs. Taylor what was going on meant she accepted Caty's new friendship with Rae and Alyssa. At least her friends weren't social classists like Gabi and her friends were. Caty knew excluding Alyssa at first was a terrible thing to do, but she made herself feel better because at least she didn't exclude Alyssa because of her social status.

Caty hid her phone under the desk and quickly typed out a text to Alyssa.

_Told everyone that Rae had a stomach bug and needed to go home. You were waiting for her mother with her. She can't come to the rest of her classes._

After attendance, Mrs. Taylor reminded them it was a free period and they could do whatever they wanted. Caty quickly moved to the seat Nina and Misha saved for her, explaining to them she had to tell Chris something, which is why she sat next to him. Before either of them could ask what that something was, the boys joined them and they discussed the differences between plant and animal cells.

'This is the kind of thing Alyssa would love,' Caty thought, looking anxiously at the door.

For the remainder of the period, thought Caty tried to concentrate of the conversations her friends were having, her eyes kept wandering to the door, hoping Alyssa would come through it. She noticed Chris was also looking anxiously at the door. When the bell signaling the end of APUSH rang, Caty was officially panicked.

Motioning for her friends to go on to biology, she walked up to Chris. "They're not back yet. Now what?"

"Hopefully they just lost track of time, but we probably shouldn't take that chance. I texted Cara to meet me in front of the school. We're going after them. Can you lead us to the portal?"

Caty nodded. "What about Gabi?"

"She should come too. If the others in danger, they'll need all the help they can get, and according to my mom, you and Gabi are best at controlling your elements, meaning you're more powerful than Ellie and Alyssa."

Caty nodded, biting her lip in worry. She knew eventually, they'd have to fight, but she was hoping she'd have a lot more training by then. She sighed and walked up to Gabi. She Lana were taking their sweet time to pack up.

"Gabi, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.

Gabi looked at her in confusion. "Is it me or is there a nerd talking to me directly?" she asked, causing Lana to laugh.

Caty rolled her eyes. "This is not the time Gabi! The others are in trouble!"

"The others _who_?" Lana asked.

"Never mind. Just…Chris wants to talk to you!"

At that, Lana gave Gabi an excited look. Besides Lana's boyfriend Dalton and Gabi's own boyfriend Jake, Chris was the hottest guy in school. Everyone knew Lana was just dating Dalton so she wouldn't be single. Chris was the guy she was really after.

"He knows I'm dating Jake, right?" Gabi asked.

Was she serious?

"I don't know. Why don't you come set him straight," Caty suggested.

Gabi shrugged. "Go on without me Lana. I'll catch up," she said.

Lana nodded and left.

"Look, I don't know what you think is going on, but just because we have guardian training together after school doesn't mean you can talk to me _during_ school," Gabi snapped, glaring at Caty.

"You're the _last_ person I want to be conversing with," Caty retorted. "A portal opened near the school. Rae, Alyssa, and Ellie went to go close it, and then, because we had a free period in APUSH and Ellie had study hall next, they decided to go through the portal and explore Meridian. They said they'd be back before the end of the period, but they're not and I'm worried."

"So?"

"So…we have to go get them!"

"Why should we? I don't see how it's my problem those three were stupid enough to go through a portal instead of close it like they were supposed to. I certainly don't want to go through and save them if they're in a fight. We're not trained and I'm not ready to die."

"Cara and I will be with you. We _are_ trained," Chris said. "Besides, there's no better way to get stronger than have an actual battle. During a battle, the guardians always unlocked new powers. And we're not even sure if they're in trouble."

"I have a test in my next class," Gabi sighed. "And I don't really want to go." She shrugged and walked out of the room.

"Now what?" Caty asked Chris desperately.

"Now, we go, just the three of us. We can't force her to come and we can't waste more time trying to convince her."

Caty sighed, knowing he was right. The two ran out of the school building, meeting up with Cara once outside. Caty led them to where she remembered the map marked a portal. When they reached it, Chris and Cara let out short yells and transformed. Chris was in his Shagon form, taller, buffer, with a gold mask, black wings, and green clothes. Cara had white wings identical to Chris's, and like Hay Lin said, besides the wings, the only physical difference was that she was a bit taller. But she could practically feel the power radiating from the siblings, and she felt safe.

"Let's go," Chris said, his Shagon voice deeper and gravelly. Almost evil and definitely scary. However, Caty swallowed her feelings of fear and nodded. Cara went through first, Caty following behind. Chris brought up the rear. Before her eyes could even adjust to sights in front of her, Chris grabbed her and he and Cara took up, wanting to find the other guardians as fast as possible.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"It reminds me of a medieval times movie set," Ellie declared as she, Rae, and Alyssa walked around Meridian.

"More like colonial times," Rae corrected.

All around them people walked around wearing dresses or robes and other outfits Rae had seen in her American History textbooks. They looked like the pilgrims. Half of them anyway. The half that looked human.

The other half were like demons. Some looked like ogres. Other looked like beasts none of the girls could describe or think of a word for. At first, Rae tensed when she saw them, afraid they'd have to fight. But they didn't seem to want to hurt anyone. Like the humans, they were going about their daily lives. Rae changed them back to human form anyway, figuring the evil beasts would be less likely to attack if they thought the three girls were normal humans.

All the stores were small. The whole town was like a huge farmer's market and none of the stores were actual buildings. Most of the people didn't look happy. Rae figured that had something to do with the Dark Prince Hay Lin and the Oracle told them about. The one who dethroned Elyon and named himself king and ruler of Meridian.

The girls had gone to a clothing shop to buy new outfits. They didn't have any money, but the man at the store noticed the twine around Rae's neck. Well, he wasn't really a man. He was more like an ogre with green skin, and three bones showing on one side of his head. If he counted his age in human years, he was about two years older than Hay Lin.

"Could it be?" he asked. "Are you girls the new Guardians of the Veil?"

"You know about the guardians?" Ellie asked. Rae wished Ellie would show some caution when she spoke.

"Everyone knows about the guardians," the green man said. "But I was friends with the original guardians. My name is Aldarn."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Rae asked wearily.

"Ask me something only a friend of the guardians would know!"

"Who did the old Keeper marry?" Ellie asked.

"Ellie, _we_ don't even know the answer to that," Alyssa said.

"Oh yeah."

"Full names and elements of all the guardians," Rae demanded.

"Will Vandom, quintessence," Aldarn said. "Irma Lair, water, Taranee Cook, fire, Cornelia Hale, Earth, and Hay Lin, air."

"Old Regents of Earth," Rae went on.

"Matt Olsen, also known as Shagon, Cornelia's cat Napoleon, and Matt's mouse Huggles."

"Air guardian before Hay Lin."

"Her grandmother, Yan Lin."

"Okay," Rae decided finally. "You pass for now."

Aldarn smiled. "My wife runs this store. For guardians, the clothes are free."

"Thanks!" Ellie cried happily, picking out a dress.

Rae and Alyssa picked out some outfits as well and got dressed so they could blend in. Aldarn pulled down the blinds as soon as they were done.

"What are you doing?" Rae asked.

"Closing the store. You're the guardians, meaning you need to meet the rebel leader."

"You can take us to him?" Alyssa asked.

Aldarn nodded. "He was leader of the rebel army when Phobos was in power as well, and I was and am his best friend and second-in-command."

"What's his name?" Ellie asked as the girls followed Aldarn.

"Caleb Hart," Aldarn replied. "He's the bravest and kindest man I know. He lives close by with his wife and kids."

"How old was he when you guys fought Phobos?" Rae wanted to know.

"He was just fifteen then. So was I."

"Was his wife part of the rebellion too?" Alyssa asked.

"She is now," Aldarn said. "But back then, she was a guardian."

"Which one?" Ellie asked excitedly.

"The Earth guardian, Cornelia. She's known as Cornelia Hart now. At first, she and Caleb went back and forth from Earth to Meridian to see each other, but that got tiring. Caleb lived on Earth for years, but his father got sick six years ago, so he went home to be with him. After his father died, he didn't feel right leaving Meridian, so Cornelia and their kids moved to Meridian. Cornelia and Queen Elyon are best friends, so she didn't mind much."

"Do you have any idea where Queen Elyon could be?" Rae asked.

"No," Aldarn said sadly. "The Dark Prince captured not only Elyon, but her whole family. Her husband and her kids. Only her oldest daughter managed to escape. She's best friends with Caleb and Cornelia's oldest son, so she's staying with them."

"What can you tell us about the Dark Prince?" Alyssa asked.

"Not much. I know his name is Kasson and he has a family. That's about it. Cornelia has been trying for weeks to get to Kandrakar to ask the Oracle, but she's had no luck so far." Aldarn paused for a minute. "I'm sorry, I don't know if you understood any of that. How much of your history do you know?"

"Enough to understand that," Rae assured him. "We were in Kandrakar a couple of days ago. Hay Lin is our teacher and she and the Oracle were discussing the Dark Prince-Prince Kasson I mean- while we showed the Oracle our powers, but they didn't tell us much about him."

"You should definitely ask Hay Lin to fill you in," Aldarn said. "How does she expect you to fight Kasson if she won't even tell you about him?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Rae agreed. She thought it was odd that no one told them more about the Dark Prince. It wasn't until they got to Meridian that they even found out his name, and judging by the look on Hay Lin's face while she was talking to the Oracle, she knew Kasson's whole life story. Why wouldn't she tell them?

"Anyway, Cornelia will be happy to meet the new guardians. Her powers started getting weaker a few months ago. Elyon suggested new guardians might have been chosen, but before they could go to Kandrakar to find out, she was dethroned. After that Cornelia's powers got even weaker and she was worried it had something to do with Kasson. But now our saviors are here!"

The girls exchanged looks. Saviors? Sure they were guardians and of course they knew their training was to prepare them for battle, but they were nowhere near powerful enough to be considered saviors.

"Here we are!" Aldarn declared. They had come to a large house. Most of the houses here were huts or teepees. Some were log cabins like the house in front of them.

Aldarn knocked on the door. A man with a mess of brown hair and forest green eyes wearing a long coat opened the door. He was tall and had an impressive build.

"Aldarn! How are you? I thought you were running the shop Gem?"

"I was. I closed up early. I wanted to introduce you and Cornelia to some people." He stepped aside to reveal the girls.

"Okay. Hi?" Caleb said questioningly.

"I think they'll be invaluable members of the rebel army," Aldarn said.

"Come in then," Caleb said.

The girls followed Aldarn in. Sitting at the table was a tall woman with blond hair and and sky blue eyes. She was cradling a baby in her arms. He looked about a year old. She wore glasses and her hair was short, shoulder length, now, but the girls still recognized her.

"That's her! The previous Earth guardian!" Ellie cried excitedly.

Rae slapped her hand to her forehead. Ellie had no tact! She and Alyssa were so different. How were they best friends?

"You know she is a guardian?" Caleb asked in surprise.

"Um, what do you mean _previous_?" Cornelia asked suspiciously at the same time.

Ellie, Alyssa, and Rae all looked at each other, then at Aldarn. He smiled and nodded encouragingly. Rae stepped forward and showed Cornelia the Heart.

She gasped. "How do you have the heart?" she asked, getting up to get a closer look. At the same time, Caleb took the baby from her arms and put him down in a gorgeous crib.

"Well…it chose me," Rae answered. "I'm the new Keeper."

"AKA leader," Ellie piped up.

"Guardian of Quintessence," Alyssa recalled.

Cornelia looked amazed. "If Will isn't leader anymore then that means I'm not…"

"A guardian anymore. Yeah," Caleb finished for her. He put an arm on her shoulder. "We knew this would come eventually."

"I know. It still hurts," Cornelia said sadly.

At this, all the girls looked at each other until Caleb broke the silence. "So if you're the Keeper," he said to Rae, "where are the rest of you?"

"Right here! We're guardians too!" Ellie cried excitedly.

"God Ellie, shut _up_!" Rae cried. Alyssa frowned and Ellie looked like she was just slapped in the face.

"Why?" she asked softly.

"Because we are in a strange new land and we've yet to get our bearings. We just met three random people we don't know and you're volunteering information left and right."

"But Cornelia was a guardian and Hay Lin said she married Caleb."

"Because Hay Lin is such a reliable source!"

"Wait, you know Hay Lin?" Cornelia interrupted.

"I didn't know you had such big trust issues," Ellie said, ignoring the previous Earth guardian.

"Can you _blame_ me?" Rae asked. "Our mentor, who we've known for four days and who tried to give as much information as she could told us less about Prince Kasson than Aldarn, who we knew for all of two minutes before he told us the Dark Prince's name. It doesn't seem strange to you that this normally talkative person who is _supposed_ to be our friend and protector is keeping things from us?"

"Well of _course_ it's strange," Ellie said. "But I still trust her."

"You can't go around trusting everyone. What if Prince Kasson came up to you and told you _he_ was Caleb and was married to Cornelia and was asking about the guardians? Would you just tell him everything, trusting he was who he said he was? Hay Lin gave us information we can use to test everyone and we should use it!"

Ellie looked at Alyssa helplessly.

"I think she's right," Alyssa shrugged, giving her former best friend an apologetic look.

"Fine. But that doesn't mean these people aren't Caleb and Cornelia."

"It doesn't mean they are either!" Rae shot back.

"Hold on," Aldarn interjected. "You tested me and I passed. You trust me. Would I lead you into a trap?"

Ellie smirked at Rae, but Rae had an answer.

"No," she agreed. "Not willingly. But we don't know if you're under mind control or not. I mean, Hay Lin said a lot of their enemies had powers like that. Or, even if you aren't, that doesn't mean you haven't been fooled into thinking these guys are the real Caleb and Cornelia. Can you honestly tell me you haven't been controlled or fooled before?"

Aldarn opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. She was right. He had been both hypnotized and mind controlled before. One of their enemies even got him to believe an imposter was Caleb. He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Carry on," he said.

Now Rae smirked at Ellie, then turned to Caleb. "Okay, if you're really Caleb then…where did the guardians go to school?

"Sheffield Institute."

"And did you join them there?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"For a few months a year after they became guardians. Then, a couple of months into the next year, I attended until my graduation."

"And what did you do while you waited for Cornelia to graduate?"

"I worked at The Silver Dragon while I was on Earth, but I also spent a lot of time in Meridian, protecting Queen Elyon's palace while she was in school and doing reconnaissance for the guardians. "

"And what was your extra circular activity in Sheffield?"

"I joined a band called Wreck 55 as their drummer. But after all the members of band graduated, they wanted to go on tour and stuff and I just didn't love it as much so I quit and their old drummer rejoined."

"Okay, good enough," Rae approved, then turned to Cornelia. "Why were you chosen as the Earth guardian?"

"It's not a sure thing, but most likely because my little sister was the Heart of Earth."

"You guys made a video for the next generation of guardians. In the video, what did you tell the new guardian of Earth to do?"

"Embrace the fact that she doesn't just make things grow, but she gives things life."

"And what did you warn her about?"

"I said she was going get another power that has nothing to do with Earth and things could get messy if she doesn't learn to control it. I had that problem once, and it got to the point that I thought my powers betrayed me." She looked at Caleb. "Caleb was the one who helped me restore my faith in them."

"Although you weren't very happy with me at that point in time," Caleb recalled grinning.

"I got over that, didn't I?"

"Only when you thought I had died!"

"No way! You'd already won my forgiveness when you came to the ice skating rink to try and do something I loved to do even though you weren't very good at it. We all know how much you hate doing things you're not good at it. You have such a big ego!"

"Looks who's talking," Caleb muttered. Cornelia was about to retort when the baby started crying. Cornelia went to the crib and picked him up, quieting him down.

"So, did I pass?" Cornelia asked Rae.

Rae nodded. "Sorry I had to do that."

"It's fine. Will was always a little suspicious too and it helped us get out of a lot of scrapes. Looks like you're fitting into your leader role already."

Rae smiled and Ellie could not believe what she was hearing. Rae went into their house and acted incredibly rude and she was getting complimented for it?

"So which one of you is the new Earth guardian?"

"None of us," Rae admitted. "Ellie is air and Alyssa is fire. The water and Earth guardians are still at school. The three of us were supposed to close a portal but then I decided it would be fun if we went through and explored Meridian."

"Did you close the portal from the other side?" Cornelia asked, putting the baby, who was asleep again, down.

"No."

"You should have!" Caleb cried, alarmed. "You don't know how many of Kasson's minions might have gone through the portal. He knows the guardians are powerful. He may not know that there are new guardians, but that means the old guardians have a death sentence. Cornelia is the only one that's safe because he wouldn't expect her to stay in Meridian after he came to power so he thinks she's on Earth as well."

"We should go close that portal," Ellie said.

"We should probably leave," Alyssa said. "I mean, if we don't go back soon, Caty and Gabi will come looking for us."

"Take us to the portal," Cornelia said. "I know how to recognize if anyone went through or not."

Rae nodded.

"Aldarn, can you watch Julian? Just until someone else comes home?"

"Sure Caleb."

"Is Julian your only kid?" Rae asked as the five set off.

"No, we have three others. Our daughters should be home soon, and they can look after Julian."

"He's your youngest?" Alyssa asked.

Cornelia nodded. "He was born a year and a half ago. We named him after Caleb's father."

"Oh right. We heard about your father. I'm sorry," Rae said.

"Thanks," Caleb nodded gruffly.

"You knew my father," Alyssa piped up.

"Who's your father?"

"Nigel Ashcroft. My full name is Alyssa Ashcroft."

Cornelia and Caleb exchanged shocked looks before looking back at her. "Who…who's your mother?" Cornelia asked slowly, wondering if Nigel married his high school girlfriend.

"Taranee Cook."

"So Taranee married Nigel and had a kid," Cornelia mused, sounding sad that she didn't know this.

"Two kids actually. I have an eleven-year-old brother named John."

"Taranee always said if she had a son, she'd name him John. But she always wanted to name her daughter Joy."

"My dad liked Alyssa and she allowed it. Joy is my middle name though."

"So if Taranne's your mother, that's why you're the fire guardian," Caleb realized.

"Yeah. I was chosen for continuity of spirit, like Hay Lin."

"How do you know Hay Lin?" Cornelia asked.

"She owns The Silver Dragon and just about everyone in Heatherfield eats there," Ellie said.

"And I used to be friends with her son."

"Hay Lin has kids?" Cornelia asked.

"Yup, two. Her son Chris is 16 like us and her daughter Cara is 14."

"Who did she marry?"

"Eric Lyndon."

"Wow."

"If you don't know who she married or that she had kids, you must not know about their powers," Alyssa said.

"Powers?" Caleb asked.

"The new Heart of Earth is the new Earth guardian's step sister. Just like your sister gave her powers to regents, Chris got Eva, the new Heart of Earth, to do that too. He, Cara, and Eric are the new Regents of Earth."

Caleb and Cornelia's mouths dropped open. Cornelia knew Lillian lost her powers a few months ago, meaning a new Earth guardian was chosen, and the new Heart of Earth would be someone close to her, but she never imagined her old friend's children would be the new Regents.

"I know you and the other guardians fell out of touch once you started college," Rae said, "but you really didn't know who your old friends married and if they had kids? Weren't you on Earth til six years ago?"

"Well yes, but we never really kept tabs on each other," Cornelia said. "They probably don't know whether or not I married Caleb and if I have kids or not. They probably don't even know I live in Meridian now. They never would've expected me to move here, that's for sure." She paused. "Do you know who Will and Irma married and how they are?"

Rae shook her head. "No. We only know about Hay Lin because she was the one with the Heart and she found us when all five of us were at The Silver Dragon a few days ago. And Taranee because she's Alyssa's mom. Speaking of mothers…you know mine. Silena Shane."

"Your mother is Silena Shane?!" Ellie cried as Cornelia smiled at Silena's name.

"Yeah, but don't tell anyone. Alyssa and Caty are the only other ones who know."

Ellie nodded, still shocked.

"I just talked to Silena yesterday. The last time I saw her in person was two and half months ago, with Elyon."

"My mom has all these pictures with the three of you," Rae said.

"We're good friends. So _you're_ little Rachel. The last time I saw you, you were five years old."

"I'm sixteen now and I go by Rae."

"Silena told me that," Cornelia nodded. "And how is your father?"

"You know my dad?"

"Of course! Frank was Elyon's best friend from UCLA and she brought him along when she flew to New York for the summer. That's how he and your mother met. I guess it didn't work out." Cornelia grimaced.

"Clearly. But he's good too. He works in Delaware."

"Wait. Your father's name is Frank, he works in Delaware and your last name in Dylan?" Ellie asked.

Rae cringed, knowing where this was going, but nodded anyway.

"Your dad is Frank Dylan?"

Rae nodded.

Ellie stared at her phone. "He invented this…he invented all the phones that everyone in school has. And all the computers and tablets we all own."

"Yes, yes, he did all that. But you can't tell anyone that either. Not even Caty knows who my father is."

"But if you told Gabi, you'd be in with the popular crowd."

"Ellie, Rae doesn't want to be popular, remember. Gabi already offered her a…that thing, she does…the invitation or something?" Alyssa said.

"A special audition?"

"Yeah, that. And Rae turned it down."

Ellie sighed and shook her head. She just didn't understand Rachel Dylan.

Finally, the five made it to the portal and saw a shocking sight. Chris and Cara, in their Regent forms, were fighting off horrible looking monsters. Chris seemed to be holding his own and Cara was getting help by a boy who looked like a younger version of Caleb. He didn't seem to have any power because he was using a sword. In one corner was a completely human, completely defenseless, completely terrified Caty, pressed against a rock as three monsters carrying clubs closed in on her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"This place is like colonial America," Caty commented when Chris finally put her down. He and Cara had flown to a specific destination, then changed back into their human forms.

"The people here like to live like this," Cara shrugged. "Of course things were a lot better before Queen Elyon got captured. For example, most of stores and food carts weren't broken and barely working and the people didn't have to pay taxes to breathe."

"The Dark Prince wants the people to pay taxes? For what reason?" Caty asked.

"Why do evil people do anything?" Cara shrugged. "Besides, don't all evil people want money?"

"I think what she means is, what is the Dark Prince's final plan? If it was just to dethrone Elyon and rule Meridian, he's done that already and he doesn't need to make people pay taxes," Chris said.

"Well I thought it was to assert authority," Cara said. "Because besides demanding the taxes, and having his army patrol the streets every now and then to thwart or wipe out rebellion forces and plans, he hasn't really done anything. Even the broken stores and stuff are just because of his army being dumb, not intentionally brutal."

"This guy seems clever. He has to have a bigger plan in place if he's more powerful than your queen, but hasn't done anything to your people," Caty mused.

"That's part of your mission," Cara said. "To figure out what Prince Kasson wants."

"Kasson? Is that the Dark Prince's name?" Caty asked.

Chris nodded. "Didn't Mom tell you?"

"No. She and the Oracle just called him the Dark Prince, told us he was dangerous, that he dethroned Elyon and captured her whole family, and he was our enemy."

"We don't know too much about what he wants, but there's a lot of information Mom has about his family that's important," Chris said. "I wonder why she didn't tell you."

"I don't know, but I'm going to ask," Caty said. How could she feel in control if she didn't have any of the information?

"So where do you think the others went?" Cara asked.

"I'm not sure. I don't know any of them very well. But I feel really out of place here. Can we do something about that?" Caty asked.

"It's because our clothes don't match what the others are wearing," Chris said. "That's why we landed here. Our friend Aldarn and his wife Gem run this shop. It's a clothing store. I didn't expect it to be closed."

"Friend? How many times have you been here?"

"Too many to count. Our mother took us once when we were little and we met Caleb and Cornelia's kids," Cara said.

"I thought the old guardians were out of touch with each other."

"They are," Chris confirmed. "Caleb and Cornelia were visiting Queen Elyon in Meridian by coincidence on the same day. We met their kids but didn't know who their parents were right away. Our mother would take us every few months, and about six years ago, we saw Caleb and Cornelia's kids again. That was the second time we met them and they told us who they were and explained that Caleb and Cornelia had moved to Meridian. After that, the two of us went to Meridian twice a week during the school year and every day during the summer."

"For six years?"

"Yup."

"But how?"

"The Heart. Most of it's powers are just for guardians, specifically the keeper, but not portals. It opens and closes portals for anyone touched by magic."

"Touched by magic?"

"Yeah. Like guardians, sorcerers, human hearts like Eva, regents of magical beings like Regents of Earth."

"But you guys only recently became regents."

"Children of previous guardians count too," Cara said. "But we can only open and close portals. Folds are only under the Keeper's jurisdiction."

Caty nodded as she looked around. She squealed, jumped back in fright, and knocked Chris down, landing on top of him.

Cara began to laugh.

"I'm so sorry!" Caty cried, jumping up and offering Chris her hand.

"It's alright," he grunted. He took her hand. "What scared you so bad?"

"That! What is it?" Caty replied, nodding at a monster. It had brown skin, brown eyes, wore a helmet, and was carrying a sword.

"Half of Meridian is inhabited by humans, like Queen Elyon's husband King Drake, or Caleb. The other half is inhabited by creatures like him or Aldarn and Gem."

"Is he dangerous?"

"To his enemies," Cara said. "But this one is walking around, minding his own business, so he must be on our side. But we better stay hidden. We don't fit in here, and Kasson's minions probably look exactly like Meridian's inhabitants, meaning we won't know if they're the enemy or not, but they'll know we're not from Meridian the minute they set eyes on us."

"Not if you change your outfits," a female voice said. The trio turned around to see a female creature. She had cadet blue skin and a warm smile.

"Gem! Good to see you!" Chris said as the woman hugged him and Cara.

"Why is the shop closed?" Cara asked.

Gem shrugged. "I asked Aldarn to watch it as I went to buy some more materials. I don't know why he left." She looked at Caty. "And who might you be?"

Caty was petrified at the sight of this woman and words escaped her.

"This is Caty. She's…" Chris looked around and lowered his voice to a whisper. "One of the guardians. The guardian of water."

Gem looked shocked. "So the new guardians have been chosen at last. That must be why Cornelia's powers have been dwindling."

"Have you maybe seen my friends?" Caty asked in a whisper, still terrified. "They're guardians too."

"I'm afraid not, unless they managed to buy clothes before Aldarn closed the shop," Gem said.

"It occurs to me that maybe Aldarn closed the shop _because_ of them," Chris realized. "Alyssa's super smart, she'd definitely think of finding a place to get clothes to fit in here. This place is closest to the portal if they went in the same direction as us, and they probably did since going in the other direction clearly leads to wasteland. If Aldarn realized they were guardians, he would've taken them to see Cornelia and Caleb."

Caty looked at Chris with a newfound appreciation. She'd always liked Chris. He was hot and all the girls liked him, but he never seemed interested in the shallow girls. He was also talented and kind, and smart, but she didn't he was _this_ smart. She sighed. Chris could definitely be a good crush. Too bad she was stuck trying to make Brian fall in love with her.

"In that case, you should head there too," Gem said. She handed Cara some clothes. "After you put these on."

"Thanks," Chris said as the three switched clothes in change rooms.

"Hey look," Caty said as she came out. "Those are Alyssa's converse." She pointed to a pair of white sneakers covered with paint. "She told me how she splatter painted those a few years ago."

"There are a lot of clothes here," Cara commented.

"That black and white striped sweater looks familiar," Chris said.

"It's Rae's! She was wearing it today!" Caty recalled.

"Then they definitely must've been here," Chris said. He added his clothes to the pile and Cara and Caty followed suit. "We'll get these back after we find the others. Let's go!"

The girls nodded and followed Chris. They didn't get far when a male voice cried, "Chris!"

Caty turned and was relieved to see the voice belonged to a human. A _hot_ human.

"Josh, hey!" Chris cried, a smile breaking out on his face.

Josh had a mess of longish brown hair and forest green eyes. He had a seriously impressive build-tall, strong, but not overly buff. He could rival Jake Saunders in good looks. He could rival Chris and Dalton Drew as well and she knew that one third of the girls in school were into Jake, another third were into Chris, and the last third were into Dalton. If Josh attended their school, all three would lose fan girls.

"Josh, hi!" Cara cried. Josh pulled Cara into a hug and slapped high fives with Chris. He looked at Caty and smiled.

"New friend?" he asked Chris, still looking at Caty.

"New guardian," Chris replied in a low voice.

Josh turned to look at him with wide eyes. "Seriously?"

"Water," was Chris's reply.

"Cool."

"Um, thanks. Who are you?"

"Josh Hart. My mother was a guardian."

"Cornelia?"

"Yeah."

"This is Cornelia and Caleb's oldest son. He's seventeen, but if he attended school, he'd be a junior like us. He's third in command in the rebel army."

"At seventeen?"

"My father was the leader of the rebel army at fifteen," Josh said.

"Oh right!"

Two girls came up behind Josh-both human. One had long dirty blond hair pulled into a loose ponytail and blue green eyes. The other had the same brown hair as Josh, long, and piled into a bun, and sky blue eyes. She was startlingly pretty.

"Jilly! Jules!" Cara squealed.

"Cara!" the girls squealed back in unison. They three hugged and Chris gave the two girls a hug too.

"Caty, these are my sisters Jillian-"

"Jilly," the dirty blond interrupted.

"-and Julia," Josh finished. "They're fourteen like Cara, and twins. Jilly, Julia, this is Caty, the new…" he lowered his voice. "Guardian of water."

"Whoa," the girls breathed.

"Okay, someone want to tell me why everyone whispers when they say the word…" Caty lowered her voice to a whisper as well and said, "guardian?"

"Kasson is looking for the guardians. He wants to hunt them down. The longer he is unaware the Heart chose new the guardians the better," Chris explained.

"But if he doesn't know about us," Caty said, "he'll go after Hay Lin and Cornelia and the new guardians, who don't have powers anymore."

"Mom has all of us to protect her," Chris said.

"And my sisters and I were raised to be warriors. Together with our dad, we can protect our mother. Plus, Kasson thinks all the guardians are on Earth, so my mother is safe."

"What about the other guardians?"

"Well we don't know where they all are, but maybe Will married Matt, one of the old Regents," Chris suggested.

"Operative word being _old_. Even if he did marry Will, he got his powers from Lillian, not Eva. And Lillian doesn't have any powers anymore, meaning neither does he. He can't protect her."

"Well it's better he hunts them down than the new guardians. You guys can actually stop him, so you need to stay safe," Josh reasoned.

"Easy for you to say," Cara said. "Your mother is safe. You know I never believed we could protect Mom. What if Kasson attacks while we're at school? And besides, Kasson was strong enough to take down Elyon and her entire family. What makes you think his minions will be easy to take down? Especially if he attacks while we're at school and Mom only has Dad to protect her? Kasson wants to kill them!"

"We're wasting time arguing about this," Chris said. "The faster we find the others, the faster we can get out of here. We don't want to risk running into enemies."

"Enemies?" Caty squeaked. "Please let's get out of here!"

Chris nodded and the six headed to Cornelia and Caleb's house. When they arrived, they were surprised to find Aldarn watching Cornelia and Caleb's youngest child, Julian.

Aldarn explained to them what happened and where everyone else went. Julia and Jilly agreed to watch Julian so Aldarn could go back to Gem. Josh decided to accompany Chris, Cara, and Caty back to the portal, where Cornelia, Caleb, and the other guardians were headed. To make things faster, Chris and Cara changed into their regent forms, and flew Josh and Caty to the portal.

"It was nice meeting you Josh," Caty said.

"You too," Josh replied. "And Chris, Cara, I'll be seeing you guys soon?"

"Definitely," Chris said. He and Josh clasped hands and did that awkward boy hug Caty never understood, and Josh pulled Cara into a real hug. He also gave Caty a hug.

Josh turned to leave. The others planned to wait for the rest of the guardians. Suddenly, they heard a ferocious yell and saw monster charging toward them.

"Whoa!" Chris cried as he and Cara ducked.

Josh reacted quickly, taking out his sword and jumping in front of Caty, the person the monster seemed to be after.

Several more monster joined the attack. Chris and Cara sprang into action, taking flight. Cara used her speed to confuse the enemies and strength to hurt them. Chris shot lasers from his eyes and used his flight to dodge their blows.

Josh fought off the other monsters. All three were fighting to kill, though some of the monsters just ended up knocked out. Caty felt so helpless. As one monster came after her, she used the water from a nearby puddle to throw him back. There was enough water to stall him for a bit, but not enough to do any actual damage.

Caty had started to learn to produce water from thin air, but couldn't do it in human form. Then she thought of something. Cornelia said Earth was everywhere, but so water. There was even water in the air!

Caty ducked a monster tried to hit her with a bat, then climbed up on a rock. Concentrating hard, she raised her arm up and willed water from the clouds to come down to her. For a few moments, nothing happened.

"You know, I think it'd be more prudent for you to hide than stand there looking like an idiot," Josh told her after ten minutes of fighting off monsters that were clearly after her. For that reason, Caty didn't snap at him for being rude.

"I'm trying to use my powers!"

"In human form? After only five days? Good luck!"

"Thank you for the vote of confidence," Caty muttered. After five more minutes, she groaned and threw her arm to the side in exasperation. A blast of water hit both monsters coming after her. They cried out and fell.

"Nice shot!" Josh complimented.

"Thanks," Caty smiled. "Too bad I have no idea how I did it."

"Think you can figure it out?" Josh asked as her cut off a monster's head.

Caty nodded even though she had no idea how to do it again. Water was supposed to be her element and she could barely even control that!

Caty tried to call upon the water again as Josh continued slicing off heads and cutting monsters in half. Cara and Chris were teaming up nicely. They knew what the other was going to do before they did it. Just as Caty began to feel safe, she blasted another jet of water, but this time by her feet instead of at the monster she was aiming for. She squealed as the water forced her to slip off the rock. She tried to get up, but she fell back down immediately. She was no doctor, but she could tell her ankle was sprained. She was going to be of much use.

Luckily there didn't seem to be too many monsters near her. Chris was still winning against the monsters he was fighting against, but there seemed to be too many surrounding Cara for her to fight on her own.

Josh ran over to help her. Caty ran her fingers across her ankle and pain shot through her. Maybe she was wrong about the sprain. Maybe it was broken.

Suddenly she heard a roar and was horrified to see three monsters with clubs closing in on her. Caty whimpered and pressed herself against the rock, not having any clue as to how to get out of this one. Just as she was sure she was done for, she heard a familiar voice yell, "Guardians, unite!"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So, thoughts? I really hope this chapter was more interesting than the last one. I tried my best, so please review and tell me what you think. Thanks so much guys! Love you all! **


	8. Introducing Team GRACE

**A/N: Chapter eight guys! I honestly did not think I would get this far. Thank you guys so much for your continued support. I would appreciate more of you, like some of my followers, reviewing, but follows are good too. **

**Quick note: I don't want to keep apologizing for long waits for my chapters so here's the deal: I WILL UPDATE ONCE A WEEK, USUALLY ON TUESDAYS. That way I have a time limit (I work well under pressure), but it's a week long time limit, so I won't feel pressured and I won't feel bad if I don't get a chapter out in two days. **

**Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, but first, shout outs!**

**Misa: I got chapter seven out before you reviewed chapter six, so I'll respond to both reviews. For chapter six: I actually don't like **_**Heart of Darkness**_** that much. I found it boring. **_**Things Fall Apart**_**, the book the girls are reading in honors English is one of my favorite books. I read it junior year for IB English, and used it for every essay I ever had to do, like Misha said she did with **_**Heart of Darkness**_**. I have a plan for Alyssa and Taranee that involves Taranee finding out Alyssa disobeyed her and continued with the guardian stuff. You'll see how that turns out in the next couple of chapters. I'm so glad you liked chapter seven so much. It seems to be my most popular chapter yet, even though I personally like chapter one the best. I liked introducing all the characters. I do have a plan to reunite the guardians, and you'll see why they fell out of touch with each other. I loved Cornelia and Elyon's relationship, and I couldn't bring myself to destroy their friendship. I always loved Aldarn! You'll definitely learn more about the old guardians' lives, I just don't know how soon. Yes, Josh is modelled after Caleb, and you'll see more parallels between him and Caleb in the next chapter. You'll see more tension between Ellie and Rae and between Gabi and the others in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

**SilvenArrow: I'm glad you liked it. I had fun writing the chapter, truth be told. I usually have fun with this story though! You will definitely be seeing more of Josh! I love Cara's sarcasm too. That's actually a trait of mine, I'm so sarcastic! I realized it could get confusing, I didn't even realize all their names started with 'C' until I wrote out Chris, Cara, and Caty last chapter. Ooops! Super speed is a good power, but it doesn't make you invincible. If you're running at lightning fast speeds and someone manages to knock you down, it'll hit you harder than if you were moving at normal pace. And running too fast can cause you to make mistakes. And yeah, since these girls a little older, I figured they'd understand they need to kill. Otherwise, Kasson would be too powerful, if all his minions were just knocked out and ran back to him. Hope you enjoy this chapter as much you enjoyed the last one!**

**Emily: You are sitting next to me, reading what I wrote of the next chapter, so it's really weird typing out this shout-out to you. Yeah, I was so embarrassed as I re-read the chapter and you pointed all the mistakes out. Thank God you're my beta! There's a lot in this chapter I wanted to put in but couldn't. That happens to me too often. Of course you forgot. That's class you!**

**Shay: Yes I tried to make Caleb and Cornelia act like their old selves. Good catch on King Drake, I was wondering if anyone would catch that. Yes, Elyon married Caleb's friend and fellow rebel. As for the acronyms, there were a lot, but here are the ones I remember: MAGIC (Melanie, Allie, Gabrielle, Isabella, and Catherine), FAIRY (Francesca, Allie, Isabella, Rae, and Yolanda), BLAST (Breanna, Lina, Alicia, Sara, and Tarren), STORY (Sara, Tareen, Orianna, Rae, and Yolanda), and PIXIE (Piper, Ivy, Xahria, Isabelle, Ellie). Every acronym that had 'Rae' as character always made her the new girl and Keeper, and ever acronym that had 'Gabrielle' as a character had her as the popular girl and Earth guardian. Other than that, I hadn't decided powers, except for PIXIE but that was originally the acronym I was going to use before I thought of GRACE. Gabi was Piper, Rae was Ivy, Alyssa was Xahria, Caty was Isabelle, and Ellie was still Ellie. I chose to use GRACE because I wanted to use both Rae and Gabrielle as characters and liked the other names I thought of for GRACE. It was also the only acronym that I thought of in which I could use both Rae and Gabi, not just one. I'll go back in my outlines where I wrote out my character bios to see if I forgot any. Hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: No college wasn't the only thing that separated them. There was some drama there that'll eventually come out. It didn't affect Cornelia and Elyon's relationship, but it did have an effect on Elyon's friendship with the other guardians which is why the others guardians aren't friends with each other or Elyon. I rewatched the first couple episodes of W.I.T.C.H. before writing this chapter to remind myself of their mishaps, and realized they did get a handle on their powers pretty quickly and had to make up some mishaps of my own. I'm not very good at humor, but hopefully you like what I came up with anyway. Thanks for the review, and enjoy!**

**Taylor: I'm glad you liked it. Aldarn was one of my favorite characters too. I re-watched the first few episodes of W.I.T.C.H. to help me with this chapter and there was this hilarious moment in the third episode I believe, where Aldarn tries to use the Earth lingo Caleb teaches him to ask Cornelia out, but uses it wrong. It reminded me why I love him so much. I hope you like this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Gaurdians, unite!" Rae yelled, filling Caty with relief.

"The Heart!" she heard Rae yell, making Caty want to state her power.

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Air!"

When Caty changed, she saw the monsters looked stunned for a moment. She quickly blasted water at them. She wasn't sure if it would work, but to her immense delight, it did. It didn't do much damage, but startled the monsters enough to give her time to fly away and join the others. She didn't notice before, but she realized now the areas of Meridian they were close to seemed like a ghost town. She guessed everyone who couldn't fight had run away.

She immediately realized her ankle didn't hurt anymore. How did it heal? She decided not to dwell on it or question her luck.

"Who are they?" she asked as she saw a brunette man and a blonde girl join the battle with swords.

"Caleb and Cornelia," Rae replied. "Who's that?" She nodded at Josh.

"Josh Hart, Caleb and Cornelia's oldest son."

"Uh, their _hot_ oldest son," Ellie commented, making Caty laugh.

"That's what I thought too."

"Not the time guys," Rae cautioned. "What should we do?"

"My element won't do much and these guys don't go down easily. The others are killing them. That's what we have to do too," Caty said.

"_Kill_? I can't kill anyone, even monsters like that!" Ellie cried.

"Your element won't do much killing either," Rae said. "Lyssa, you have the strongest element. You need to use it."

Alyssa, who already looked terrified enough being so high up in the air, paled, but nodded.

"Okay," she whispered. She concentrated hard and sent a huge fire blast toward the monsters. To everyone's delight, it was a lot of fire and it hit its mark perfectly. One of the monsters died and the other three were too burned to get up.

"Whoa!" Alyssa cried. The fire blast was so powerful, she was sent tumbling back.

"Alyssa!" Rae cried. Luckily, Alyssa resumed flapping her wings quickly and stayed in the air. At the same time, Caty grabbed Rae's arm and pulled her out of the way of a monster's boomerang.

"I understand you're the leader and you feel responsible for all of us," she said, "but watch yourself. We've got your back, but you need to take care of yourself too."

Rae nodded. "Thanks," she said.

Alyssa had flown back to them. "Okay, now what?" she asked.

"Can you do that fire blast thing again?" Caty asked.

"I doubt it. I didn't mean to do it the first time."

"Try anyway," Caty said.

"You guys too," Rae said. "Just because your elements won't kill them doesn't mean you shouldn't fight."

Caty nodded as Alyssa summoned a ball of fire. She aimed it at a monster, but before she could send the ball charging at the monster, it fell.

"Ooops!" Alyssa squealed as it hit the ground and exploded.

"Hey! Watch it! You guys are worse than the old guardians!" Caleb yelled.

"Hey!" Cornelia cried indignantly, then thrust a sword through the stomach of a monster.

"Maybe it'll work better if we get closer," Caty suggested, even though she dreaded the idea. Clearly Ellie did too, but Rae and Alyssa immediately flew down to join the others. Caty and Ellie had no other choice.

Josh ducked under the sword of one monster, then kicked his feet, knocking him down. He rolled over to avoid another, then jumped on his shoulder, flipped onto the shoulder of a bigger monster, and stabled him in the head. He jumped off the monster as it went down, cutting off the head of another monster.

"Whoa," Ellie said, impressed.

"I know," Caty agreed.

A monster charged toward Rae. Alyssa shot a blast of fire at his sword. It got too hot for him to hold onto and he let go. It melted. The monster looked lost without its weapon, giving Chris enough time to blast him with a laser.

The girls all cheered, excited that it actually worked.

"Celebrate later," Caleb warned as he took out another monster.

"There's too many!" Cornelia cried. "Where did Kasson get all these forces?"

"They must've come from his world, wherever that is," Caleb grunted. "I don't recognize a lot of these guys. Only a few of them are Meridian inhabitants that switched sides."

A monster charged for Ellie. She screamed. Caty shot a blast of water at it. The water did loops in the air and looked like it was going to miss, but met its mark just before the monster got to Ellie.

"Yes!" Caty cheered.

Two monsters charged at Rae from either side of her. Thinking quickly, she flew up, causing the monsters to knock into each other and fall down, unconscious.

"Oooh, you're gonna need to put some ice on that," Rae teased. "Who says I need powers to defend myself?"

Alyssa tried another fire blast at a monster, and it did loops in the air like Caty's water blast. Unfortunately, it didn't hit anyone. Caty's next water blast knocked her back and also didn't hit anyone.

"I thought I had a handle on this," she muttered to herself.

Ellie was flying around a huge monster with a club with thorns for an arm, trying to confuse it. It kept grunting, trying to catch her with his normal arm (though even his normal arm wasn't really normal), but Ellie was too quick for it. However, she was getting tired, and Caty could see she had no plan. She moved closer and saw a huge puddle near the monster.

"Ellie, get back!" Caty yelled, hoping her plan would work.

Ellie flew back instantly, before she could even register which guardian had spoken. Caty used the water from the puddle to drench the monster.

"El, remember what Irma said about ice? Use that information!"

Ellie nodded, took a deep breath, and blew on the monster. As Caty hoped, the monster was covered in ice and frozen. The girls exchanged high fives and looked around to see where else they could help.

"Whoa!" Rae yelled as she bumped into a wall. She flapped her wings, and somehow flew backwards into another wall. "Ow!"

"What's she doing? Why is she fooling around?" Caelb growled out.

"She's not! She's just can't fly very well," Alyssa explained as she threw a fireball at another monster. It went awry and nearly hit Josh.

"You have the most dangerous element," Caleb said as Josh looked back for moment before cutting off another monster's head. "If you can't control it, don't use it."

"I'm also the one who can do the most damage," Alyssa bit back. She threw another fireball and this time, it hit a monster, killing it. "See?"

Caleb rolled his eyes, clearly not impressed.

Caty flew up to get a better view and saw, to her delight and relief, saw the monsters' numbers were dwindling. They were winning. She watched the fight for a little longer, trying to come up with an idea. Rae joined her.

"Tired of crashing?" Caty teased.

Rae gave her a sardonic smile. "Caleb told me I'm a danger magnet. He's not really too happy with Alyssa either. Her every other fireball keeps missing, and he doesn't really see Ellie's usefulness if she's not going to attack."

"Well Keeper, do you have a plan?" Caty asked.

Rae watched the battle for a few seconds before replying, "Yeah."

Caty was surprised, but smiled. "Well, don't keep me in suspense!"

"Okay, look. When Alyssa's fireballs hit, it does a lot of damage. One always dies, and at least two or three more get burned. The same thing happens with Chris's lasers when he fires in a circle from above the monsters. And Josh and Caleb can slice through several all at once. What we need to do is round them up and get them in one spot, then have Alyssa and Chris to fire at the same time while Caleb and Josh charge in and slice their way through."

"While Alyssa and Chris fire? Isn't that dangerous?"

"That's where you and Ellie come in."

"What can we do?"

"You need to go with Josh and shield him with a water shield while he slices thorough monsters. His sword can cut through the water and still get the monsters, but Alyssa's fire and Chris's lasers can't pierce through. And as long as Ellie sticks close to Caleb, she should be able to use her powers to slow some of the monsters down. She's gotten pretty good at using air as telekinesis."

"Okay, sounds good. How do we round them up?"

"Leave that to us. Cornelia, Cara, and I will take care of it. I'll explain the plan to them, you explain it to the others."

Caty nodded and two of them flew down to the battlefield. As Caty explained the plan, she could not see not everyone was in agreement. Alyssa and Ellie seemed fine with it and Chris seemed happy Rae was getting her bearings as leader, but Caleb and Josh seemed uneasy. Looking over at Rae, Caty saw Cara was in agreement with the plan, but Cornelia's expression matched the ones her husband and son wore.

"For this plan to work," Caleb said, slicing a monster in half, "your powers would need to be reliable. Based on your track record and experience, we don't know if you and Ellie could provide us with shields."

Caty threw water at a monster and missed completely.

"See what I mean? We can't really trust Alyssa to hit the monsters either, especially since you need her to throw fireball after fireball."

Chris seemed to understand but Caty stood her ground.

"We really don't have much of a choice, do we?" she challenged. "Trying to take them out one by one is taking too long and all of the guys that we knocked unconscious will wake up soon. A few already did. This is our best chance, unless you have another idea?"

Chris and Ellie looked surprised. Neither knew Caty very well, and although they knew she was feisty and stood up for herself, they also knew she didn't talk to grown ups the way she just did.

Caleb sighed, knowing she was right. "Fine. But the minute it seems like this isn't working, I want you girls to get out of here. With your attacks going awry you may be doing more harm than good."

Caty bit her lip to keep from screaming at Caleb and nodded. She sent another water blast at a monster. It stalled him temporarily and Chris finished him off. Caleb ran over to Cornelia, Cara, and Rae to finalize the plan. In a few seconds, he waved his arm at the other group.

"He's ready. What the first step?" Josh asked.

"Uh…" Caty wasn't sure. Were they supposed to just charge?

Luckily, Rae stepped in. "Josh, Caleb, get back. Caty, Ellie, stay with them. Chris, Alyssa, get in the air!" she yelled. "Cara, now!"

Cara started zipping around with her super speed, trying to gather the monsters. Rae flew around and Cornelia ran around, also trying to the herd the monsters.

"Ellie, help out where you can!" Rae called. "Everyone else, get ready!"

Ellie nodded and started using her air to blow monsters to the rest of the group when they started to stray. Caleb and Josh got ready with their swords, Alyssa and Chris flew atop the monsters, and Alyssa began to create a fireball.

Oh yeah. They were supposed to get the monsters together first. Caty felt stupid. This is why she wasn't chosen as leader. This is probably why she wouldn't win debate team captain either.

It only took a few minutes for the girls to get the monsters together. In the meantime, Caty began using water all around her to create a dome around herself and Josh.

Rae flew up high, and satisfied yelled, "Now guys!"

Immediately, Chris started shooting lasers. Alyssa shot a fireball at the monsters and it was successful. Smiling, she did it again.

Caty and Josh charged into the crowd, Caty making sure her water dome stayed around them. As Rae predicted, whenever a laser or fireball hit the dome, the dome protected them. At the same time, Josh was able to pierce his sword through the water to slice through monsters. Caleb was doing the same thing on the other side while Ellie used her powers to blow away weapons. Whenever she used air to blow away some of Alyssa's fire that came towards them, she managed to blow it at the face of a monster.

Soon, most of the monsters were dead, a few were unconscious and couple lay groaning on the ground. As the monsters became fewer in number, most of the fighters stopped working as hard, except Alyssa who seemed to get a good handle on her powers for the time being. She thrust her arms out, first the left one, then the right one, over and over again, shooting a circle of fire each time. She was like a machine.

"We did it!" Ellie cried once not a single monster was left standing.

"And you doubted my plan," Rae said to Caleb smugly.

Caleb shrugged. "I can admit when I'm wrong."

"No you can't!" Cornelia cried. She looked at Rae. "No he can't."

Rae laughed and said, "Guys, we really need to head back, like now."

Everyone else nodded, but before anyone could go through the portal, they heard a female voice yelling, "Josh!"

Josh whirled around to face a gorgeous girl of about seventeen. She had long, honey blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was tall and her facial features looked familiar to Caty, but she couldn't place them.

"Princess Sage," Chris and Cara said at the same time, bowing.

_Princess_?

Sage rolled her eyes. "You guys have _got_ to stop doing that," she insisted as the siblings rose. "Just because I said you don't have to bow to me doesn't mean you can do it mockingly now."

Cara and Chris laughed and both gave Sage a hug.

"Sage!" Josh cried. "Where _were_ you all day?"

"I…I went to the palace."

"_What?!" _Cornelia cried, alarmed. "Sage, are you crazy? What would I have done if something happened to you?"

"I'm sorry, I just…that's my home!"

"The palace is your home?" Ellie butt in. The other guardians glared at her, trying to tell her she wasn't part of this conversation, but Ellie continued to look at Sage.

"This is Sage," Josh said finally. "She's my best friend, and Queen Elyon's oldest daughter."

So that's why Caty recognized her. She looked like her mother!

"But I thought Queen Elyon's entire family was captured," Alyssa said.

"Everyone except me," Sage said.

"Why does no one tell us anything?" Rae complained. "We really need to talk to Hay Lin."

"Wait, who are you guys?" Sage asked. "And…what happened here?"

Josh explained the girls were the new guardians and told Sage about the battle they'd been in.

"If only I'd gotten here sooner," Sage muttered.

"You can fight too?" Rae asked.

"Sage can do a lot of damage with a sword," Caleb said proudly, leading Caty to guess he'd been the one to train her. "And she has magic more powerful than her mother."

Sage blushed.

"Sage is currently staying with us," Josh piped up. "My mother is her god mother, just like Elyon is my godmother, and her husband Kind Drake is my sisters' god father."

"Sage's god father is your father Rae," Cornelia spoke up.

"M-my father?" Rae asked, awed. "He knows about Meridian?"

"Yes. Remember he and Elyon were best friends. They still are, and she told him a few months before she got married so he could attend the wedding. He came to Meridian for the wedding, when Sage was born, and he was here for a few of her birthdays."

"He never told me."

"Probably for the same reason my mom never told me she was a guardian," Alyssa said.

"Does my mom know about Meridian too? She has to right, since she was closer with you and Elyon than my dad?"

"Yes, she knows. She's Julian's god mother and the god mother of Elyon's youngest son."

"Wow."

"Does your mother know about your being a guardian?"

"No way! She'd freak! She's totally overprotective!"

"You're probably right about that," Cornelia laughed. "But do me a favor. If she finds out, don't mention Elyon getting captured. She'd just get more freaked out."

"Yeah, okay," Rae agreed, wondering how many more things her parents didn't tell her.

"We should really go," Alyssa said.

"I was thinking," Caleb said, "none of you can defend yourself and you know nothing about Kasson. I know that part isn't your fault, but still, you need help."

"That's what we're here for," Chris said. "Cara and I are regents."

"When we faced Nerissa, we needed the guardians and the regents. When we faced Phobos, we needed the guardians and an entire rebel army. All our other enemies required even more people," Cornelia said. "And Kasson is more powerful than all our old enemies. You need more help than Chris and Cara."

"So what are you saying?" Rae asked.

Cornelia and Caleb looked at each other. Caleb nodded and Cornelia sighed.

"What I'm saying is, I think Josh should go to Earth with you guys."

"Really?" Josh looked really excited at this prospect. So did Cara and Chris. They obviously wanted their friend on Earth with them, and Caty guessed Josh always wanted to go to Earth.

"Me too!" Sage cried. "My mom always had such a good time on Earth, I have to go visit it!"

"It may be more helpful to have Sage on their side as well," Cornelia agreed.

"Besides, she's the princess, she doesn't need permission," Cara muttered, making Sage giggle.

'She sure seems happy for someone whose entire family is in danger,' Caty thought.

"Do Josh and Sage have a place to stay?" Cornelia asked.

"I can ask my mom," Rae offered. "We have a huge house, I'm sure she won't mind."

"And if her mother says no, mine will probably say yes," Caty said.

"Okay. Then you two should go home and pack. Guardians, go through and keep the portal open until they cross through," Caleb said.

Josh and Sage nodded.

"Here, we'll make the trip faster," Chris said. He and Cara flew Josh and Sage back to Caleb and Cornelia's house. The couple followed after, and the girls went through the portal.

"So, where exactly is Gabi?" Ellie asked once they were all through.

"She refused to come with us," Caty replied. "She said she didn't want to and walked away."

"Big surprise," Rae said sarcastically. "You know what actually _is_ a big surprise? The fact that _both_ my parents knew Cornelia and Elyon and about Meridian and never told me."

"They didn't think they would need to," Caty said. "I mean, Alyssa's mom should've had an inkling that maybe her daughter would be a guardian, but your parents would never think you'd be chosen. They may know about Meridian, but they have no magic or anything themselves."

"But how could they just keep such a big secret from me?"

"For the same reason my parents kept it from me. It's scary and dangerous," Alyssa said. "They don't want their kids to be in danger if they don't have to be."

Caty took out her phone and checked the time. "If we head back to school right now, we can make our last two classes."

"I can't leave, I have to close the portal," Rae said.

"Technically, you can't come back anyway," Alyssa said, showing Rae the text Caty sent her two hours ago.

"Stomach bug?"

"It's the best I could do on short notice. You're the one who said you needed to go the nurse!" Caty defended.

"Only because I couldn't think of anything else."

"Ellie said bathroom. You could've said that."

"If she said that, then she would've currently been in the bathroom for two hours, and most people would think she had a stomach bug anyway," Alyssa pointed out.

"Is this how it's going to be all the time?" Ellie wondered. "Making up excuses to rush out of classes and fight evil?"

"Hay Lin said that's what they did in her day," Alyssa shrugged.

"Though I don't really know how I feel about trusting Hay Lin right about now," Rae said.

"Ditto!" Caty agreed. "I mean, she didn't tell us anything about Kasson. She didn't even tell us his name!"

Suddenly a beep was heard and Ellie took out her phone. "Adam's wondering where I am," she sighed.

"Is he still into you?" Alyssa asked.

"Even more so," Ellie replied.

Alyssa laughed. "He's certainly persistent. I can't imagine liking the same boy my entire life."

"You know for a couple years there I was scared to date because I didn't want to hurt him," Ellie sighed.

"But you had a boyfriend last year," Caty pointed out. "Carter Hall."

"Adam figured out why I turned people down when they asked me out, and accepted on my behalf when Carter asked."

Ellie's phone beeped again. "I should text him back," she muttered.

Caty, suddenly remembering something. "Hey, Rae…who's Harvey?"

"Harvey? He's my driver," Rae said, surprised.

"You have a driver?"

"Well duh!" Ellie butt in. "Her mother _is_ Silena Shane, and her father is Frank Dylan."

"Your father is Frank Dylan?!" Caty cried.

"Ellie!" Rae exclaimed.

"Ooops. Sorry. I'm honestly not that good at secrets."

"You mean at _keeping_ secrets," Caty corrected. "It doesn't make sense to say you're not good at secrets because you can't be good or bad at something that's not a verb."

Ellie just blinked. "And you wonder why Gabi calls you a nerd," she said.

Caty rolled her eyes and Rae asked another question.

"How do you know that name? Harvey I mean. Before today, Alyssa was the only who knew I had a driver."

"When I told Jake you were the nurse's office waiting for you mother to pick you up, he asked wouldn't Harvey be the one picking you up," Caty said.

"Jake? Not again," Rae muttered. First he knew where she lived and now he knew she had a driver? And he knew his name? How did Jake find out all this information?

"What did you say?" Alyssa asked Ellie, referring to the text she sent Adam.

"I told him I didn't feel well and went home."

"You're going to ditch the rest of the day?" Caty asked.

"Well considering I'm not as rule obsessed as you, yeah."

"But think about all the information you'll miss," Alyssa protested. "Think of all the information I already missed!"

"As if you didn't read the entire textbook for every class already," Rae teased. "But maybe you and Caty should head back to class. Ellie and I will wait here for everyone else."

Alyssa nodded, eager to get back to class.

Rae changed the girls back. Caty immediately squealed in pain and fell.

"Caty! What's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

"My ankle. I…I hurt it when I fell off a rock just before you guys arrived at the battle site. When we changed into guardians, the pain was gone, but now it's back."

"Is it broken?" Rae asked.

"No, but I don't think it's just a sprain like I originally thought either."

"Let's get you to the nurse," Alyssa said, helping Caty up. She grinned. "Guess there's no way I'm going back to class now."

She and Caty left.

Rae looked at Ellie, glad they were alone. She had something she wanted to discuss with the air guardian.

"You don't like me, do you?" she asked.

"What?" Ellie squeaked. "What would make you say that?"

"Don't play dumb Ellie, I know you don't like me. I just can't figure out why."

"There is no why. I don't dislike you," Ellie insisted.

"Seriously, don't lie. You're not going to convince me otherwise. You're a good actress, no doubt, but I can always tell when people don't like me. And you didn't always dislike me. At first, you were just afraid of me."

Ellie just stared. How did Rae know this?"

"Which also makes no sense," Rae went on. "I'm shorter and skinnier and probably weaker than you. I'm not at all intimidating. There's no reason for you to be scared of me."

"I had a dream," Ellie said. "You were in it. Before I knew you. I had the dream for three months. Then I had a more detailed dream of all of us battling some scary monster in Meridian, and even though I could hear everything in the dream, every time someone said your name, I couldn't hear it. And then I saw you the next day."

"The dreams you had at first…what were they like?" Rae asked.

"Um, they were like still images of us, in guardian form, hovering by Elyon's castle. The dreary, post-Kasson version. And we were surrounding by different colored glows, the same colors as the bubbles that surround us when we transform. Pink for you, gray for me, blue for Caty, green for Gabi, and orange for Lyssa. And I could see all of our faces."

"Alyssa had the same dream," Rae said. "We think it's a vision."

"Lyssa doesn't believe in visions," Ellie said automatically.

"After all the guardian stuff, I'd say she's ready to believe in anything," Rae replied.

"I guess. Lyssa's really logical person usually."

Rae narrowed her eyes at Ellie. "You and Alyssa were best friends at one point, right?"

Ellie nodded, wondering why Rae asked her that.

"I think I get it now."

"Get what?"

"Never mind," Rae said. Ellie called Alyssa by her nickname and blurted out facts about her all the time. Clearly she was jealous. She didn't like Rae because she wanted to reconnect with Alyssa, but Alyssa had filled Ellie's old spot as her best friend with Rae. But she knew she should wait for Ellie to tell her that herself.

"I know you don't like me," Rae said again. "And when you're ready to talk about why and work it out, I'm listening."

Ellie wanted to say more, but the Lyndons came out of the portal just then, followed by Josh and Sage, and Ellie realized the conversation was over. Rae closed the portal as Chris and Cara changed back into their human forms. When Chris and Cara heard Rae couldn't go back to school and Ellie wasn't going to go back, they suggested they head to The Silver Dragon to tell Hay Lin what happened and wait for the others to join them for guardian training.

Everyone agreed and headed over to Hay Lin's restaurant, but Rae had to admit she was a little nervous. Yes she was mad at Hay Lin for withholding information, and wanted to yell at her, but she was also worried about what Hay Lin would say to her when she realized the guardian leader had put her team in danger by going into a random portal instead of closing it like she was supposed to. Was she a bad leader? They all could've died today. Maybe this guardian thing wasn't for her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Breanna coughed loudly as Gabi and Jae continued to make out in front of Gabi's locker. They'd been at this for almost ten minutes now, and it got uncomfortable after the first thirty seconds. Gabi and Jake didn't seem to care about Bree's comfort though.

"Aww, they're so cute," Stephanie cooed as she and some of the cheerleaders joined Bree.

"Cute or puke worthy," Bree replied.

"Someone's jealous," Lana taunted. Just as she said it, Dalton Drew walked up to her and smiled. Lana started her own make our session, breaking Bree's heart.

She wasn't jealous of Gabi. She was happy for her best friend. Gabi never had real feelings for anyone besides Jake and Bree was happy she finally got Jake. And even though they'd only been together for two weeks, Bree was confident Jake would actually be faithful to Gabi.

However, Bree was jealous of Lana. Dalton Drew was Bree's first crush. She started to like him when they started second grade together. It was the only year she and Gabi weren't in the same class, and she and Dalton had become friends. Even though she'd liked and dated many boys since then, she'd always come back to Dalton. She was so excited when school started and she'd heard Lana had broken up with Dalton. She finally had her chance! But then Lana had gotten bored of being single and had gotten back with Dalton. And she didn't even really like him! Everyone knew Lana had her eye on Chris Lyndon. So why did she have to take the boy Bree was in love with?

Bree sighed and looked back at Gabi and Jake, who still hadn't broken apart. She shifted uncomfortably and coughed again. Gabi finally pulled away and looked surprised to see half of the squad staring back at her. Gabi was oblivious to everything else when she was with Jake.

"So, are we hanging out this afternoon?"

"I have practice," Gabi said.

"Me too, for lacrosse. But after?"

"I can't. I have to, um…I have stuff to do…"

Jake looked around and noticed Lana was listening to their conversation. He grabbed Gabi's arm and led her away. "Extra cheer practice?"

"Yup."

"This will end soon, right?"

"I don't know," Gabi said, biting her lip. Gabi usually didn't have a problem lying, except when it came to Luc or Bree. She was always completely honest with Luc and even if she didn't tell Bree the whole truth about something, she never lied to her. Ever since she started dating Jake, he was added to list of people she hated lying to. Lately, she'd been lying to both Jake and Bree and she hated herself.

She had no idea what to say to Jake or Bree. Jake and Gabi planned to hang out every day after their practices, except Thursdays, which was the day the entire cheer squad went shopping after practice. And she and Jake were supposed to go out every Saturday night and Fridays had been Gabi's sleepover day with Bree, Lana, and Kelli since the foursome were eight years old. And Bree and Gabi spent all day together Sundays since before she could remember. But lately, none of that was happening.

Every day after practice, she had guardian training. Hay Lin made them stay late Fridays and Saturdays, and they started at 3 on Sundays, meaning Gabi had to ditch Bree half way through. So she told Bree and Jake she was getting some extra training in with some senior girls on the varsity team so she could make sure she'd get picked to be on varsity over Lana, and that they had to keep this a secret, and that's why she couldn't hang out with them much.

"I mean, the girls I'm training with say I might need to do this even after I'm on the varsity team to keep my spot. Because if I slip up and Lana impresses them, they can replace me. And you know how important being on varsity is to me. It's like you getting on the varsity team for soccer as a junior. You don't want to be stuck in JV or else your soccer scholarship won't come through. I need my cheerleading scholarship too."

"I know Gabs," Jake said, "but I never see you anymore. We hung out all summer, even before we started dating, and now I feel like you don't want to be around me."

Gabi wanted to burst into tears. She'd held out for years, saying no every time Jake asked her out because she knew he wasn't serious. Even though she didn't want to appear vulnerable, she told him point black this year when he asked her out that she wasn't going to be another play thing for Jake to mess around with and he assured her that wasn't the case, that he actually liked Gabi, and she'd finally agreed to go out with him. She was in love with this boy and the last thing she wanted was to lose him because he felt neglected. But she needed to keep training to get more powerful.

"Of course I want to be around you. We've been friends since kindergarten. Why would I suddenly decide you're not worth my time? You're worth it above everyone."

"Except Luc?"

"You can't be jealous of my brother!"

"I'm not," Jake assured her. "But I know you'd ditch extra cheer practice for him. And I understand why, he _is_ your brother. But why won't you ditch just once for me?"

"How about this? I'll ditch Saturday and we can go out like we're supposed to."

Jake smiled. "Sounds good to me. I gotta go, Coach Hansen's been on our case about being late." He gave her a final kiss and rushed off.

Gabi headed back over to the other girls. Bree looked ready to cry as she watched Lana and Dalton.

Gabi glared at the sight, walked over to Dalton, and cleared her throat. She raised her eyebrow when he looked at her and he got the message: scram.

"Um, I gotta go. Lacrosse practice," Dalton murmered. "Bye Lana." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek, smiled at Bree, and left.

"Okay, you've got three minutes to change," Gabi said to the other girls. They all headed to the locker rooms.

"Bree, Dalton has been one of your best friends for years," Gabi said to her best friend. "Why don't you just tell him you like him? I'm sure he doesn't actually like Lana."

And Gabi knew this was true. This summer she had confronted him at Kelli's beginning of summer party and he told her he liked Bree, but she didn't seem interested, so he wanted to see if he could make her jealous and he thought Lana would be the one that would make Bree the most jealous, which was true.

Gabi knew Bree liked Dalton and wanted to tell him so, but Bree had sworn her to secrecy, and Gabi took girl code very seriously, so she just smiled, and said it was a good idea. He asked if she had any advice so she told him to keep dating Lana and wait for her to break up with him. Once she did, Bree would make her move.

She knew Lana would break up with Dalton before school started to try and get Chris Lyndon to ask her out. She'd always been after Chris. Chris was smart, cute, had the attention of one third of the Sheffield girls, and played sports, but he chose not to run in the popular circle, so Lana didn't have much chance of trying to get him to like her over the summer.

Gabi thought Bree would've started flirting with Dalton by now, but she waited too long, and now Lana was making a power play. She was clearly hoping dating Dalton would make Chris jealous (which Gabi didn't understand at all-Chris and Lana didn't even hang around each other and Gabi doubted Chris would care who Lana dated), but she also knew dating Dalton was the perfect way to get to Bree, and if she couldn't get to Gabi, she'd go after Bree. Gabi wasn't about to let her best friend get attacked by her arch nemesis.

"You always said any guy that goes out with a girl he doesn't actually like isn't good enough for girls like us," Bree accused.

"I did say that, didn't I? Well, Jake always went out with girls he didn't really like, and now I'm dating him."

"You said it was okay because Jake had commitment issues and you wouldn't date him til you were sure he'd commit to you. But Dalton doesn't have commitment issues and you always said it was pathetic to go after a guy who dated a girl he didn't really like if he didn't have a commitment problem."

"Dalton's different. He's a good guy and you like him, and I bet he likes you too."

"How do you know?"

Gabi paused. She wanted to tell Bree about her conversation with Dalton over the summer, but she couldn't. Dalton made her promise not to tell Bree. He didn't want Bree to ask him out because she felt pressured.

"I can just tell."

"Not good enough Gabs," Bree replied. "So how's Michael?"

Gabi smiled. "Good. He's not coming home til Thanksgiving though."

"Wow, twelve weeks! He's usually only away for seven."

Gabi nodded. Michael was Gabi and Luc's older brother. He was 21 and in his last year of college at Penn State. He was always overprotective of Gabi, and really sweet to her. He was extremely popular when he was still at Sheffield and all of Gabi's friends had a crush on him. He helped Gabi and her friends buy alcohol for their parties and he was the coolest guy anyone at Sheffield knew. Gabi adored Michael, but he didn't want to come home unless he absolutely had to since he liked Sienna just about as much as Gabi. Of course, if Gabi or Luc called him and asked him to come home, he'd drop everything to be there.

"I miss him so much Bree! But if he has a way to get away from the step-monster, he should take it."

"I personally think he should come home more so you two won't have to deal with her on your own," Bree said.

"Michael's done so much and given up so much to be there for us after Mom died, and even before. He deserves to stay at school if he wants to," Gabi insisted. "Besides, the extra practices are keeping me busy."

"Yeah are those going to be over soon?" Bree asked. "Because I miss you, and Jake does too. He told me so himself. Which by the way is amazing. He's never missed a girl he was dating before."

"I know!" Gabi squealed. She only squealed and got excited over Jake in front of Bree. She could vulnerable in front of Bree. "He told me as much today. But I swear I'm going to make time for you guys. I told Jake I'd ditch Saturday so we could go out. I'll try and ditch Sunday to hang out with you. If not this week, then next week for sure."

Bree nodded, satisfied and Gabi smiled. Then she turned away and chewed on her lip. She hoped she got noticeably stronger soon because she didn't know how much longer she could lie to Bree and Jake. But she also couldn't tell them about being a guardian, at least not until she was powerful enough to control it. They had so many mishaps already and the last thing she wanted to do was accidentally hurt her best friend or boyfriend. But hiding a huge part of her from them was pretty high on the 'last thing she wanted to do' list as well.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Look who actually decided to show up," Rae said biting when Gabi got to The Silver Dragon that day.

Gabi put her stuff down and glared at Rae. "Hey I got held up at cheerleading. It's no different from the drama freak getting held up at rehearsal yesterday. And she was an hour late! I'm only late by fifteen minutes. And Little Miss Perfect isn't even here yet!"

"That's not what I'm talking about," Rae replied, frustrated. She hated that Gabi still used degrading nicknames, but she was getting tired of telling her to stop. "Where were you today when Alyssa, Ellie, and I were in Meridian? Why didn't you come after us with Caty and the Lyndons?"

"I didn't want to."

"That's not okay. We're supposed to be a team Gabi," Rae said.

"Remember what Hay Lin said?" Alyssa said. "The guardians are always stronger together. We could've used your help today."

"I'm assuming you actually got in a fight?"

"Tons of monsters," Ellie confirmed.

"Well I didn't want to engage in a battle, so I didn't come," Gabi shrugged. "You getting attacked was your own fault. It's your job to _close_ the portal, not go through it!"

"That's very true Gabi," Hay Lin said, coming to join them in the basement. "You should not have gone through a portal. Most of them lead to Meridian, but some of them may lead to other worlds that are far more dangerous. If you wanted to go to Meridian, you should've told me and I would've helped you open up a portal to take you."

"See?" Gabi said smugly.

"Be that as it may," Hay Lin continued, her voice taking on a stern tone the girls had never heard before, "you are in the wrong here too Gabi. You should have been there. The guardians are always stronger together and there is no excuse whatsoever for not going along with Caty and my kids."

"See?" Alyssa said smugly.

"What kind of mother actually _wants_ her kids to go to a strange new world and fight evil monsters and princes and put their lives at risk?" Gabi bit out, ignoring Alyssa. Hay Lin looked a bit hurt.

"Clearly not my kind of mother," Alyssa muttered. "You know my mom actually wanted me to stop being a guardian?"

"What? You never told us that!" a new voice said. Gabi saw Caty coming down the stairs with a cast on her foot.

"Didn't seem important to mention since I'm not going to listen to her," Alyssa replied. "I only wish my mother was more like Hay Lin." She shot Gabi a glare and Gabi just rolled her eyes, but Hay Lin seemed to perk up.

"How's your leg? What did the doctor say?" Rae asked.

"Fracture," Caty said.

"Caty slipped," Rae informed Gabi. "And fractured her ankle. Alyssa took her to the nurse and she called an ambulance to take her to the emergency room. Another reason you should've been there today."

"To be fair guys," Caty said, "I honestly don't think Gabi could've prevented my fracture."

"Whatever the case, there is no reason to skip out on your guardian duties and not join the other girls when you go to Meridian," Hay Lin said. "That being said, there is also no reason for you to go through a random portal that opens up. Next time, just close it."

Before anyone could say anything else, Chris and Cara came downstairs.

"Caty, how's your foot?" Cara asked.

"Fine. It's just a fracture."

"Does this mean Caty can't train?" Ellie asked.

"Actually, no. That's the beauty of being a guardian," Hay Lin said. "Whatever injuries you have in your human form go away when you're in your guardian form and don't bother you again until you change back."

"What about injuries we get in guardian form?" Alyssa asked. "Will those go away when we become human again?"

"Unfortunately, no. Injuries you incur in your guardian form will still be there in your human form."

"Hey, where are Josh and Sage?" Rae asked Chris.

"Dad's making them chocolate milkshakes."

Rae and Ellie laughed. Caty and Alyssa looked confused.

"Apparently milkshakes don't exist in Meridian and Mr. Lyndon made us some when we got here and Josh and Sage pretty much fell in love," Rae explained.

At this, Alyssa and Caty began to laugh too. Only Gabi was confused.

"Who are Josh and Sage?"

The girls explained to Gabi what happened in Meridian. Just as Rae was telling her how Caty's ankle hurt as soon she changed them back once they passed through the portal, Josh came downstairs, followed by Sage. They were carrying their milkshakes.

Gabi almost passed out at the sight of Josh. He was almost as hot as Jake and that was saying something. Wow. If she didn't already have the perfect boyfriend…

But who was that girl with him? She was supermodel gorgeous! Tall, bright blue eyes, thick, wavy, honey blond hair that reached past her waist.

"Hi," Gabi said immediately, causing Josh and Sage, who were headed in Chris's direction, to turn towards her. "I'm Gabi Shay."

"Oh, you must be the guardian of Earth!" Sage said. "I'm Sage."

"Princess Sage," Cara coughed.

"_Cara_!" Sage whined. Cara just grinned.

"Princess?" Gabi repeated.

"Queen Elyon is my mother," Sage said. "I was the only person in the family to not get captured."

She was a princess? Good thing she was dating Jake because she'd have no chance with Josh if he hung around with a princess.

"And you are?" she asked Josh, smiling flirtatiously. She didn't mean to make her smile flirty. It just came out that way naturally when she talked to hot boys.

"Josh Hart," Josh said. "My parents are Caleb and Cornelia."

"Cornelia's the old Earth guardian," Gabi said. "And Caleb was…uh…"

"He led the rebel army," Caty said, rolling her eyes. "You only listen to Hay Lin when she's talking about your powers, don't you?"

Everyone laughed and Gabi huffed before going back to Josh and Sage. "So are you two dating?"

Sage went bright red. "What?" she squeaked.

Josh just laughed, completely at ease. "We get that a lot, but no. We're just friends. Best friends."

Gabi smirked. More like Josh thought they were best friends and Sage was in love with him. Gabi always had fun playing matchmaker. Maybe she should set Sage and Josh up. She didn't have any interest in him as long as she had Jake and Josh and Sage looked really good together.

"So where are you guys staying?"

"Oooh, when Caleb stayed on Earth, he used to stay here!" Hay Lin offered.

"In the _basement_?" Caty asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "He made it work. He stayed here for years."

"Well, we have an extra guest room, so one of you can stay with me," Caty said. "But only for a few months. My mom is four months pregnant and the guest room will be the baby's nursery."

"Doesn't that mean your parents will start turning the guest room into a nursery soon?" Alyssa asked.

"Oh yeah. Good point," Caty said.

"Your mom is pregnant?" Gabi butt in. "She sure waited a while after she had you to have another kid!"

"Well my mom's only 32," Caty mumbled.

"Your mom had you when she was sixteen?" Gabi asked.

"Not exactly," Caty mumbled.

"Then what exactly happened?" Gabi asked.

Alyssa, realizing Caty looked ready to burst into tears quickly interjected, "How is this at all relevant? We need to figure out where Josh and Sage are staying."

She looked at Rae. "Rae, did you ask your mom yet?"

Rae nodded. "We have a big house, and my mom's okay with one of you staying."

"Well, one of you can stay at my house," Gabi said. "We have a big house too."

"My mom would probably prefer Sage to stay with us, as long as your dad wouldn't mind Josh staying with you."

"My dad should be okay with it," Gabi shrugged. "Luc could use the presence of another male for a few months anyway."

"Luc?"

"My little brother. You'll love him. Everyone does."

"Okay, then I'll get Eric to enroll you in school tomorrow and you can start the day after tomorrow!" Hay Lin said, clapping her hands together. "For now, we need to work on team unity. Today, most of the guardians went to Meridian, and one guardian decided not to help out. That's not acceptable. It's all for one and one for all. That means if one of you goes to Meridian, all of you follow."

"Look, I never asked to be on a team with a drama freak, a nerd, a friendless loser, and the annoying new girl," Gabi complained.

Ellie and Caty bristled at the names while Alyssa just raised her eyebrow. She wasn't a friendless loser anymore. Rae just rolled her eyes. 'Annoying new girl' was not as insulting as Gabi hoped it would be.

"Look, I know that, except for Rae and Alyssa, none of you are friends. I am aware none of you really want anything to do with each other and you wouldn't interact with one another at all if it weren't for this guardian business, save for Rae and Alyssa. You don't have a lot in common. That being said, I have some news that will help bond you."

"What is it?" Rae asked.

"I figured out what your initials spell."

"Huh?" was Gabi's response.

"See, when my friends and I were guardians, I decided we needed a name. And I thought what better way than to figure out what our initials spelled and use that as our name?"

"Well, what did they spell?" Ellie asked as Caty and Alyssa went over the old guardians' names in their heads, trying to see what they spell.

"W.I.T.C.H.," Hay Lin said proudly.

"Do all guardian groups have names?" Ellie asked.

"No. I named our group, and eventually figured out a name for my grandma's group when I found out the names of the other guardians in her group."

"Was their name as cool as W.I.T.C.H.?" Rae asked.

"I'm afraid not. The guardians in my grandmother's time were Cassidy, the guardian of water, Halinor, the guardian or fire, Yan Lin, which was my grandma's name, who was the guardian of air, Kadma, the guardian of Earth, and Nerissa, the Keeper. If you put their initials together, you pronounce it as-"

"Chicken," Rae realized.

Gabi burst out laughing.

"Please tell us our name is less embarrassing," Caty pleaded it.

"It is. Your initials spell G.R.A.C.E."

The girls, save for Gabi, all smiled at that. G.R.A.C.E. was nice.

"Lame," Gabi snorted, but everyone ignored her.

"That being said, I want you to know the name is symbolic. You guys are G.R.A.C.E. and need to work together with grace in order to defeat the Dark Prince. So today, instead of practicing with your own powers, I want you to combine your powers and see what sort of attacks you can make."

"What about me?" Rae asked. "I still don't have any powers."

"How about we teach you how to fight?" Josh suggested. "Until you get your powers?"

"Sounds good to me," Rae agreed.

"Alright!" Hay Lin said, clapping her hands together. "Let's go!"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E

**A/N: Well, what did you think? Sorry if it was boring, I know it was mostly filler. I had a lot of plans for this chapter that I didn't get to. I didn't want to make it too long, but I can promise the next chapter will be more interesting. Look for an update next Tuesday! And review please! Thanks for reading guys!**


	9. Kasson's History

**A/N: It's Tuesday and I'm here with a new chapter! I'm glad I got this done on time, because this was actually slow going when I sat down to write it (although not as slow as the last chapter, that was hard to get through). This one, I eventually had fun with and I hope you guys had fun reading it! One of my reviewers suggested I use a page break between my author's note and shout-outs, like I do between sections, so I'll do that from now on. **

**Also, huge thank you to my new reviewer razmend, who also added this story to her favorite and alert lists! I will be PM-ing you right after I post this chapter.**

**Without further ado, the shouts outs!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: You stole my computer to review my chapter, so no extra special shout out for you! Although, to be honest, running into the boys' room screaming, 'SAVE ME' was incredibly amusing to watch, which is why none of us went after you. And the boys were scared to death. They still don't know you too well. We'll fix that when the four of us live together next year! Be still my beating heart? Really? You make fun of me every time I say that, so clearly you're mocking me. Another reason I'm not giving you an awesome shout out, whatever that is. Anyway, I know you like this chapter, and I'll bet you're happy to see this, because I know you only read half of it. I actually didn't need to correct, cut out, or add anything from the part you read, so you can start from after the bit about the lockers. And, I used your name just like you asked. Only once, but still. I'll try to use your name in one of the three Scorose stories I'm planning to write after I finish this.**

**Shay: I just realized your name is the last name of one of my characters (Gabi)! Anyway, of course I would answer! I love when readers take an interest in my work. I did remember a couple of other acronyms I played with. I thought about KARMA (Karli, Alicia, Rae, Marina, and Audrey), PEACE (Piper, Elizabeth, Alicia, Caitlin, and Emily), and GUARD (Gwen, Umi, Alicia, Rae, and Diane). I played around with using the initials of the five elements (water-Winnie/Whitney, fire-Francesca/Faye/Felicity, Earth-Emma/Elena, air-Amber/Allie, and quintessence-Quinn). I thought about spelling MAGIC as MAGIK. This was before I thought of Gabrielle, so I used the names Melanie, Alicia, Gemma, Isabelle, and Kaylee. Mel would be the leader, and Alicia would be the mean girl, but I wasn't sure about the others. I even came up with five names I liked and tried to see if they would make a word (Kaila, Sasha, Elizabeth, Caitlin, and Alexa) but no luck. I wondered if I should just use W.I.T.C.H. again and change the names. I played with using Imogen (water), Tarren (fire), Corina (Earth), and Hallie (air), but I couldn't think of anything for 'W' except Will. By the time I thought of a good replacement for Will (Winonna), I'd already decided on G.R.A.C.E., which as I mentioned, I had to use because it incorporated both Rae and Gabrielle, and also gave me Ellie, which is the first name I thought of and the one I stuck with til the end. Also, I'm glad you like the name Piper, because I'm still using it in this story, which you will see by the end of this chapter. And I love how you always seem so excited to read more, even when my chapters aren't that good. I'll be the first to admit that chapter 6 and chapter 8 weren't all that good. Thank you for the review, and I hope you like this chapter! And I hope you don't mind my long response!**

**SilvenArrow: Yes, Rae certainly seems to be stepping into her role of leader quite well, although she doesn't seem to believe it herself. Caleb is just frustrated that the girls are so prone to mess up in a dire situation. I'm sure if they weren't in a battle and showed Caleb their powers, he'd agree they were shaping up nicely for just four days of training. I definitely think Rae will have lot more mishaps with flying! Keep in mind the fact about Josh living on Earth for the majority of his life. It may not be fact for much longer. I had a simple explanation for Jake knowing all this information about Rae, but it seems boring, so I'm going to see if I can make up a more exciting explanation before it comes time to reveal his secret. I was hoping someone would pick up on Carter Hall, and more people picked up on it than I expected. Yes, Carter Hall is a superhero Easter egg for anyone interested. I named him after Hawkman on purpose. You will hear a lot about Prince Kasson in this chapter. I hear you, I was thinking of adding a page break between the author's note and the shout-outs myself, so don't worry about insulting me! I'm usually open to advice on anything! And finally, I hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: It does seem like a lot of people are in on the Meridian secret, doesn't it? But I had plans for both Frank and Silena, so I needed them to know. It'll help with Rae's storyline. In fact, even Eric and Nigel finding out will be explained later on. Well, every group of friends can split apart or fight. You'll find out a little bit more in this chapter, and a little more next chapter. As for Gabi and Jake, I don't know. I'm definitely going to break them up, and at first, it was so that I could get him and Rae together, but now I'm not sure if I'm going to put them together, or let Gabi and Jake get back together, because I kind of like them together, especially with some of the stuff I have planned for them later on. Yeah, the chapter got too long to confront Hay Lin. I didn't expect that, but I didn't want to make your eyes bleed, so I wrote about it in this chapter. This chapter was also longer than expected, but I couldn't skip over it again.**

**Taylor: I'm glad you liked it and I hope you like this one as much. And yes, Carter Hall was an Easter egg for superhero fans because it's Hawkman's alias. Glad you caught that.**

**Misa: Look like you'll be the one with the shortest wait for this chapter, I should get it up in a couple of hours. I'm glad you liked the battle, I tried to make it as interesting as possible because I usually don't like reading or writing battle scenes. I know Rae's plan didn't seem realistic, but it was the best I could do considering I'm also BAD at writing battle scenes. It's true Ellie has no right to be jealous, but she clearly still is. She loves Adam, and she's close with Jade and Milly, but Alyssa was the best friend she ever had. And yes, there is more to the end of their friendship than people think. Their friendship is mentioned in this chapter. Yes, I thought about the girls creating their own name, but couldn't think of any of the characters doing it, except Ellie, who I portray as somewhat airheaded, so I had to make Hay Lin do it. Hope this chapter is to your liking!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie yawned, and Caty followed suit. Alyssa rubbed her eyes and groaned.

"Remind me once again why we're walking to school?" Caty whispered to Rae.

"Because we're showing Josh and Sage the way."

"And remind me again why we can't take your limo," Ellie added.

"Because I don't want Gabi to know I have a limo and driver. It'll only be a matter of time before she figures out who my parents are and I don't need her to be pretend nice to me."

"And remind me again why we had to get up an hour earlier than usual to head to school," Alyssa finished.

"Because Gabi always comes to school early and she was going to take Josh with her, and Sage wanted to walk with Josh," Rae reminded.

The girls sighed. It was Josh and Sage's first day of school. Rae said she'd show Sage the way and Gabi said she's show Josh, but Hay Lin insisted all five girls show the two Meridian inhabitants the way together. Gabi said that was fine, but she always got to school early, so if they wanted her to walk with them, they'd have to go as early as she did. Rae had a sneaking suspicion she didn't expect any of the girls to actually agree, which is why she acted like she was fine with them walking with her.

"Okay," Gabi was saying to Josh and Sage. She was walking ahead of the group with the two of them. "So my driver Carson drives me and my best friend Breanna to school on most days, but Wednesdays and Fridays I like to walk because I don't have cheerleading practice and I need my exercise. On days Luc and the she-devil need to get to school earlier, Carson takes them and my dad drives me."

"But today's Thursday," Josh pointed out.

"I work on the school's literary magazine after school on Fridays, but this week the president of the staff needed to move it to Thursday so my co-captain and I switched cheerleading to tomorrow instead," Gabi said.

"She's on the literary magazine staff?" Rae asked, surprised. It didn't seem like something Gabi would be interested in.

"Yup," Alyssa said. It was the art and lit magazine, ZOOM, and she was on the staff as well.

"She's in newspaper too," Caty piped up. "I think she likes to write."

"Didn't expect that out of a cheerleader," Rae said. "And I guess that's why Jake always complains about me stereotyping."

"He does that to you too?" Ellie asked. "He calls me out for stereotyping all the time."

"I'm surprised something like that bothers him," Alyssa said.

"Which is also stereotyping," Caty pointed out and the four girls laughed.

"Are you gonna try out for cheerleading Sage?" Gabi asked. "You definitely have the hair for it."

"The hair?"

When Sage moved into Rae's house, she was fascinated by the vanity in the upstairs bathroom (which was known as Rae's bathroom) and all the makeup. Rae explained she didn't use most of that stuff, but explained to Sage how to use it all. She also introduced her to a hair straightener that Sage loved. Today, Sage straightened her hair and put it in a high ponytail. She looked more gorgeous than usual, with the perfect amount of makeup.

"Yeah, that high ponytail you're wearing. It's a requirement for girls to wear their hair that way during practice."

"Well, whenever Cornelia sees me practice sparring, she says I'd make a great cheerleader," Sage admitted.

"Well, great. Tryouts are next week, but you can have a special audition for this afternoon," Gabi offered. "That means even if you don't get on the team, you're automatically part of my friend group."

"I'm starting to think those aren't as hard to come by as Gabi makes them out to be," Caty said, rolling her eyes, making the others girls laugh.

Sage smiled. "Thanks, that sounds great. You're so sweet Gabi!"

Rae rolled her eyes. She'd learned in the past two days that Sage was very sweet, albeit a bit naïve. Only someone naïve would think Gabi was sweet. From what Rae saw and the stories Alyssa told her, Gabi wasn't even that nice to people she considered her friends, unless of course, you were talking about Breanna Kramer. Rae learned from Jake that Gabi was a different person in front of Bree.

"So what do you guys know about Earth?" Caty asked. "I mean, I know Sage probably isn't familiar with the customs, though I bet Josh filled you in."

"Me?" Josh asked. "How would I know? Because of my parents?"

"Didn't you live here?" Ellie asked. "On Earth I mean."

"No. I was born on Earth, but my parents moved to Meridian permanently before I even turned a year old. My mom wanted to have all her kids on Earth, so she'd come back to Earth during her seventh month, stay with her parents in her childhood apartment, and have her kids on Earth, and then go back. She did it with my sisters and Julian. During that time, Caleb and I visited her, but we never went out. We just stayed in the apartment, so I never learned any Earth customs."

"But Aldarn told us your mom and dad moved to Meridian six years ago after your grandfather Julian died," Alyssa said. "Why'd he lie?"

"That's the story Mom and Dad told everyone to tell. Mom had a huge fight with the other guardians just before they all started college, but they remained civil because they still had guardian duties. But a year before my mother was pregnant with me, their fight escalated and they all lost touch with each other. The guardians were all about the age of 30 then. My mom and dad moved to Meridian and didn't tell any of the other guardians, and told all of Meridian's inhabitants not tell any of the other old guardians they'd moved either because Mom didn't want the other guardians to find her."

"Why not?" Rae asked.

"Probably because of the fight."

"Pretty lame of her to duck and run," Gabi snorted.

"Don't make fun of his mom!" Sage snapped in what Rae noticed was an un-Sage like way. Usually Sage was really sweet. It seemed like she got protective and fierce when it came to Josh.

"But what if the guardians needed help or something?" Caty asked.

"Well, Elyon would know if the guardians were needed, and I'd like to think Mom had a strong enough sense of duty that she'd go back to her old friends if the guardians were ever needed, but they never were after that," Josh explained.

"See Gabi, duty. It's our _duty_ to be guardians and it was your _duty_ as a guardian to go to Meridian with Caty two days ago," Alyssa said.

"Are we seriously still on that?" Gabi asked, rolling her eyes.

"But now Hay Lin knows where your mother is," Caty pointed out, ignoring Gabi and Alyssa.

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" Sage piped up. "Now you guys are the new guardians, and if the old ones really don't like each other that much, there's no reason for them to go looking for Cornelia."

"Wait where do your grandparents-er, Cornelia's parents-think their daughter is living? And what about Cornelia's sister, Lillian? Where does she think her sister is?" Rae asked.

"Aunt Lillian was the old Heart of Earth," Josh said. "The guardians told Aunt Lillian about her power when she was fifteen, when they were 21. She knows about Meridian, the guardians, Kandrakar everything. Aunt Lillian knows Mom is on Meridian. She was the only one they told. As for my grandparents, they think Mom and Dad are living with us all the way across the country in that state where Elyon went to college."

"California?" Alyssa supplied.

"Yeah, exactly. We take a fold to Earth during Earth holidays to visit them like the one with the tree and the presents, and that one with the big fluffy bunny and chocolate."

"Christmas and Easter," Rae filled in.

"Yeah. Easter is our favorite," Josh said, talking about himself and Sage. "Because of the chocolate. We don't have chocolate in Meridian."

"If the Heart of Kandrakar is on Earth, how do you open folds?" Alyssa asked.

"Mom," Sage said. "She's the only one besides the Keeper of the Heart who can open and close folds. Well, she used to be the only one. Now I can open and close folds too."

"Sage's magic developed a lot faster than Queen Elyon's, and she's the most powerful member of her family," Josh said. "Good thing, since she's going to be queen next year."

"Queen?" Ellie exclaimed.

"But I thought the old queen has to die before a new one is named," Gabi said.

"In Meridian, the rule is, the rightful heir to the throne takes their place as King or Queen once they're thirteen," Sage said. "Mom did. She thought thirteen was too young too, so she changed the rule to eighteen. I'm going to be eighteen next year, so I'll be queen. Mom thinks it's a good idea to have us take the throne when we're eighteen, because that a legal adult here on Earth. And we're young enough that the old King or Queen should still be alive and can help us."

"That does make sense," Alyssa agreed.

The others nodded in agreement, and fell silent for the rest of the walk.

The group got to school very early, just like Gabi wanted. She took a seat on the arm of the stairs to wait for the other cheerleaders, and Sage joined her. Josh stood in front of them.

The other girls looked at each other a bit awkwardly. To them, before school counted as outside of school, and the girls never hung out outside of school. Guardian training, to them, didn't count.

After a few seconds, Ellie said, "Rehearsal."

At the same time, Caty said, "Mock trial."

They looked at each other and hurried inside, going in two different directions even though the other members of drama club and the mock trial team wouldn't show up for another half hour at least.

Alyssa and Rae headed to what they called "their tree." The wannabe populars hung out under the tree, but ever since Rae and Alyssa became friends, Rae joined Alyssa atop the tree. Alyssa would work on sketches, Rae would look over her German notes for the daily quizzes they had (foreign language was the only class the two didn't have together-Alyssa chose to take French, and Rae had chosen German because she already knew French and Spanish was boring), and they'd tell each other how the rest of their day after guardian training went.

It was ten minutes before Bree arrived, greeting Gabi. "Who are your friends?" she asked, looking at Josh and Sage.

"This is Sage. She's staying with Rachel Dylan."

"The new girl who turned down admittance into our group?" Bree asked distastefully.

Rae snorted quietly as Bree's comment reached her ears and Alyssa giggled softly.

"Yeah. But Sage is cool. We're giving her a special audition after school today."

"Oh! Well, hi. I'm Breanna Kramer."

"Sage Martin." She looked at Gabi. "Isn't Ellie's last name Kramer too?"

"My dorky cousin. Don't hold it against me," Bree groaned.

"I like Ellie," Sage said.

"Um…o-kay," Bree said, then turned her attention to Josh.

"This is Josh Hart, Sage's best friend," Gabi said. "He's staying with me."

"Hi Josh," Bree said shyly. Josh was _hot_!

Gabi gave her a look. Bree was not allowed to act shy in front of boys.

"I mean, hey," Bree said carelessly. She looked at Sage again. "How exactly do you know Ellie?"

"Oh, um…"

"Sage and Josh are friends with Chris Lyndon. He probably introduced them to Ellie," Gabi said quickly. "They're friends, right?"

"Uh, no. Chris and Ellie hate each other. Chris said something about 'why would someone who drops someone as awesome as Classless-a be worth my time' or something," Bree replied. "For someone so smart, he sure doesn't know the meaning of awesome."

Alyssa instantly went red after hearing this. She didn't realize Chris thought so highly of her. Rae smiled. She knew she liked Chris for a reason.

"Oh…well…"

"Eric told me about her," Sage said suddenly. "Um, I mean, Mr. Lyndon, Chris's dad. He's the one who got us registered in school, and I chose all these drama and music electives and Mr. Lyndon said to make it easier, the person in charge-"

"Principal," Gabi said quickly.

"-Right, principal, scheduled me with someone named Elizabeth Kramer so I'd have a guide and Mr. Lyndon told me that in front of Chris and Chris said only people with a death wish would call her Elizabeth and told me her nickname."

"Because sympathy and compassion is better than promise of God," Alyssa murmured.

"What?" Rae asked, confused.

"Never mind," Alyssa said. When the two were little, Alyssa told Ellie what the name Elizabeth meant and what the name Ellie meant. She told her she could choose which one she liked better. Before that, she was okay with people calling her Elizabeth, but after she decided she liked the meaning of Ellie better, she wouldn't let anyone call her Elizabeth anymore (except for her mother and father because if they actually remembered her name was Elizabeth and not Emma or Erica, it was a miracle).

"So how come you guys are staying with other people? Where are your parents?" Bree asked.

"They're in California!" Gabi said quickly. "Um, but they used to live here and go to Sheffield so they wanted their kids to go to Sheffield for their last couple of years of high school." As soon as Gabi said it, she realized that was mostly true. Sure, Elyon, Cornelia, and Caleb weren't in California, but they did all go to Sheffield, and they did want their kids to go to Sheffield, if only to protect the guardians.

"Why?" Bree asked, causing Gabi to laugh and Alyssa and Rae to exchange smiles. No one really liked Sheffield even though both Rae and Alyssa knew this was the only school they could attend where they both had a chance of getting accepted to Yale.

"But why are you staying with Rachel and Gabi? How did you know to stay with them?"

"Well, our parents are friends with Mrs. Lin-Lyndon, who owns that restaurant?" Josh said questioningly.

"The Silver Dragon?"

"Yeah! And she said she didn't have any extra rooms so Chris asked if we could stay with Rae because he's friends with her."

"Oh yeah, I did notice he became friends with New Girl," Bree said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, Rae's mom one of us could stay with her, so Chris asked Gabi if I could stay with her."

"Because I have a big house," Gabi added so the story would make more sense.

"Oh, okay," Bree said, seeming to believe them. She sat next to Gabi and smiled flirtatiously at Josh. He immediately went red and Gabi smirked.

Bree and Dalton were both too afraid to make a move. Dalton dating Lana to make Bree jealous didn't work. Maybe if Bree dated Josh to make Dalton jealous, it would give him the courage to ask her out. But what about Sage? Gabi didn't know too much about her, but she already liked her and she already planned to get Josh and Sage together. But maybe she could kill two birds with one stone. Maybe if Bree and Josh started going out, it would give Sage the courage to ask Josh out. But in order for this to work, she'd have to get Sage to admit to Gabi she had a crush on Josh and Gabi would have to talk to Bree and Josh and get them to pretend date.

"We should've prepared their back stories beforehand," Rae sighed, relieved that Bree seemed to be done with her interrogation for the time being.

"Yeah, I agree. None of us thought of that. I should've, or Caty. We're supposed to be the smart ones."

"I'm also one of the smart ones and the leader," Rae said. "I definitely should've thought of it. I don't think I'm cut out to be leader, or a guardian in general."

"What in the world makes you say that?" Alyssa asked, shocked. She had no idea Rae was feeling so down on herself.

"When we were in Meridian, I couldn't do a single thing. I was able to defend myself, but without powers, I couldn't defend the rest of you like you guys were doing for each other."

"It's not your job to protect us."

"I'm the leader. It's practically my _entire _job. I know Hay Lin said that I'll eventually develop powers, but according to her, it took the last Keeper a year before she developed powers. I can barely fly without crashing into something. How can I protect all of you for a year without powers?"

"Rae, as leader, your job isn't to defend us physically. It's to defend us mentally. You're supposed to come up with smart plans that'll get us out of trouble and help us win battles. And if I recall correctly, that's exactly what you did the other day. It was our first ever battle, we were failing miserably, there were an overwhelming amount of creepy looking monsters, and you stayed calm, assessed the situation, and came up with a brilliant plan that saved all of us. That's probably what Will did too. In fact, Josh told me a story after guardian training yesterday, about the first battle W.I.T.C.H. had. Apparently Will got thrown in a hole or something, where Caleb was trapped, and she'd lost the Heart, so she couldn't fly them out. But the others found the Heart and it led them to Will and she transformed them and she was the one who came up with a plan that helped them save Caleb, defeat the minions that came after them, and got them home safely, even though they were seriously outmatched and hadn't gotten a handle on their powers yet, just like you did with us. You're a great leader. No one is more deserving of this position than you."

Rae smiled bashfully. "Thanks Lyssa. That made me feel better." She thought of adding 'That's probably why Ellie misses you so much,' but decided to hold her peace. Ellie and Alyssa should become friends again, but they had to do it on their own.

"I'm glad. Hey, I have a question though. Why is it your mom is only letting Sage stay with you guys? Your house is big enough for both of them to cstay."

"Honestly, I don't know. I thought at first it might be because she wasn't comfortable with a boy staying in my house, but then she told me to let her know whether it was Sage or Josh that was staying so she can prepare the room appropriately. She put these bubblegum pink sheets on the bed. They make me cringe, but Sage likes them. If Josh had stayed, she had these blue sheets with anchors on them ready, so she was clearly okay with either of them."

"Hmm, that's strange," Alyssa mused. "Do you like living with Sage?"

"It's only been two days, but it's been okay. It's sort of like having a sister, and I have always wanted a sibling. And Sage is really sweet, although she did weird my mom out a couple of times."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she's not used to Earth customs. She freaked out at the sight of my cook frying eggs on the stove. Apparently in Meridian, they cook over a fire on hot coals for every meal. In the castle, they have a kitchen, but they still use a fire over hot coals, as if they're camping every day. She was used to basic lotion and stuff because Elyon kept that stuff around, but she was fascinated by makeup. I don't wear makeup and told her my mom knew more about it and she asked her questions that are common sense, like why is lip gloss so shiny."

Alyssa chuckled.

"That's not even the worst of it. As if my mom wasn't already a little weary of her, Sage accidentally dropped her plate yesterday as she was carrying it to the sink. It's a ceramic plate and it broke, but Sage used her magic to fix it, but not before my mom was sure she saw it break."

"Does she suspect Sage has magic?"

"I don't know. She said she thinks she's going crazy, and a few days ago I would've believed that's what she actually thought, but now that I know she knows about Meridian, I don't know what to believe. She's Cornelia's youngest son's god mother, and Elyon's youngest son's god mother, so she must know about magic."

"Wait…Rae, what did you tell your mother about who Sage was?"

"I said Sage was my pen pal. I had a pen pal in kindergarten, Emily, and even though we only had to write to them in kindergarten, she and I kept in touch through middle school. My mom remembered I had a pen pal, but couldn't remember her name. I said it was Sage, and she and her best friend Josh came here to attend Sheffield, since it's one of the best high schools in the country."

"She knows that's a lie!"

"How do you know that?"

"You said it yourself. She's the god mother to both Cornelia and Elyon's youngest sons. She knows about magic. Doesn't that mean she knows Sage?"

Rae gasped. "You're right! She has to know who she is! But…doesn't that mean Sage knows my mother?"

"Did she act like she had no idea who she was?"

"Yeah."

Alyssa climbed down the tree. "Let's ask her."

Rae followed her and walked up to Sage.

"No!" Gabi cried. "New Girl, Classless-a, there's only so much time left before the other cheerleaders get here, and I will not have them see me near you."

"What are you even doing talking to us anyway?" Bree asked. "Don't you know people on your level socially aren't allowed to talk to us?"

"You've _got_ to be kidding me!" Rae cried. "Why don't you take your pompous, stupid high school hierarchy rules and shove them up your-"

"Rae, calm down, the mindless airhead's not worth it," Alyssa said.

"HEY!" Bree cried, angry and indignant.

"Anyway Gabi, this'll only take a minute," Alyssa went on, ignoring Bree.

"Sage, I wanted to ask…do you know my mother?"

"Your mother?"

"Because she's your brother's god mother."

"Wait you have a brother?" Gabi asked.

"Yeah, Cameron, but everyone calls him Cam. He's 16, and he's almost as close to Josh as I am. And then there's Phil who's 13, and Shane who's 7. And I have a sister Alexa who is 5."

"Well your mom was busy," Gabi muttered.

Ignoring her, Rae went on, "And my mother is Shane's god mother, right?"

"Uh huh."

"So why did you act like you don't know my mother?"

"Cornelia told me to. Because if she knew who I was, then she'd wonder why my mother would send me to Ear-uh here, and then I'd have to tell her Mom was cap-uh, isn't at home anymore. And that Dad and my siblings are with her," Sage explained, trying to remember she couldn't say anything about Meridian in front of Bree.

"But my mother must've seen you before. So how do you know she didn't recognize you?"

"I don't," Sage admitted. "But the last time I saw Silena, I was 11. I look different for sure. If Frank saw me though, he'd recognize me. He came to Mer-uh, my house, for my 16th birthday." She lowered her voice. "Mom said 16 is important here on Earth."

"It is," Rae agreed in a low voice.

"Wait. Who are Silena and Frank?" Gabi asked.

Rae went red, realizing now that Gabi knew her mother and father's first names, it would only be a matter of time before she figured who Rae's parents were. She had to distract her.

"My mom and dad. Elyon was best friends with my dad and she and Cornelia were both good friends with my mom and Elyon was the whole reason my parents met, and apparently Elyon and Cornelia told them all about Elyon's real home and Cornelia and Elyon's duties. My mom is Elyon's youngest son's god mother and my father is Sage's god father."

"But you parents never told you that?" Gabi asked.

Rae shook her head, sighing in relief. She'd successfully distracted Gabi from her parents' names.

"There seems to be a lot of that going around," Gabi said, looking at Alyssa.

At that moment, Rae saw a lot of drama kids walk inside the building, followed by Caty and Brian's friends, and Shelia Breslin's group of nerds.

"The nerds and drama freaks are here," Gabi said. "They get to school twenty minutes early. It's only a matter of time before the other cheerleaders get here. Go away."

"Fine, but in case you forgot Gabi, we're supposed to help Josh and Sage out once the bell rings," Alyssa taunted as she and Rae headed back to their tree.

Gabi just groaned. She wanted power, but this guardian thing could end up dragging her down socially and she could _not_ let that happen before she had enough power to scare and control Lana.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"This place is big," Josh said as he stared down the empty hallway. He, Sage, and the guardians had gone inside ten minutes before the bell rang. The only students inside at this time were the drama kids and the nerds, to rehearse or have a meeting of mock trial or model U.N. or debate team, and they were all shut away in classrooms. Ellie and Caty had to ditch their friends to be here. Neither group was very happy. Ellie had the solo in the song she and her friends were rehearsing when she'd run out, and Caty was about to win the case of Mrs. Thruber (Nina) vs. The Board of Education (Nick and Travis) with Brian as the judge when she ran out, losing the case.

"It probably really easy to get lost," Sage added.

"You'll be fine," Ellie promised. "You're scheduled with me and Josh is scheduled with Chris. We'll go with you to every class."

"Where are Chris and Cara anyway?" Rae asked.

"Cara's still in eighth grade," Alyssa reminded. "So she's probably in the middle school building."

"But here comes Chris," Caty said, nodding toward the boy.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Ellie huffed.

Alyssa went red again, remembering what Bree said. Ellie and Adam were fine with Chris when Alyssa was still their best friend, so she never knew until today what happened between them. Now she put it together. Chris hated Ellie for dropping Alyssa and Adam for following suit. He'd probably yelled at Ellie, which is why Adam hated him, and Ellie probably hated him because Chris didn't understand what really happened between Ellie and Alyssa and no one could tell him.

Alyssa wondered if Ellie had told anyone else. Had she told Adam? Had she kept her promise? Alyssa had so many questions, but she knew from experience Ellie wouldn't answer any of them. She'd wanted to ask Jason what was going on when she saw him a few weeks ago, but if she was being honest with herself, she didn't want the answer.

If Ellie had kept her promise, then she probably wouldn't still be living with her mother and Jason wouldn't be living at home, so she suspected Ellie hadn't kept her promise. And if that was true, then Alyssa and Ellie ended their friendship for nothing, and now Alyssa had no advantage. In fifth grade, she could help Ellie because they were best friends. But if Alyssa found out for sure _now_ that Ellie hadn't kept her promise…well, she had no way of helping a girl who hadn't talked to her until she was forced to.

"So…what exactly are these things?" Sage asked, touching a locker.

"That's a locker," Chris said as he reached the group. "You open it with a combination of three numbers and you can put your stuff inside it so that you don't have to carry around as much. Let me see your schedules."

Sage and Josh handed them over.

"Okay, so Josh your locker is right next to mine, and Sage, yours is between mine and Ellie's. Come on."

The seven followed Chris to Sage and Josh's lockers.

"Okay, Sage open yours. The combination is 32-34-12. What you're going to do is twist that dial to right. Pass the number 32 three times. The fourth time around, stop when you reach 32."

Sage looked confused, but did as she was told.

"Okay, next spin the dial to the left and pass the number 34 once. The second time around, stop on it."

Sage did what Chris said again.

"Okay, now spin the dial to the right and stop at the number 12. Then push up on the black thing above the dial and pull."

Sage did so and her locker opened.

"Wow!" she exclaimed.

"And this lever inside," Ellie said, pointing to something, "opens the compartment on the top. Just push it up."

Sage pushed it up and sure enough, the overhead compartment opened too.

Sage laughed. "So what should I put in here?"

"Everything you don't need for your first two classes," Ellie instructed. "I always come back here after English to get stuff for Dramatics III and Music III. How'd you get in the honors music and drama classes anyway?"

"Mrs. Ashcroft," Sage said.

Ellie looked at Alyssa.

"My mom is a respected alumni here. She was only student in Sheffield history to get accepted into all 8 Ivy League schools. She can always pull a few strings every now and then and she assured Principal Walsh that Sage had enough music and drama training to be in the same level classes as you."

"Why would your mom do that? Does she even know Sage?"

"Hay Lin called her and explained who Sage was and what happened to her family and said she really wanted me to join the rest of you guys, but she'd keep me off the team if Mom did this for her."

"She's not really going to keep you off the team is she?" Caty asked.

"No, of course not. It was just out way of getting Mom to help Sage. She's also the one that assured Principal Walsh that Josh was smart enough to be in honors English and APUSH, the honors and AP classes Chris is in. She got Principal Walsh to accept them without any transcripts or anything."

"Hay Lin must've hated lying to you mom," Ellie said.

"She looked like she was in physical pain," Alyssa agreed.

"Oh I'll bet," Rae said sarcastically. "She had no problem lying to us about Kasson."

"She didn't exactly lie. She just didn't tell us everything," Ellie said.

"A lie of omission is still a lie," Caty said.

"Do you really believe that?" Alyssa asked.

"No, but that doesn't mean I agree with the omission. She should've told us about Kasson. He's our enemy, we deserve to know everything about him."

"We forgot to confront her the other day, but we'll do it today during guardian training," Rae decided.

"Who died and made you leader," Gabi scoffed before realizing Rae was the Keeper, and therefore the leader of the guardians. She blushed as the other girls, Sage, Josh, and Chris laughed.

Sage and Josh closed their lockers.

"So no one else can open these?" Josh asked.

"Just the people who have the combinations," Chris said. "The combinations are on your schedules. I suggest you memorize them, then cross them out on your schedule so no one else can steal the combination."

"Is the combination a locking enchantment?" Sage asked.

"Nope. Just good old Earth technology," Chris replied, a laugh in his voice.

The first bell rang, and Josh and Sage, who hadn't realized the bell was that loud, jumped.

"What's going on? An attack?" Josh asked, reaching at his side for his sword before realizing he was wearing the jeans Hay Lin bought him and didn't have any weapons with him. Sage too, reached for her dagger, her weapon of choice, before realizing she didn't have it with her.

"Relax man, that's the bell telling us class is going to start in ten minutes," Chris explained. He looked at the guardians. "Back in Meridian, most sounds like that are warning of an enemy invasion or attack."

Sage and Josh relaxed as other students started to flow in.

In six more minutes, the warning bell rang. Sage and Josh jumped again and reached for the weapons they still didn't have,

"We don't have enemy invasions or attacks here," Gabi said. "You guys need to calm down."

The two nodded before following Ellie (in Sage's case) and Chris (in Josh's case) to their classes. Gabi followed Ellie, having Algebra 2 with her and Caty, Rae, and Alyssa headed to honors pre-calc, amused at Josh and Sage's actions. They were definitely going to be interesting friends to have.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What _is_ this exactly?" Sage asked at lunch, poking what was supposed to be sirloin.

"Nothing you actually _want_ to put in your mouth," Breanna advised.

As soon as Ellie and Sage walked into the cafeteria, Gabi and Bree ran over and insisted Sage sit with them and the other cheerleaders. Ellie, who, despite being envious of Sage's natural talent, actually liked her, and hoped Sage would sit with her and her friends during lunch. No such luck.

Josh walked in with Chris, and was going to sit with Chris's friends at lunch when Gabi waved him over as well. There was plenty of room since the LAX boys had a team meeting today. Jake got out of it by lying and saying he had a test to make up at lunch because he wanted to spend whatever time he could with Gabi.

Jake wasn't sure about how he felt about Gabi asking Josh to sit with them. Gabi had never waved another guy over to their table, and he already didn't love that some guy he didn't know was staying at Gabi's house, but she assured him she and her dad mainly agreed to let Josh stay with them so that Luc would have someone to talk to. Gabi loved Luc with all her heart, but she knew as a girl, she couldn't help him with everything, and with Michael away, she had been worried Luc would feel alone. Jake tried to accept it, but he was still a little jealous.

Jake had liked Gabi for years, and he'd been a major player in the past because he was always waiting for Gabi to come around and finally say yes when he asked her out. That was reason he bounced from girl to girl. He was never serious about anyone else because he only wanted Gabi. And this summer, they'd hung out all the time, and she finally agreed to go out with him. He'd asked her to be his girlfriend the last day of summer. Literally two days later, she spent all her time cheerleading instead of with him.

"So what are we supposed to eat?" Sage asked.

"That apple's probably safe," Carrie shrugged. "But you shouldn't buy lunch here."

"Get your mother to pack you something," Stephanie said.

"Or whoever you're currently living with," Bree added. "I'm sure Mrs. New Girl's mom-"

"Ms. Shane," Jake corrected.

"-Whatever," Bree replied. "I'm sure she'll be fine with packing you something. She does it for New Girl."

"Actually, it's Helen that packs Rae's lunch," Sage said. "And Rae _did_ warn me not to buy lunch. Guess I should've listened."

Sage didn't know many Earth foods, but Rae's lunch today was so simple that she wanted to buy something so she could try actual Earth foods instead of something as simple as a sandwich and a bag of chips, things she'd already had when she accompanied Josh's family on their visits to Earth.

"And Helen is who exactly?" Gabi asked.

"And why are we hanging out with someone who walked in with a drama freak and calls New Girl by name?" Lana butt in.

"She may not make the right friends, but Sage is cool," Gabi insisted. "Traci agreed we can give her a special audition." Traci was the senior JV co-captain. Special auditions were something Gabi developed, but Traci had to agree to it as well for Gabi to give a girl the audition. If Traci didn't agree, Gabi automatically inducted the girl into her group anyway and just told her to audition regularly. "Now again, Helen is?"

"Rae's cook."

"New Girl has a cook?" Lana asked, frowning. "She must come from money."

"She has a huge house," Sage agreed. "And a guest house."

"A guest house?" Kelli repeated. "I thought the only houses that had guest houses are on Larson street."

"They are," Gabi said.

"That's where you live, isn't it? Larson street?" Josh piped up.

"Rae lives there too," Sage said.

"Wait, we're on the same street and we never knew?" Josh questioned.

Sage smiled at this news.

"Sage, are you sure?" Gabi asked.

Sage nodded and Gabi frowned. Everyone on Larson street was insanely rich. And the people with guest houses were richer than rich. Those people had more money than Gabi's family, which was saying something, but as far as she knew, all the houses with guest houses were occupied by elderly people…except for that white one with teal shutters. That house was empty…Rae just moved town…

"Oh my God, she lives in Jeff Boudreau's old house," Gabi gasped.

"That house is huge. It's bigger than mine," Lana said.

"And _mine_," Gabi replied.

"How did she afford that?" Bree asked.

"Jake, what do her parents do?" Gabi asked.

"Her dad's an inventor. Her mom is an artist."

"Wait!" Bree cried. "You said her mother goes by Ms. Shane, right? But Rae's last name is Dylan."

"Her parents are divorced," Jake replied.

"Sage, what's her mother's first name?" Gabi asked.

"Silena. And her father's name is Frank."

" .God," Bree breathed.

"What, what?" Kelli asked.

"You dummy!" Lana cried. "Her parents are Silena Shane and Frank Dylan. Makes sense. Frank is an inventor, and Silena designs clothes, with is kind of an artist."

At this, every cheerleader's mouth dropped open and they looked at their clothes, phones, and laptops. Everything they owned was from New Girl's parents.

"No way. No _freaking_ way!" Lili cried in shock. Caty was friends with Rae, meaning her own _cousin_ was hanging out with Silena Shane's daughter! Could Caty possibly help get her that internship she wanted?

"Gabs, you _have_ to make her a cheerleader now," Lana insisted.

"I don't _have_ to do anything. No matter what that girl is never getting on the squad!"

"Why not?" Jake asked. "You said you'd give her a special audition!"

"I offered, she declined. It's too late now."

"Who in their right mind would turn down a special audition?" Bree asked, rolling her eyes.

"Clearly, New Girl's not in her right mind," Summer piped up.

"Why do you think she _hid_ who her parents were?" Holly wondered.

"I wonder who else knows," Missy added.

"She probably doesn't want anyone to know," Jake cautioned.

"She'd be instantly popular if everyone knew," Jaimie said.

"I know Rae. She doesn't care about popularity," Jake replied.

"Wow, you sure know a lot about New Girl," Gabi snapped. Could he even remember her dad does for a living?

"Wait, who are Frank Dylan and Silena Shane?" Josh asked.

"Silena Shane designed every piece of clothing the other cheerleaders and I are wearing right now, plus all the clothes half the girls at this school and some of the boys are wearing. My entire wardrobe is Silena Shane clothes. Frank Dylan is the CEO of Grapple, the biggest electronic company internationally. He is the inventor of every phone, laptop, tablet, television, radio, desktop, and gaming system everyone owns, not to mention several stereos, sound systems, and countless other entertainment products.

Josh tried to keep up. From his grandmother, he knew what televisions, laptops, and phones, but he wasn't sure what the rest of the stuff Gabi was talking about was, but clearly Frank Dylan was a big deal.

"Your phone was made by Frank Dylan," Jake pointed out. "How do you not know who he is?"

"And didn't Silena Shane design that shirt?" Stacy added.

"Um…" Hay Lin had bought him a couple of outfits and a phone. She'd done the same for Sienna. He had no idea who made any of it.

"Josh's parents are super conservative, so he doesn't know a lot of the stuff we'd expect him to," Gabi lied.

"How do you guys know each other again?" Skye asked.

"Um…he's friends with Chris," Gabi said, hoping that was the same story she'd told Bree that morning.

"Rae said Sage is her pen pal," Jake said, confused.

"She is," Gabi said, wondering why Rae had never told her that's what _she_ was telling people. "But they also both know Chris."

"Oh yeah, we've been friends with Chris for a long time. Six years now, right Josh?" Sage put in helpfully.

Josh nodded. "We've both got friends back home, but Chris is our best friend…besides each other of course."

"Aww, you guys are so cute! Why aren't you dating?" Bella cooed, making Sage blush.

Josh just laughed. "We're just friends. I don't think we'd ever date," he admitted. Sage bit her lip and nodded.

'Ouch,' Gabi thought. She couldn't tell if Sage was really friend zoned or if Josh just never thought Sage would ask him out.

"So that makes you single and…available, correct?" Bree asked, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Uh…" Now Josh went red. "Yeah," he nodded fervently and Gabi noticed Sage's chin tremble before she got up.

"Where are you going?" Josh asked.

"She said she'd come with me to get a snack," Gabi answered for her, grabbing Sage's arm and pulling her towards the snack line. "The food here sucks, but they have these amazing cookies."

"Chocolate chip?" Sage asked hopefully. "Josh's grandma always bakes chocolate chip."

"They have everything and the chocolate chip ones also have M&amp;Ms baked into them!"

"What are…?"

"Candy," Gabi said.

"Hmmm. I never got anything called M&amp;Ms in my East baskets."

"I think you mean Easter," Gabi giggled. "And if you've never had M&amp;MS, then you're missing out!"

"Why is this line so long?"

"Because most people do the smart thing and buy snacks instead of lunch," Gabi said. "Since all their snacks, not just the cookies, are good." She smiled and went on to more important topics. "So, you and Josh are best friends, huh?"

Sage nodded. "Since birth. We were born within two days of each other."

"But you want to be more?"

Sage blushed, but nodded.

"You're in love with him aren't you?" Gabi asked, sure Sage's feelings went past a simple crush.

Sage nodded again. She took a deep breath. "It goes past that though. We're…or I guess we _were_ betrothed."

"Like…you guys are supposed to get married?" Gabi asked. At Sage's nod of confirmation, she grew angry. "Well that's disgusting! I hate that your families can think they can decide who you get to marry."

"They don't," Sage said. "It was a royal rule that the heir to the throne was supposed to marry someone by her twenty first birthday. And the king and queen had to decide who their child would marry by the time they were thirteen. Usually, it was supposed to be a noble or a royal in another world, but the kids of guardians are highly respected, like nobles, so Josh was a valid choice. So my mother decided I'd be betrothed to my best friend, because as long as the rule was there, she figured I'd be happy with Josh even if I wasn't in love with him, which I wasn't then. Of course we asked Cornelia and Caleb first and I told Josh he had the right to decline or back out at any time. Josh said he'd be fine with it. After all, we were only thirteen, and even though we'd had crushes before, at that time, we couldn't see ourselves being happy with anyone besides each other."

"Did you mother have to do this too?"

"Well, since my mother was raised on Earth, and was only brought to Meridian just a few months before the old guardians defeated my evil uncle and put Mom on the throne, they gave her til she was sixteen before her parents picked her future husband. And she fell in love with Dad in those three years, and even though she's usually supposed to marry a noble, there was no rule _against_ her picking Dad, so she picked him and got married when she was 21. All the guardians attended, and I think that was the last big social event they attended together."

"Is your dad not a noble?"

"No, Dad is a good friend of Caleb's. He was part of the rebel army, and he was part of Mom's royal guard after the war."

"Wow. So what happened with you and Josh? You said you _were_ betrothed."

"My mom still didn't _like_ the rule. She thought it was unfair that she got to fall in love at an age where love made sense, and I had to pick someone to marry before I even had a chance, so she searched and searched and finally found a way to abolish the rule. It was actually really recently, nine months ago. Josh and I had both turned seventeen, and he'd started developing crushes on other girls. He didn't pursue any of them, because he didn't want to break his promise to marry me. He knew there wasn't any other guy I'd want to be with, but that was because by the time my mom broke that rule, I'd fallen in love with _him_."

"If your mom had known that, would she have abolished the rule?"

"She did know that and she did it anyway, and she talked to me about it. She wanted to make sure I wouldn't be angry at her, and I told her I knew it wouldn't be right to keep the rule for my own selfish reasons. I may be in love with Josh, but he doesn't feel the same and it's not fair to keep him to myself. Any girl would be lucky to have Josh."

"Well why shouldn't that girl be you?"

"Because I'm not the girl that can make him happy."

"And how exactly do you know that?"

"You heard him at the table. He doesn't see as anything more than best friends. He's been saying that a lot since Mom abolished the rule. I think he's relieved."

"You ever think he may be saying that because he thinks_ you're_ relieved?"

"You think?"

"Anything's possible!"

"I don't want to get rejected. I'm way too scared to ask if would actually want to marry me."

"Maybe don't start with marriage," Gabi advised. "Ask him out. People date on Meridian, don't they?"

"Yeah, of course. But I'm too scared to even do that."

Gabi frowned. Sage looked so sad, but her mind was clearly made up. She wasn't going to ask Josh out. At least, not without a push. And Gabi was just the person to give her that push.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"We want to know about the Dark Prince," Rae demanded as she and the other girls entered The Silver Dragon's basement that day. Sage, Josh, and the Lyndons walked in behind them and gave Hay Lin a 'why are you hiding stuff about Kasson from them' look. The Lyndons went to one corner of the room and sat on the beanbag chairs. Josh and Sage went to another corner where their weapons lay. They seemd eerily relieved to be by their sharp, point, dangerous objects again. The guardians sat down in front of Hay Lin, waiting expectantly.

"I told you about him. He's an evil greater than any we as guardians ever faced and he dethroned Elyon."

"You know a lot more about him then you're letting on. Just about everybody we met in Meridian does," Caty said.

"Aldarn had to tell us his name. Kasson," Rae added. "We want to know why _you_ weren't the one to tell us. How do you expect us to protect ourselves and save Elyon and Meridian, if you won't even tell us what we're up against?"

"What aren't you telling us?" Caty interrogated.

Hay Lin sighed, looking worried. "Alright. I did keep a lot of Kasson's life from you guys, things I should've told you. I'll tell you now."

The girls waited and Hay Lin sat down in front of them to tell them everything you knew.

"Kasson is a real prince. He is the prince of Eldantia, another realm. He was Kasson Durange, a part of one the most powerful magical families in all the known words, a practicing sorcerer, and he used to be an ally of Elyon. His father used to talk trading policies and peace treaties with Elyon a few times a year, and Elyon and Kasson would hang out. He was quite in love with her, but Elyon loved Drake. When she told Kasson they were going to get married, Kasson was heartbroken, but soon found another love of his own. Cassandra Mercandy, a noble from Tentallor."

"And that's another realm?" Alyssa asked.

Hay Lin nodded.

"How do they think of these names?" Gabi asked no one in particular.

"Because Earth is so much more normal sounding," Josh piped up.

"It _is_!"

"Only because we're used to it," Caty admitted. "If we grew up in Meridian, we'd probably think that sounds normal."

"If I were Elyon, I'd rename the place after myself," Gabi declared.

"It just so happens that most of the world _isn't_ as self-centered as _you_," Rae bit back.

Alyssa cleared her throat. "Weren't we the ones that demanded the story of Kasson? We're not doing a very good job of listening to Hay Lin."

Rae and Caty immediately turned back to face Hay Lin. Gabi just rolled her eyes and Ellie shifted uncomfortably. Their first battle at Meridian scared her bad enough. She had not stopped dreaming about it. But in her dreams, as soon as Rae's plan had worked, the girls didn't have time to celebrate because the dream shifted to the one she had of all the guardians fighting Snake Dude. Her only relief was that they seemed to have full control over their powers at that time, and right now, they still made every mistake possibly, meaning the battle with Snake Dude was still a while away, if it came true. Maybe she should ask Hay Lin about that…

"So as I was saying, Cassandra was a noble, but not a royal. Tentallor was founded by Cassandra's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great…wait how many greats was that?" Hay Lin asked after losing track. She started counting on her fingers, then gave up and said, "Her 22 times great grandfather. His name was Seamus Mercandy. He'd founded the land, named himself King, and named the land after his wife, whose maiden name was Tentallor."

"If he was king, why isn't Cassandra a princess?" Ellie asked.

"Because Cassandra's family was overthrown about 20 years ago. She was a young princess then, and as an only child, she was the only princess of Tentallor, and you can imagine how she took the news. Sure her family was still rich, but she once had the opportunity to be queen, and now the promise of the kingdom was gone.

"In order to continue the good relationship between Eldantia and Meridian, Kasson was supposed to marry a noble or royal of Meridian, even if it couldn't be Elyon herself. But Cassandra, wanting to be queen of something, wormed her way into Kasson's heart, and he chose to marry her over any of the Meridian girls wanting to marry him."

"But if Kasson and Elyon were such good friends, and he wasn't even angry about her choosing to marry someone else, and found another love, why would he take over her land?" Rae asked.

"I'm not sure," Hay Lin admitted. "The last time Kasson and Elyon interacted was at the party held to celebrate Sage's birth, who was born a year after Kasson's own daughter Piper. Elyon said Kasson was just as friendly as always, but Cassandra, who she'd met for the first time at Piper's party a year prior, was rude and mean, just as always. She was also power mad and scared Elyon a little. The Council thinks Cassandra is the one who wanted Elyon overthrown so that she could expand what will one day be her kingdom."

"One day?" Ellie repeated.

"Right now, Cassandra is still princess because Kasson is still prince. His father is in his 70s, and still ruling."

"What makes him so dangerous? How did he defeat Elyon?" Alyssa asked.

"That's also because of Cassandra. See, the Mercandy family aren't just a bunch of royals. They were also children of magic. Seamus was a powerful sorcerer, and every one of his descendants were more powerful than the last. Cassandra's father Cornelius abused his magic and used to cruelly on his people, which is why a rebellion arose, and he was overthrown. But their family talent made Cassandra the most powerful Mercandy sorceress at one point."

"At one point?" Ellie repeated.

"Kasson and Cassandra had a kid, didn't they?" Alyssa said. "So that means their kid is the most powerful right now."

"Please tell me they only had one!" Caty begged.

"Afraid not," Hay Lin sighed. "They had four kids. Piper, who is 18, another daughter who is 16, and two sons who are 14 and 17. I don't know the names of the other kids."

"So that makes Piper the most powerful sorceress?" Rae asked.

"Not exactly," Hay Lin said. "Piper was born without magic."

"That's good right?" Caty asked. "She can't pose a threat with no powers."

"Whoa, wait," Hay Lin said. "I said she was born without _magic_. Not without _powers_."

"So what powers _does_ she have?" Gabi asked.

"She is probably the most powerful of the Durange," Hay Lin said, "because she has the ability to syphon the powers of others."

"Chiffon?" Ellie repeated. "Isn't chiffon a type of fabric?"

"How do you know that?" Gabi asked, wondering how a drama freak had knowledge on clothes.

"Not chiffon dummy, syphon," Caty said.

Ellie rolled her eyes at Caty's 'I'm so much smarter than everyone in this room' act. And it was an act, because everyone knew Alyssa was the smartest person in the room.

"Syphon?" Rae asked. "Like, one of those devices that control the flow of liquids?" She looked really confused.

"I think in this context," Alyssa said, "she means Piper can take other people's powers."

"Exactly. Except it's only with magic. She can't take _your_ powers."

"How does she chiffon…uh, I mean, sy…phone…"

"_Syphon_," Caty said, rolling her eyes.

Ellie glared at her, but nodded. "Yeah. Syphon. How does she do that?"

"All she has to do is touch you. The longer she keeps contact, the more power she can take. It's only available for a limited time, unless she takes all of your power."

"She can do that?"

"Yes. Even then, there's a time limit, for a longer limit. If you syphon all of someone's power, it can last anywhere between two weeks to a month. If Piper syphons the magic of someone as powerful as Elyon, it would last a month. Then the powers return to the person she stole from, but she can steal from the same person over and over again. There's also a ritual in one of Kasson's old family grimoires that can help her keep all the power, but as far as we know, she hasn't found the ritual yet."

"A grim reaper?" Ellie said, confused.

"Grimiore!" Caty cried, fed up with Ellie's air headedness. "It's a book of magic. Legends say witches used to write down all their magical findings, spells, and potions in a book and passed it down to their decedents. Those books are known as grimoires. The more you have, the more powerful you are."

"And since the Duragnes and the Mercandys are the most powerful magical families out there, they have a lot."

"Are Kasson and Cassandra more powerful than Elyon?"

"No, they are equal in strength, and they are weaker than Elyon's kids, but their kids are more powerful than Elyon and her kids. Except for Sage. She's more powerful than Kasson's kids, but she wouldn't be able to face all of them at once."

"Sage, how did you escape Kasson and his family?" Caty asked.

"When Kasson, his family, and his army invaded the castle, I wasn't home. I was in Scorosa with Josh."

"Sco what now?" Gabi asked.

"It's another realm," Josh explained.

"When we came back, everyone knew Kasson had taken over," Sage added. "So I went to Josh's house. I've mainly been hiding, but I go out every once in a while. The last time Kasson saw me, I was only a couple days old, so he doesn't know how I look now, and no one from Meridian is going to give me up."

"Wow, you were lucky," Caty said.

"Luckier than you know," Sage agreed. "Josh was feeling under the weather that day and if I hadn't insisted, we wouldn't have gone Scorosa at all. I would've headed back to the palace and been captured with the rest of my family."

Ellie wondered why Sage always sounded so casual when she talked about her family. Isn't she supposed to be sad?

"Well at least you're well protected," Caty said. "Like you said, no one in Meridian would ever turn you over to Kasson."

"But there are a few Meridian inhabitants that switched sides, and pledged their allegiance to Kasson, so we have to be careful," Josh said. "Although, some who switched sides are just spies for the rebels," Chris said. "It's a lot to keep track of."

"This whole thing is a lot to keep track of," Caty moaned. "Is there anything else we need to know about?"

"Not that I can think of," Hay Lin said.

"There's something I can think of," Ellie admitted. All eyes turned to her and she said, "I've been having this dream…"

**A/N: So what did you think? Like it? Love it? Hate it? I had fun writing this chapter and I'm pretty excited to get into the next chapter. I hope you guys like this installment. Review guys!**


	10. It's Different on Earth

**A/N: Early update guys! It's only Saturday! This is kind of filler-ish. It doesn't have much to do with the guardians til the end, but it does give you guys more of a look into the girls' families and since a lot of you seem to be fans of Sage and Josh, it gives them a bit more character development and fun moments. I wanted to write a fun chapter to remind everyone the girls have normal lives outside of school too, and this is what I came up with it. Hope you guys like it!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: They probably want to back out now! But honestly though, they think you're really fun. Of course that's what a best friend is for! It'll all be explained eventually. Be glad that you know! Sorry, I couldn't find a place to fit you in, but remember the Scorose story I said I'd write in which Scorp and Rose are in their sixth year and Rose, Al, Orianna, and Matt have to team up with Scorp, Damon, Madison and another Slytherin girl? I'll name her Emily. Mia is in the time travel story anyway. And I hope you like the rest of this chapter, especially the parts with Gabi and Jake, because they take argumentative to a new level!**

**SilvenArrow: I guess Taranee didn't want to go into all the stuff the guardians went through. She didn't think Alyssa and Rae needed to know. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure, but I think part of their falling out will have something to do with the guardians, so she couldn't say anything. I'm hoping you'll like Sage and Josh in this chapter too. They have a lot of questions. Yeah, I was very happy to find a way to use the name Piper. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: I'm so glad you liked it. I thought Kasson's story might be boring for some people, but most people seemed to like it. My favorite superhero is probably Batman. I like most of the Bat Family actually, and I guess my favorites would actually be Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing/Batman, Nightwing being my favorite) and Barbara Gordon (Batgirl/Oracle, Batgirl being my favorite). I also love The Flash (Barry Allen mainly, but also Wally West. Bart Allen and Jay Garrick are okay, but not my favorites).**

**Shay: Thanks, it was pretty fun to write too, but this one was really fun for me, so I hope you like it. Oh, like the actress Shay Mitchell? Her real name is Shannon. She's in Pretty Little Liars. Those are some of my favorite names too. I also like Felicity and Whitney, and I also love the name Caitlin, and I love Caty when it's spelled that way. Hope you're glad your wait was shortened.**

**Misa: I know exactly what you mean about will power. Two of my favorite shows, Arrow and The Flash, are similar to each other and I like to watch them one after another, but they premier on two different days, so I have to use all my will power to wait til Thrusday to watch them both. It never used to work out, but it's working out better now. I'm glad so many people are fans of Josh and Sage. I wanted to get them on Earth, but when I actually wrote the part about Cornelia suggesting Josh go to Earth, it seemed so sudden and Sage was a last minute character. Yup, I'm gonna try to develop Sage and Silena's relationship soon. You'll see what Gabi does about Rae's secret in this chapter. I freaking LOVE The Vampire Diaries. It's in my top five favorite shows! And yeah, I actually got the idea of Piper's powers from Kai's. Hopefully I can reveal more about Kasson soon. Unfortunately I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next chapter. I have a lot of ideas, but I feel like it's too early in the story for some of them. **

**WaterAmulet: I'm hoping to develop the Sage-Silena plot point soon! Like I said, I have a plan for Silena and Sage's presence makes it easier to implement my idea for Silena. Sage was a last minute character I added after I decided on Silena's role, so I'm glad I found a use for her. I'm hoping to develop Jake and Rae further soon, but right now they're in a fight. I think Jake and Gabi are sweet too! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I don't have time for this guardian stuff every day," Caty groaned as everyone walked home that day. Sage and Josh walked a few feet ahead of the guardians. "I have to prepare for a debate about the economy tomorrow. It's the debate team's first match."

"What about the economy?" Alyssa asked.

"Why our nation doesn't have proper funding for necessities. Nina and I are teaming up with Travis and Will to compete against New Dorp High. We're arguing about what the reason we don't have funding is."

"That's easy!" Ellie declared. "It's like that saying."

"What saying?" Caty asked.

"You know. It's the economy stupid!" Ellie giggled.

Caty rolled her eyes as Rae said, "I think the saying actually is, 'It's the stupid economy.'"

"It is," Caty and Alyssa confirmed.

"Who cares?!" Gabi cried, frustrated. After working on ZOOM that afternoon, some of the cheerleaders got together to give Sage her special audition. She made the team easily, impressing Traci, Gabi, and even Lana, who usually didn't like anyone Gabi wanted to give a special audition too. Lana still hadn't warmed up to Lili. But right after that, they headed to The Silver Dragon, and the rest of the day had been terrible.

Gabi may not have wanted to go to Meridian and battle, but she still wanted-needed-to practice with her powers. But Ellie had explained to Hay Lin a dream she'd been having about some ugly snake guy. Hay Lin took a picture off the large bulletin board she had on one of the basement walls and asked if the creature in her dream had looked like the ugly, green half lizard half snake creature in the picture. Ellie said yes, except the creature in her dream had green eyes with no irises instead of orange with black irises, and instead of the white-blond hair, the one in her dream had black hair.

Hay Lin told them about Cedric, a creepy monster and the right hand man of Elyon's evil brother Phobos that W.I.T.C.H. had to fight countless time. She said she thought Cedric was the only snake like monster, but it looks like this guy is added to the mix as well and he'd be a fearsome adversary. The rest of the hours spent in the basement were filled with stories and lessons instead of practice. If the first battle went so badly, shouldn't they be picking up the training?

"You don't have to participate in the conversation," Alyssa said, rolling her eyes. She turned to Rae. "You coming over?"

Rae coming over had become an everyday activity. And even though Mrs. Ashcroft knew Rae was guardian and didn't want Alyssa involved in all that, she didn't treat Rae any differently. It reminded Alyssa of when she was still friends with Ellie and Adam. They'd come over every day as well. They'd start by having a snack and watching TV, then they'd do their homework together, then she and Adam would help Ellie study, the girls would help Adam run lines, and Ellie and Adam would help Alyssa with her latest art projects. Alyssa was able to help Rae practice her sport of choice, tennis, with the courts outside her house and Rae always gave Alyssa great ideas for her art projects.

Rae nodded. "Sage!" she called. "I'm going over to Alyssa's house, and I'll probably stay for dinner. Do you want to come?"

As Rae's house guest, she was pretty much obligated to invite Sage along. And even though she really did want Sage to come (all the girls had taken quite well to Meridian's oldest princess), she also wanted to make sure she never left her mother and Sage alone together.

"Actually, I'm going to go to Gabi's. She already invited me," Sage said. "I'll be home in a few hours."

"Okay," Rae agreed, but her expression was sour. She liked Sage. She didn't want her to be part of Gabi's inner circle.

"Aren't you worried about how poor Sage, who just got to Earth two days ago, is going to get home without you?" Gabi asked.

Rae realized that Gabi didn't know she lived on Larson

Street. And she couldn't know.

"Oh, uh…you and Alyssa live on the same street, so I'll just come to your house to walk Sage to my house," Rae replied.

"There's no need for that Rae," Sage said. "I know Larson street well enough to walk back to your house."

Rae gasped, and the other girls groaned.

"Uh oh," Ellie sing-songed. Rae had forgotten to tell Sage not to mention to Gabi that they lived on the same street.

"What?" Gabi cried exaggeratedly. "You mean…you _live_ on Larson street Rae?"

"You already know, don't you?" Rae groaned.

"That's not all I know New Girl," Gabi snarled. "AKA daughter of Frank Dylan and Silena Shane."

Rae groaned again. "Please don't tell anyone."

"Too late. All the cheerleaders know already," Gabi replied.

"Look, at my last school, everyone knew who my parents were and my life wasn't the same. You have this information and I'm begging you, please don't tell anyone," Rae pleaded.

"Oh look at that, the almighty Keeper of the Heart and leader of the guardians is _begging_," Gabi taunted.

"Gabi, that's not very nice," Sage protested.

"Hm…no I guess it's not," Gabi replied shrugged. "You know what else isn't right? Some random new girl coming in and trying to steal my boyfriend."

"For the _last_ time, I don't like Jake!" Rae cried, realizing for the first time, she might be lying.

"Spare me. Here's the deal. I won't tell anyone…provided you stay away from Jake. I mean it. No more walking with him to class, no more saying hi in halls or talking to him or even looking at him. Got it?"

"Gabi-"

"Stay out of this Classless-a!"

"I'm absolutely sure we've had several conversations in which I told you not to call Alyssa names!"

"Rae, this isn't about me," Alyssa insisted.

"She's right New Girl. This is about you. So, what do you say?"

"Fine. I'll stay away from Jake," Rae agreed. It's not like she cared anyway. It would be a relief, not having him around all the time.

"Good," Gabi said, smirking.

"Come on, that's not right," Josh said. "You're supposed to be a team, and you're all acting like enemies. All you do is insult each other. Especially you Gabi. You're just straight up mean!"

"Oh that's a smart way to talk to the person you live with," Gabi snapped, rounding on him.

Josh completely ignored her and instead said, "And it's not like being mean is your nature. It can't be because I see how you act around your brother. If you were a mean person by nature, there's no way you'd be as sweet as you are with Luc or with Bree or Jake for that matter. But you can't keep being mean to people you don't like, especially your fellow guardians. I don't care if you think they're beneath you. The fact that you didn't go to Meridian to help them the way Caty did already proves she'd worth ten of you. And the way to speak to the rest of the guardians is helping to prove the other girls are too."

Gabi looked shocked that anyone would speak to her that way. Caty was blushing, and the other girls were smirking at Gabi.

"Well…I _never_…arghhh!" Gabi cried.

"How _very_ articulate of you," Caty said, rolling her eyes. "And you call yourself a writer!"

Gabi's eyes flashed dangerously. No one questioned her writing skills! Before she could say anything however, Ellie gasped.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

"Um…my house is in the opposite direction," she said.

The others gave her incredulous looks. Ellie blushed before murmuring "bye" and turning around.

"That girl is really something," Caty whispered when she was out of earshot.

"She's sweet," Sage said. "And her enthusiasm and optimism are infectious and admirable."

"I'm not saying she's not sweet or anything. She just seems a bit scatterbrained sometimes. Could get her into trouble. Especially during a battle."

"Speaking of," Gabi said, "I thought we were supposed to be practicing with our out of control powers. Why did today's guardian training turn into story time?"

"She's right," Rae said. "Yes Hay Lin had to tell us about Kasson, and it was good that Ellie mentioned her dream and we found out about the Snake Dude that shoots spider webs, but we do need to train, especially me. I have no powers, so I need to learn how to fight."

"And fly," Caty said. "How has your mother not noticed you come home with bandages everywhere? I get that you were sweaters and jeans, but what about the cuts on your face?"

"My bangs hide the cuts on the forehead, and the rest are just bruises. I told my mom I was practicing tennis by hitting a ball against a wall and it keeps hitting me."

"And she believed you?"

"My mom's more gullible than I'd like to believe," Rae admitted. "I once managed to convince her the C I got on a test stood for correct because my teacher that year used a different grading system."

Alyssa and Caty laughed.

"What's a grading system?" Sage asked.

"Come on you two. I'm going to give you a crash course on all things Earth related. We're going to the mall," Gabi said.

"What's a mall?" Josh asked.

All the girls laughed this time before Josh and Sage followed Gabi, who started walking the other way to get to the mall.

The other three continued on.

"So Lyssa, what do you tell your mother you're doing til 8pm every day? And what do you say about dinner?" Caty asked. "I told my parents I'm tutoring Cara as a volunteer position, and since Hay Lin can't pay me, she gives me dinner for free every night."

Hay Lin gave the girls free dinner every night at 7, after they were done for the day. Rae had told her mother the same thing Caty told hers about tutoring. Gabi said something similar. Instead of tutoring, she told her father she was helping Cara with her tumbling so she could try out for cheerleading next year, and Hay Lin gave her dinner for that. Her father didn't understand-nor did he try to understand-why Gabi needed to help this girl if she couldn't try out til _next_ year, but not having Gabi at dinner meant less fighting between her, Sienna, and Eva, so as long as she was getting fed, he didn't mind. Ellie didn't have to tell her parents anything, and all she told Jason was that she was reconnecting with Alyssa if he was home early enough to ask what she did that day.

"I told her Chris isn't present at guardian training even though he's a regent and he and I work on homework and art projects while you guys do your guardian training and the only time I join you guys is at dinner," Alyssa replied.

"Has she asked why you don't just come home?"

"Yeah, and I told her it's because I want to walk home with Rae, especially since she comes over every day anyway.

"But we don't even get home til after eight. How much time can you guys spend with each other?" Caty asked. Her friends weren't even allowed over past 6 on a school night unless they were specifically invited over for dinner, a plan that Caty had to make with her mom in advance.

"I usually go home around 11," Rae shrugged. "We just spend the time in Lyssa's room doing homework, and Mrs. Ashcroft knows that. Well, she thinks we're finishing up homework cuz Alyssa supposedly does some with Chris in the afternoon, but you know, same basic principle. And my mom knows we're doing homework too, so they're okay with it since it's school related."

"Rae and I make great study partners," Alyssa said. "I thought we'd distract each other the way Adam, Ellie, and I used to, but we stay super focused and get stuff done quickly so we usually have an hour to just hang out."

"And your mother just lets you walk home at 11 at night?" Caty asked. "I know it's the same street but still."

Rae snorted. "Please. Mom sends Harvey. He's waiting outside by 11 every night."

Caty laughed as the girls stopped. Rae and Alyssa turned the corner while Caty bid them good bye and crossed the street to continue on to her house.

When Caty got home, she unlocked the door with her key and was met with her angry parents.

"Uh…hi?" Caty said, slightly bewildered.

"Caitlin Lewis, where were you?" her mother demanded.

"The Silver Dragon…like every day."

Iris sighed. "We told you that your cousins were having dinner here today," she said. "You were supposed to come home early."

Caitlin cringed as she saw Aunt Dawn and Lili sitting on the couch. Libby and Layla were doing something with their TrappleTab (the line of tablets Frank Dylan invented), and the boys were playing tag.

"I'm sorry. I forgot," Caty said sincerely.

"You don't usually forget these things," Jeremy frowned. "We already don't like that you get free food from your student's mother. It's like payment, and you're supposed to be volunteering when you tutor this girl. But today we told you to come home."

"I _said_ I forgot," Caty snapped irritably. So Lili and her family was here. So what? Didn't they just spend the entire summer living together? Aunt Dawn and her kids coming over couldn't be considered a special occasion already!

"Maybe you should quit this tutoring job," Iris suggested.

"I'd hardly call it a job. Despite getting free food, it is voluntary," Caty insisted. Being a guardian may not be voluntary, but it was her _choice_ to continue training.

"But it's taking up so much of your time," Jeremy protested. "Between all your other activities, when do you have time to spend with your friends?"

"My friends are _in_ my activities," Caty said. Nina, Misha, and the boys were in everything she did, except newspaper, which was just Misha and Brian, and soccer which was just Nina, which was good enough.

"But you're coming home late and staying up late to finish your homework," Jeremy said.

"I don't mind."

Her mother opened her mouth to say something, but Caty moved past her, and immediately, Lili ran over to her. "Caty! I heard your friends with New Girl now."

"Yes I am, and I'd thank you to know her name. It's Rae," Caty said. "Why do you care? Don't you and the other bimbos you hang out with use 'New Girl' as an insult?"

"Caty!" Iris cried. "Be nice to your cousin."

"I didn't say _she_ was a bimbo," Caty said, knowing that's what her mother was referring to.

"But you insinuated it," Lili said, not looking at all bothered.

"What a big word for such a small mind!" Caty gasped sarcastically. Before her mother could get mad at her, she went on, "You know what the problem with you and the band of bitches is? You think your stereotypes are totally right. What gave you the right to name Alyssa, Classless-a Klutzcrfot anyway?"

"In case you forgot, that was years ago, so I wasn't part of it," Lili said. "And you had a personal vendetta against Classless-a til a few days ago."

"See! That's I mean! Yes, I totally was jealous that Alyssa was smarter than me and was afraid to invite her to hang out with us because I thought she'd steal my thunder. And sure I called her Classless-a, to her face, the few times she talked to me. But that's because of what Gabi did. If Gabi didn't pull that stunt all those years ago, Alyssa never would've been downgraded to a friendless loser, and she would've had a place among the artsy kids."

"You mean the art geeks?"

"That's exactly it right there! What makes them geeks? The fact that they don't prance around half dressed for guys who do dumb things like push and tackle each other to get a ball through a hoop?"

"You play soccer!"

"I have nothing against sports, I just don't think basketball or football teams needs girls who don't have any self-respect to chant for them."

"I'll have you know, cheerleading is a sport."

"Cheerleading is disgusting!" Caty yelled.

It was at this moment Caty noticed everyone else was staring at Caty and Lili, bewildered by the argument. For one thing, Caty hadn't said a word against Lili because she didn't want to get in trouble. For another thing, nicknames and stereotypes never bothered Caty before.

Caty just shook her head and walked into her room and yelped.

"Why is my bed suddenly bigger?"

"Well, we replaced your twin sized mattress with a full size," Iris said, as if that in any way answered Caty's question.

"Because…?"

"Because your grandparents are coming to stay with us in two months so they can help out with you sister after she's born," Jeremy said.

"And they're getting my room?"

"It'll still be your room honey," Iris promised. "They'll only be sleeping there."

"And where will I sleep?"

"We were thinking you could sleep in the living room?"

"There's no bed in the living room! Why can't you put Miss. Practically Has My Name's crib in the living room?"

Her parents exchanged puzzled looks. "Do you mean the baby?" Iris asked, making Lili snicker. "Because if so, it's because the living room is too busy for it to be a suitable place for her to sleep."

"As if she'll sleep in the first place! Tutoring isn't going to be the thing keeping me up late. It'll be her. This baby is ruining my life!" Caty screaming, walking in her room and slamming the door. Before she could lock it, Lili walked in and closed the door behind her.

"What Lil?" Caty shouted.

"Calm down Caty. I just wanted to know if you knew who New Girl's parents are?"

Caty remembered Gabi saying _all_ the cheerleaders knew. "Silena Shane and Frank Dylan. So?"

"So, maybe you could ask her to ask her mother to choose me for the internship?"

"No."

"But Caty-"

"No!" Caty cried. "I can't believe you'd even ask me that! I'd be abusing my friendship with Rae."

"You owe me for helping you with this Brian thing."

"First of all, you said you'd help us if Misha explained _The Scarlet Letter_ to you, which she did. You got a 100% on the quiz the teacher gave you thanks to her explanation. And second, we're not even sure if you're plan will work."

"Then we need to put our plan into action. Tomorrow."

"I really don't know about this!"

"Come on, we did too much planning for you to back out of this now!"

Caty sighed. "If I agree to do this tomorrow, will you go away?"

"If that's what it takes."

"Fine, then."

Lili smiled and left.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Okay so this place has lots of different stores where you can buy different things?" Josh asked as he, Sage, and Gabi walked around the mall.

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you just call it a shopping center?" Josh asked.

"Because no one calls it that. It's the _mall_," Gabi insisted.

"How does that make any sense? Is mall short for something?" Josh asked.

"No. I don't think so. Most things don't make sense, okay? I don't know _why_ it's called a mall, it just _is_."

"But there's no rhyme or reason?"

"No!"

"Just let it go Josh," Sage sighed, knowing this argument was pointless.

"What's that?" Josh asked, pointing to an impressive looking store with the letters TR on the top.

"That's the Trapple Industries store. You know, the one with all the inventions Rae's father made. Come on, I'll show you!"

The Meridian inhabitants followed Gabi into the store. She pointed to a device that looked like a big screen. "This is a TrappleTab. It's a tablet."

"Stone tablets?" Josh asked.

"Does this _look_ like stone to you? You grandmother has a computer, right?"

"Yeah."

"Does she have a laptop?"

"Aunt Lillian does."

"Okay, so a tablet it like a laptop, except everything, including the keyboard, shows up on the screen. You can get an external keyboard for tablets, but few people do. It's not supposed to be a substitute for your laptop."

"And these are phones, right?" Sage asked, pointing to something.

"Yes. That's the TrapplePhone 6.1, the newest model. I just got it. The screen is a little bigger than the ones on the TrapplePhone 5.4, which is what Chris and most other people have."

"The idea of a phone is so interesting," Sage said. "For a while, all we knew was the phone attached to the wall that the Hales had. And Josh's grandmother and Lillian had cell phones but they opened and closed."

Gabi snorted. "Those are called flip phones. Now they're called dinosaurs because that's how old they are. I don't know a single person that still has one."

"Why does everyone have to mess with what works? At Meridian, we keep something the same if it works out."

"Then how does your culture and world advance?"

"Why would we need it to advance?"

"Advancement is good. It makes things better."

"We don't need things to be better. They're fine the way they are."

"And I guess everyone in Meridian is as terrified of change as you are."

"We just don't see why we should use our time and resources trying to improve something that works fine the way it is."

"Fine shouldn't be good enough. You guys should be making everything the best it could be. What else would you do with your time anyway?"

"Currently? Fighting a war!"

"Okay, maybe we should go somewhere else!" Sage suggested, not liking the intense glares Josh and Gabi were exchanging.

"Okay," Gabi sighed. "How about Sephora? It's not as good as some other places, but it's the best in the mall."

"Best what?" Josh asked.

"Make up store."

Sage squealed in delight. "Yes! Let's go now!"

In about fifteen minutes, Sage had bought up the entire store. Well, Gabi was the one who actually paid, assuring Sage money practically did grow in trees for her and she didn't mind.

"What is that?" Josh asked after the cashier handed Gabi back her credit card.

"It's a credit card. It's a piece of plastic that has money on it and the cashier's swipe it in their machines and it pays for stuff."

"Is it magic?" Sage asked, grabbing her seven bags the cashier needed to use for all the makeup Sage wanted.

"No. Like Chris said about lockers, it's just good old Earth technology."

A suspicious looking girl tried to exit Sephora and the alarms started going off. Gabi rolled her eyes. That girl wasn't a very good shoplifter.

Josh jumped and got in a fighting stance.

"Chill," Gabi said.

Sage squealed and reached for her dagger.

"No! Relax. You take that thing out and we'll be put in a holding cell," Gabi said sternly.

Sage reluctantly hid the dagger.

The three exited the store.

"What was that?" Sage asked.

"That girl was trying to steal from the store," Gabi said. "Which does not give you license to attack her."

"But-"

"That's what you do in Meridian, yeah, I know," Gabi interrupted Josh. "But here we have people who deal with that. Security guards and police officers. We don't take the law into our own hands here, because most people don't know how to fight or have weapons on them at all times."

"Why not?"

"Well for one thing, our weapon of choice is a gun, which is a lot more dangerous than a sword, so we can't just carry it around everywhere, and we usually don't, because we trust people here. We don't have evil magical princes overthrowing queens."

"Well a lot of good that trust did you! Someone just tried to steal."

"Steal a tube of lipstick or an eye pencil. Not a big deal," Gabi said.

"And what, your queens live peacefully here?"

"No, we don't have queens here. We have a president."

"What's a president?" Sage asked.

Gabi sighed and explained democracy to the best friends.

"But how do you know everyone will listen to the president?"

"It's the law," Gabi said.

"So?"

"So…here most people follow the law. Sure there are murderers and thieves everywhere, but in this world, just because someone is a big ugly brute, that doesn't mean they can take advantage of people and take whatever they want from stores and collect unjust taxes."

Josh pondered this. "How did the people in your world become this way?"

Gabi shrugged. "I'm sure part of it has to do with a revolutionary war, but Classless-a or Queen Nerd can explain that better."

Josh glared at her. "Do you always have to call people names? Is that the only way you can feel better about yourself?"

"Josh!" Sage exclaimed.

Before Gabi could respond, a female voice said tauntingly, "Gabi, how refreshing it is to see you out and about! I thought you'd forgotten about the outside world."

Gabi growled softly before looking up to see Lana and Dalton. Dalton looked really uncomfortable with Lana, but he deserved it. For a long time, Gabi thought Dalton was a decent guy who really liked Bree. But then Bree actually asked him out after he broke up with Lana and he turned her down because he was back with Lana! She thought the whole point of him dating Lana was to make Bree jealous.

"Lana. What a surprise," Gabi said, her undertones saying 'You are unwelcome.'

"Josh, Sage, how are you guys?" Lana asked, this time her tone sincere.

"Hi Lana," Sage said cheerfully, causing Gabi and Josh to roll their eyes at each other. Even Josh could tell from the brief period of time he spent with her at lunch that Lana was trouble. Why couldn't Sage see it?

"You did so well at your special audition today Sage," Lana said. "I was thinking you and I should get together sometimes and do some extra practice. You could help me out. I'm not nearly as coordinated as you or Gabi."

'Please,' Gabi thought. All Lana wanted to do was learn some of the more unconventional moves Sage had tried out with. Moves that would automatically get a girl the co-captain spot and the Varsity spot should they want them. Sage didn't. Lana did.

"She can't," Gabi said stiffly. "She has other things to do after school."

"Like what?" Sage asked.

Was she serious?

"Like GRACE," Josh said.

"Oh right."

"Grace?" Lana repeated.

"Her sister!" Gabi covered. "Her sister Grace. She's five and Sage has to pick her up from…" Gabi paused. When she was five and in kindergarten, she'd go to KinderCare after school. There was one right by Sheffield. "From KinderCare and baby sit her. She only has time for cheerleading practice, but no time after that."

"Well we can do it at your house, or I guess New Girl's house," Lana shrugged. "In fact, why can't New Girl watch her?"

"New Girl goes to Classless-a's house every day," Gabi said.

"How do you _know_ that?"

"Oh, uh…Sage told me."

"Well, we can practice cheerleading while you watch you sister," Lana said.

"Grace needs constant supervision," Sage said.

"Yeah, she's a real screw up. Makes a mess everywhere she goes," Josh said, making Gabi glare at both Sage and Josh, knowing what they really meant was GRACE were screw-ups that needed constant supervision.

"We need to be going now," Gabi said quickly. "Bye Lana, see you tomorrow. Dalton…go die."

Dalton paled, but didn't say anything as Gabi led her friends away.

"What did that guy ever do to you?" Josh asked.

"Not to me. To Bree. He likes Bree but he asked Lana out."

"Is that another Earth thing?" Josh asked. "Because in Meridian, we only ask out people we _like_."

Sage coughed and Gabi knew what that meant. If Josh liked Sage, he would've asked her out by now.

"Look, he didn't actually ask Lana out exactly. She asked him out and he said yes to see if he could make Bree jealous, and it worked well enough that she was waiting for Lana and Dalton to break up so she could ask Dalton out."

"How'd she know they were going to break up?" Josh asked.

"Lana only asked Dalton out so she could have a summer romance to compete with the one I was having with my boyfriend Jake. And she chose Dalton specifically to get to Bree. But everyone knows the boy Lana is really after is Chris."

"Like, _our_ Chris?" Sage asked.

Gabi nodded.

"He never told us that!"

"He probably doesn't know," Gabi replied. "And even if he did, he'd never go out with Lana…I hope. Anyway, they broke up and Bree asked Dalton out and he turned her down. We found Bree waited too long and Lana and Dalton were back together. I confronted Lana, and after she accused me of showing favoritism and the squad and such, she also informed me it was Dalton that asked _her _out, not the other way around."

"But you said he likes Bree," Sage pointed out.

"He does! I thought he did. He told me as much this summer."

"Well maybe he likes Lana now," Josh said.

"Who would actually _like_ that girl?"

"Well, Jake actually _likes_ you. That's more unbelievable than someone liking Lana," Josh joked.

"Your mother was the Earth guardian. Did she ever show you how deadly her powers can be?"

"Oh yeah."

"Then you should know I can eventually kill you if you keep making comments like that."

Josh rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm terrified of a girl who tries to attack others but usually ends up attacking herself."

"She'll get stronger," Sage said, both as a warning to Jake and as encouragement for Gabi.

"Doubtful," Josh scoffed. "I don't see _how_ you guys plan to defeat Kasson the way you guys are going. Alyssa's afraid of her power, and since the battle, she hasn't thrown a big enough fireball to do any damage. Caty keeps getting thrown back every time she launches an attack. You end up attacking yourself. Ellie has terrible aim. And Rae couldn't fly if her life depended on it. She is a pretty quick to learn how to fight with a sword though. Maybe you should all just learn how to do that."

"How are five swords supposed to defeat a family of sorcerers?" Gabi bit out.

"They're not. So you guys better improve."

"And when you become a master at controlling the guardians' powers, let me know, will you?" Gabi snapped.

"Is this going to be constant thing?" Sage asked worriedly. "Are you guys gonna fight 24/7, because if so, maybe we should switch houses."

"I have no problem with that," Josh said somewhat dreamily.

Seriously? Josh had a crush on _New Girl_? When someone as absolutely gorgeous and sweet as Sage was right in front of him?

"I do," Gabi said. "I chose to host Josh for Luc. Already they've become friends."

"I _would_ feel bad about leaving him," Josh agreed. "The kid's really grown on me."

"Address by his name, okay?" Gabi demanded.

Josh just nodded, not really wanting to get into another argument with the admittedly gorgeous girl.

"You have really interesting eyes," he said.

"Thanks. Everyone calls them kaleidoscope eyes."

"What's a kaleidoscope?" Sage asked, making Gabi laugh.

"Never mind."

"Did you inherit those eyes?" Josh asked. "I've never seen eyes that change color like that."

"My mom's eyes used to change," Gabi said. "Sometimes green, sometimes blue, like mine, but mine change to brown sometimes, and hers used to change to gray instead. I think that'd be cooler."

"But you have brown hair and it really enhances your eyes when they're brown well," Sage pointed out.

"Your eyes are green right now. But not a dull green like mine. They're really pretty, and your hair enhances them," Josh said.

Gabi blushed. Josh had a temper and he wasn't the nicest person she'd ever met, but he _was _the most sincere, which was admirable. She could why Sage liked him so much.

"Josh, would you do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

"Well, like I said, Bree likes Dalton and she's my best friend and I think Dalton needs to be made jealous, so that he'd dump Lana and ask Bree out so she needs to go out with someone, but Dalton and Bree are friends, so he knows who her type and you're it."

"Me?"

"Yup. So I need you to ask Bree out."

"What?!" But the exclamation didn't come from Josh, who looked excited at the prospect of asking out Gabi's pretty best friend. It came from Sage. Gabi was prepared though.

"It won't be a real date."

"It won't?" Josh asked, looking put out.

"Like I said, you're her type, and at another time, you guys would have a chance. But Bree is into Dalton. She has been for a long time. So I want you to ask her out tomorrow at lunch. Dalton will be at our table. Bree will know you're going to ask her out, so she'll say yes. And you'll fake a relationship. It shouldn't take Dalton too long to get jealous enough to break up with Lana and ask Bree out."

"Unless he actually does like Lana," Josh pointed out.

"You need to stop speaking," Gabi said darkly, making Sage laugh.

Sage. That was another thing. Bree was good a faking a relationship. Gabi was hoping Sage would get jealous enough to gather her courage and ask Josh out.

"So, will you do it?" Gabi persisted.

"Yeah, okay, I'm in," Josh agreed.

Gabi squealed in delight and hugged Josh. Why did she get so annoyed with this guy?

"Come on, let's go home. I think you guys have had enough Earth culture for now."

"More like _dumb_ culture," Josh fired back.

Right. That's why.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Lil, are you sure about this? I can barely walk," Caty complained as her friends helped her to the Debate Team room. "And we're supposed to be debating New Dorp today. How can they take me seriously in _this_?"

"I'm absolutely sure. And don't worry about that other team. All you need to concern yourself with is making sure Brian drools over you."

"Ew," Caty muttered, making her friends laugh and Lili roll her eyes.

Misha, Nina, and Lili had come over that morning to help Caty get ready for the day. Lili had brought over her cutest outfits and her entire arsenal of make up to make Caty over. Caty always thought Lili wore too much make up, but at the same time, Lili had asked out ten guys over the summer, and they all fell all over themselves saying yes. She couldn't argue with results like that.

Lili put Caty's hair up in a high ponytail, like the ones the cheerleaders wore. "Putting your hair in a French braid every day is too modest," she had said.

Caty tried to tell her a tight French braid was easy to manage because her hair didn't fall in her face, but Lili ignored her. She was unable to tell whether Caty's blue-green eyes looked more blue or green that day, so she used water to blend an emerald green and cyan eyeshadow together. It would've looked nice if Lili hadn't made it look like Caty _fell _into a vat of eye shadow. It was too much and her eyes kept watering. The brown eyeshadow and the mascara didn't help, especially since Caty insisted on applying the mascara herself (she didn't trust Lili to come near her with the sharp brush thing), and ended up poking herself in the eye. She squealed, then ran around the room, blinking like there was no tomorrow because Lili screamed "Don't let your eyes water, it'll ruin your eyeliner!"

Her face felt a hundred pounds heavier because Lili had put so much blush on it, her cheeks looked like cake, and the few loose strands of hair Lili purposely left out of her ponytail kept sticking to her heavily glossed lips. At least she managed to convince Lili to use clear lip gloss instead of colored lipstick.

That was it though. Lili made her wear a long pink blouse that hung off her shoulders and a black mini skirt that went half way down her thighs. Caty pointed out that it was against the dress code, but Lili said the cheerleaders wore stuff like that all the time and didn't get in trouble.

"Of course you don't get in trouble, everyone's just happy you don't prance around in your cheerleading uniforms," Caty had snapped, but again Lili had ignored her as she picked up black, five inch stiletto heels. Caty had to remind her cousin she'd fractured her right ankle, but Lili managed to get to shoe on over the cast.

Caty had walked (or more accurately, stumbled) out of her room and asked her dad for a ride because there was no way she could walk to school. Her dad, horrified at the sight of his daughter, demanded she go change.

Caty tried to run back to her room, but Misha and Nina held her back as Lili approached Caty's mother and said, "Aunt Iris, doesn't Caty look great today?"

Iris looked over and smiled. "Caty what a cute outfit!" Then, as if that hadn't angered her father enough, she said "Do you girls want a ride to school?"

Nina had Iris drop them off at the entrance closest to the debate team room. The entire team was meeting there half an hour before school because the bus that took them to New Dorp arrived five minutes before their first class. Caty, Misha, and Brian had to skip a Student Council meeting as they told Jake yesterday, and while Jake gave Misha and Brian a smile and wished them luck, he called Caty irresponsible. How did she make so many enemies?

Caty had tried to balance in the hells and twisted her left ankle. Misha and Nina had to support her the rest of the way.

The four girls walked into the room, trying to look confident. A few people looked up, but Brian and his friends weren't part of that group.

"Okay, go talk to him," Misha said.

"You just have to be sexy," Lili added. "Make it so the only way he could not be attracted to you is if he were gay."

"How do we know he's not?"

"He had three girlfriends. I doubt he's gay," Nina said. Sheffield may have lots of popular kids and bullies, but being gay was one thing no one made fun of. Nina was pretty sure every gay kid had come out already.

"And those girlfriends were prettier than me," Caty said. She had never understood how Brian had managed to have three pretty girlfriends from the wannabe popular clique until she realized on the first day how incredibly hot he actually was.

"Not today they aren't," Lili said confidently. "Just don't mess up."

"Great pep talk cuz. Thanks," Caty said dryly. She didn't like how she looked today. The 'dunk you head in make-up' look might've worked for Lili, but it made Caty look like a plastic doll.

Lili laughed. "Just go!"

Caty sighed and walked over to where Brian and his friends were standing. "Hey Brian," she said.

Brian looked up, surprised that Caty would actually willingly say something to him. Sure she was friends with his friends, and he was friends with hers, but the two of them couldn't be considered anything but bitter rivals.

"Um, hi Caty," he said.

Caty flashed him a smile and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She had no idea what to say next. She looked back at Lili to see she'd disappeared. Uh oh.

"Um…how are you today?"

Brian looked confused while his friends had smirks playing on their faces.

"Fine, I guess? Pumped for my debate. Is your friend ready?"

Along with Shelia Breslin and a boy from her group, Taylor May, Brian and Misha would debate New Dorp students on the pros (Sheffield) and cons (New Dorp) of New York's Governor Cuomo.

"Yeah, definitely," Caty said.

"Great."

The two stared at each other for a moment. Brian seemed to be looking over her shoulder, but Caty, getting lost in Brian's eyes, didn't notice.

"Uh, Caty?"

"Yes Brian?"

"Do you think you could move? The desk you're leaning against has my research on it."

Caty went bright red as Brian's friends began to laugh. She understood Travis and Nick laughing, but Will was usually kind.

"Sorry," she muttered, trying to move. She tried to move away, but pain shot through her twisted ankle, and as the foot slipped sideways, Caty lost balance and fell. She wailed in pain as her right foot hit the leg of the desk right where the fracture was.

"Caty!" Nina and Misha ran over to her right away.

"I'm okay," she assured them.

Her friends helped her up.

"Where did Lili go?"

"Gabi called an early cheerleading practice and she was already late," Misha said.

"How's your leg?"

"The fractured leg is throbbing, but as long as I don't put too much wait on the left leg, the twisted ankle is okay."

"You're not usually such a klutz," Nina said.

"It's the heels," Caty sighed. "Tell me the truth. How badly did I embarrass myself?"

"You didn't at all!" Nina said way too quickly.

"You're a terrible liar!"

"It really wasn't that bad," Misha reassured, but when Caty looked back at Brian, she saw him and his friend staring at her, still laughing.

"I quit life," Caty moaned. She always thought she had a brilliant mind, but the minute she tried to charm a boy who apparently already had a little thing for her, she turned into a blithering idiot who couldn't take one single step without falling down. Her fracture might've gotten worse, but it was her pride that was really injured. She could get straight As, win Best Lawyer for Mock Trial three years in a row, and make the soccer team no question, but couldn't talk to a boy. She was such a loser!

And it wasn't just boys either. It was everything. Between all her activities and guardian training, her grades were slipping. She wasn't a good enough child for her parents, so they were having another one. She wasn't a good enough politician so she lost class president to Jake Saunders. She wasn't pretty and smooth enough to charm Brian. And she wasn't powerful enough to not mess up when she trained with her powers. She wasn't a very good human and she wasn't a very good guardian. How was she supposed to help save the world? She was an honest to goodness failure.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Run," Rae whispered as the bell rang. Alyssa had heard it three times already, so she'd already packed up.

"Hey Rae, Alyssa, wait up!" they heard Jake call as they rushed to the cafeteria.

"Go, go, faster!" Rae cried.

Alyssa sighed and rolled her eyes, but broke into a run like her friend had.

They made it to the cafeteria in record time. Caty and her friends still weren't back from their Debate Team trip, so Alyssa and Rae chose the table they sat at before Caty invited them to sit with her.

"This is getting a little ridiculous, don't you think? You can't avoid him forever," Alyssa pointed out.

"Jake is like a bill collector. Ignore his calls and eventually, he'll go away."

"No, eventually they'll shut down your power," Alyssa replied. "That boy's more persistent than a little kid who wants a new toy."

Rae sighed. "Gabi said to stay away from him, so that's what I have to do."

"I don't like that she gets to tell you what to do. That she gets to _threaten_ you!" Alyssa burst out.

"I don't particularly enjoy it either," Rae said sarcastically. "But the name of the game here is blackmail, and Gabi's on the winning side."

"Maybe we should tell Hay Lin."

"Tell Hay Lin what?" Ellie asked as she joined them at the table.

Alyssa and Rae looked surprised that Ellie joined them, but didn't comment. "I was just thinking Rae should tell Hay Lin about Gabi's blackmail."

"But we can't tell Hay Lin," Rae said. "Sure she's our guardian teacher, but this has nothing to do with guardians. This is regular high school drama, and I'm failing to see how a 40-year-old woman with a freakish love for writing on herself"

"She does write on herself a lot, doesn't she? All over her hands and arms, and once on her forehead, except it came out backwards," Alyssa recalled laughing.

"I wonder if she ever got ink poisoning." Ellie wondered.

"Is that a real thing?" Rae asked.

Ellie and Alyssa shrugged.

"But anyway, she writes on her hands every five seconds," Rae said.

"Maybe it's an addiction," Alyssa said. "A weird addiction, but still."

"Or maybe she was cursed!" Ellie cried.

"To write on herself?" Alyssa asked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of she can never use paper again."

"What kind of curse is _that_?" Rae asked.

"A good one! I'd go crazy if I could never use paper again!" Ellie insisted.

"She has a point," Alyssa admitted. If she couldn't use paper, she'd never be able to paint or sketch again!

"Okay, well my point still stands," Rae said. "Hay Lin can't help us."

"Hey guys!" Jake said as he plopped down in front of Ellie. "Hi El!"

"Hi Jake," Ellie responded dreamily.

"And apparently we can't help ourselves either," Alyssa muttered.

Jake gave her a confused look. "What?"

"Nothing."

"What are you doing here anyway? Don't you usually sit with Gabi?" Rae asked.

"That table's a bit crowded today."

"It looks just as populated as it does every day," Rae replied, rolling her eyes.

"Did I do something wrong?" Jake asked. "Because you've been avoiding me all day."

"I have not," Rae retorted. "I'm going to go to the library."

"Wait up, I'll come," Alyssa said.

"You're just proving me right!" Jake called, but his comment fell on deaf ears.

ᴥ

"You okay?" Alyssa asked as they walked to the library.

"I guess. It's just…you can tell Ellie has a crush on Jake, can't you?"

"Yeah, which is just strange because when we were friends, she hated him as much as I did. Do. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about him anymore. But anyway, why do you ask?"

"Well, yesterday, when I told Gabi I don't like Jake…that was the first time I realized I might not be telling the truth. And when I realized today that Ellie likes him, I got jealous."

"So you are starting to like him."

"Yeah. But it doesn't matter because I can't hang around him anymore. Not if I want Gabi and the cheerleaders to keep my secret."

Alyssa grew angry. She hated that Gabi had control over her best friend like this, but what could she do? Looking down, she saw her hands had burst into flames. She calmed herself down and extinguished the fire.

"We have to do something," Alyssa said.

"There's nothing we can do. Let's just leave it," Rae said.

Alyssa frowned. She knew Rae pretty well, or at least, she thought she did. And she'd never pegged Rae for a quitter. How bad did she have it at her last school that she would do anything, including sacrifice a guy she really liked and listen to a mean girl she absolutely _hated_, just so her secret wouldn't come out? Rae was sarcastic and funny and didn't take shit from anybody, least of all _Gabi_. What did she think would happen if everyone knew?

"And it's not even like I care! _That_ much," Rae said. "And I mean, it's only been a couple of hours. But I'm just used to having him around, you know? I mean, he was there even before you were. He was the first person I met here and everywhere I turned, he was always just there. And I thought I didn't like that. I thought it was annoying. But now that we've had to run from him, he's not there anymore and I realized, I didn't hate it. It was actually kind of…"

"Nice?" Alyssa supplied, and Rae nodded.

"But it's okay. He's just a guy. And I will _not_ get all out of sorts because of a guy."

Alyssa opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, knowing it was a lost cause. The pair settled on two of the beanbag chairs in the library and began to read ahead in _Things Fall Apart_. Alyssa knew she couldn't talk Rae into doing something about this whole Gabi situation, but that was okay. Alyssa was going to do something about it herself.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you guys think? I hope you liked it, and are glad it was up before Tuesday! I wrote this chapter in chunks, so I'm not surprised it was finished earlier than usual. Review guys! Please and thank you!**


	11. Effect of the Blackmail

**A/N:** **Another Tuesday, another chapter (except it's you know, Friday). This is another filler chapter, and it focuses on developing the relationships between the characters, such as the friendship between Rae and Jake, Alyssa and Jake, and Caty and Jake, and the romantic relationship between Jake and Gabi among others, just so you guys can get a feel for how the characters are getting along (or not). Anyway, a lot of you guys enjoyed the last chapter, so I hope you enjoy this one too. I'm most likely going to be updating next Friday or Saturday instead of Tuesday, so I guess my weekly updates will be over the weekend from now on. And before the shout-outs, I just want to give a huge thanks you to MadWhiteRabbit for favoriting and following my story! It really means a lot to me!**

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

**Emily: I hope so. The thought did cross my mind that no one would know! And I honestly don't know if it's possible for a person to think you're not fun, unless they are deprived of enjoyability (which apparently isn't a word)! Actually, I had decided on Amanda before I wanted to put you in the story. And speaking of changing names, I can't see Blaise Zabini naming his kid Damon, especially since I don't think the kids' mothers are as important in this story, so I'm changing his name to Enzo. And okay, new idea. I'll put you in the Scorose story where Rose and Scorp both end up in Ravenclaw. They're gonna need other friends, so I'll give Rose Alice and Emily from her dorm. Sage **_**is**_** boring, but I'm gonna try to give her more character soon. Right now, she's like Nate. A blob. **_**I**_** forgot about Caty's fracture, but remembered in time to put it in the last chapter! And actually, I have words already so ha! Lol**

**Shay: That's such a pretty name, but I also understand why you go by a nickname. I really don't know what to do about the couples anymore. I usually just let the characters take me wherever they want to go, and let them decide who they want to be with, but for this chapter, I wrote out full character bios for the first time (I usually get bored of character bios and quit in the middle or after two characters at most) and planned out their love interests, and now I don't like my old plans. I guess we'll see what happens. I feel bad for Caty too, but I have a reason that she failed the first time, which will be coming up in the next couple of chapters. The break up between Gabi and Jake that everyone figured out will inevitably happen will also be taking place soon, sooner than the chapter that gives way to Caty's second try with Brian. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!**

**SilvenArrow: I'm glad you keep checking, that's the highest compliment! I know you did that with Playing the Player too. I was hoping Josh would mirror Caleb closely because I know a lot of people like his character, especially from the first season of the TV show, when he was so funny as he explored Earth culture. Don't worry, next time Caty tries to win over Brian, she'll have the best coach possible! Thanks for the review. Hope you like what I put in this chapter!**

**Taylor: Well, I guess you know the answer to that, huh? When I got your review, it was Monday, and I realized I couldn't finish this chapter in one day with what I had. I only got up to part where Jake and Alyssa start talking about Caty, which will make more sense once you read this chapter. But I'm glad you liked it, and I hope you like this one too, especially since it sort of deals with more of their daily lives like you wanted.**

**WaterAmulet: Josh is definitely my favorite character too, so I'm glad you like him. I'm surprised by the popularity he and Sage got instantly, although I definitely need to develop Sage's character more, which I can hopefully manage in the next chapter. A lot of this chapter is about Rae and Jake, so I hope you enjoy that. It also develops Jake's relationship with Gabi a little more, which I know you wanted. Hopefully this chapter satisifes all your expectations.**

**Misa: Yes, I had the fear that some people wouldn't know I updated early. After all, majority of my reviewers don't sign in, and only one of them signs in every now and then to send me a PM, so I couldn't tell anyone except my friend who reads this story and my one signed in reviewer. And it depends on when I finish this chapter whether or not I'll switch updates to Saturdays or not, but that'll be in the author's note above. I'm so glad you liked it, and I hope you like this one too. Every single page has Jake's name in it because he is in this entire chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

It was lunch time when Jake finally caught Rae on Monday. Caty suggested they all eat outside since it was probably one of the last nice days before the cold took over. Rae enthusiastically agreed with this idea since she figured there was no running into Jake outside. That was before she realized Jake, Dalton, Josh, Sage, Bree, and Gabi also chose to eat outside that day.

He didn't notice her at first, so Rae kept her head down and tried to walk over to the tree Alyssa, Caty, and the others had settled themselves under. Apparently that wasn't the greatest idea, because Jake was walking in her direction to greet his friend Peter and ended up bumping into her.

"Ow," she groaned.

"Back at you," a familiar voice said, giving Rae a serious sense of déjà vu. She looked up and was met with two pools of hazel. Jake.

"We gotta stop meeting like this," he joked.

Rae didn't say anything. She bit her lip to stop herself from smiling, got up and made a move to walk away. Jake didn't let her get away that easily. He grabbed her arm and held her back. Rae quickly shook him off, knowing Gabi was watching.

"Come on Rae, I thought we were friends," Jake said, sounding hurt. Rae cringed. She hadn't meant to make him feel bad.

"I have no idea what gave you that idea," Rae said coldly. "We're not friends."

Now Jake wore a hurt expression.

'Trust me Jake,' Rae thought. 'This is hurting me more than it's hurting you.'

"Why not? Is it because of Cla-Alyssa?" he asked. "Because I apologized to her a million times, and she forgave me!"

"That doesn't mean I did."

"You told me you did," Jake stated. "Just tell me what I did wrong!"

"Just go hangout with those meathead jocks you call friends," Rae snapped.

"You're stereotyping again," Jake warned. "Whatever I did Rae, I'm sorry. I really, truly am. If I said something to offend you, if I hurt you in anyway…you know I didn't mean it. I promise I'll never do it again."

Gabi chose that moment to walk over with Bree and Sage. Sage gave Rae a sympathetic smile. She'd tried to talk to Gabi over the weekend and get her to revoke her 'stay away from Jake' rule, but Gabi wouldn't budge. Sage apologized to Rae that morning, and Rae thanked her for trying and (unconvincingly) assured her she didn't even care.

"It's lunch time Jake. I want to eat," Rae said, and she started walking away again.

Jake grabbed her arm once more. "No! Not until you tell me what I did," he insisted.

Gabi came up right to next Jake and slipped her hand through his. He smiled at her and instantly let go of Rae's arm, as if on instinct.

"Hey babe. Why'd you leave our spot?" she asked, giving Rae her famous 'Scram!' look.

"I was walking over to talk to Peter and bumped into Rae."

"Who was just leaving," Rae said, starting to walk away. Even while holding hands with Gabi, Jake didn't let her go. He lunged forward to grab her arm, letting go of Gabi's hand in the process. Her eyes flashed angrily as his hand grabbed Rae's.

"Ow!" Jake cried, dropping it immediately.

Rae looked at, bewildered. She'd felt electricity, and she thought it was just her hormones, but maybe it was actual electricity.

"You shocked me."

"Sorry," Rae said. "I guess I'm a little staticky."

"That's not a word," Jake laughed.

She frowned. Why did he persist? Although it was really sweet of him to apologize. And even though she'd never admit it out loud, she did kind of like that he kept chasing her, trying to fix whatever he thought he did. She wished she could just tell him, but that would be seriously bitchy move on her part. Besides, Jake wasn't the type of guy she should have a crush on him. It was better this way.

"I have to go," she muttered, speed walking away before he could stop her. She sat down between Caty and Alyssa. The group was debating something or the other, but they all stopped when Rae joined them, wondering what was going on.

"What was that?" Caty asked.

"Me bending to Gabi's will," Rae muttered, rolling her eyes.

"What a bitch," Misha snarled. All of Caty's friends knew Rae was being blackmailed by Gabi to stay away from Jake. They just didn't know what she was being blackmailed about, and thankfully, they didn't ask.

"Sometimes I wish I was more like Ellie," Caty said. Everyone looked at her. What did that have to with anything?

"I mean, she seems awed by popularity, but she's also not scared of Gabi."

"She's also probably not scared of lions," Brian pointed out. "Ellie's not really clever enough to know _what_ to be scared of."

"Are you calling her stupid?" Alyssa asked, instantly protective of her ex-best friend.

"No. I'm just saying-"

"Brian, do you want half my sandwich?" Nina interrupted before the boy could put his foot further down his mouth.

"Yeah. Thanks," Brian said, getting the hint.

"Anyway, I'm not _afraid_ of Gabi, I just don't want my secret getting out."

"Everyone has secrets, and everyone is entitled to them," Nick said. "But how bad can it be that you're willing to let Gabi Shay have a hold over you?"

"Yeah, I think I'd rather everyone knew my secret than bend to Gabi's will," Travis agreed.

"What if your secret was something that would make people treat you differently?" Rae whispered.

"Who cares?" Caty replied. "We won't treat you differently, and don't we matter more than random kids at this school that you don't even know?"

"Well sure, but…"

"But there are a lot of kids at this school," Alyssa spoke up. "It's hard not to notice how people treat you, whether you're regarded as a princess or a loser. And everyone here is so set in their ways and in their cliques and their stereotypes. Rae's secret isn't bad, but it will give her unwanted attention."

"And besides, it's not like she's making me her servant or anything," Rae added. "All I have to do is stay away from Jake. And that's not terrible or hard. It'll be better, not seeing him every time I turn around."

"I can attest to that," Caty said. The boys laughed, but Misha and Nina rolled their eyes. They knew what happened between Jake and Caty, but they didn't understand it. How could something like a presidential race end a friendship, especially one as strong as theirs?

Rae smiled and started to eat, and eventually the topic changed when Alyssa asked how the debates went on Friday. She was glad she could stop talking-and thinking-about Jake. Because the more she thought about it, the more she knew 'it's better this way' was a lie. The truth was, not being with Jake was making her suffer from separation anxiety. She never thought she'd say this, but she missed the presence of Jake Saunders.

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

"Hey Classless-uh, I mean Alyssa!" Jake quickly corrected as he greeted Alyssa that afternoon as she walked to the art room.

Alyssa glared at the boy. "Seriously? Even after all the time we've spent together the past few days, you're still calling me Classless-a?"

"Well, you know the old saying," Jake said weakly.

"It's the economy, stupid?" Alyssa asked, giggling.

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Alyssa sighed. "What's the saying?"

"Old habits die hard."

"You know what saying I think is better suited for this situation? You can't teach an old dog new tricks." She walked away.

"Are you calling me a dog?" Jake asked, catching up to her.

"Nothing really _does_ get past you!"

Jake laughed. "You know something Alyssa? You're pretty cool."

"Thanks for noticing. It only took you eleven years," Alyssa said airily, but she wasn't actually mad at him.

The pair entered the art studio. Because she was in the senior art class, she got an easel all to herself that no one else was allowed to mess with. She walked over to it and Jake picked it up.

"The usual place?" he asked.

Alyssa was surprised, but shrugged. "Yeah."

Rae spent every afternoon in the art studio with Alyssa, and Jake joined the girls when he didn''t have practice. He knew Alyssa's routine.

As Jake put the easel down, Alyssa squired blobs of acrylic paint on a palette, grabbed a few brushes and headed over to the easel. She grabbed her smock. Her mother had bought a new smock for her over the summer and Alyssa had decorated it and stitched her name on just for fun.

Alyssa was working on a painting of W.I.T.C.H. in guardian form. She originally wanted to paint G.R.A.C.E., but she really didn't want to have to paint Gabi so she asked Hay Lin for a picture of W.I.T.C.H. she could use.

"Whoa," Jake said when he saw the photograph hanging at the top of the painting. "Let me guess, those were Halloween costumes?"

"Yup."

"And who are those girls?"

"The African American one is my mother. The other girls are her friends. They were fourteen in this picture."

"Your painting looks identical to the picture so far."

"Thanks. Tell me something. When did you and Ellie become friends?"

"Last year. We talked at one of Breanna's parties, and then we worked together on an English project."

"But weren't you in honors English?" Alyssa asked. The sophomore class had two honors English periods and she didn't share the class with Jake. Now that they were juniors, they only had one period for each honors class.

"Yeah. So was Ellie. She found it too hard though, so she dropped to regular English this year. You guys really fell out of touch, didn't you?"

"You can say that again!"

"You two used to be attached at the hip. And that kid Adam was always with you guys."

"Yeah, we were a trio."

"What happened?"

"You know the story. She dropped me when she got into drama."

Jake shrugged. "If you say so."

Alyssa wondered what that meant, but didn't ask. "Why are you talking to me Jake?" she asked instead.

"Aren't we friends?"

"I'm pretty sure you only put up with me to hang out with Rae," Alyssa replied.

"That's not true. You just never gave me the time of day," Jake said.

"As if you'd ever talk to me if I would," Alyssa scoffed.

"I tried."

"When?

"At the student art show in sixth grade. And then again, at the same time in seventh and eighth grade. I could always tell which painting was yours and I'd comment on it and you'd look at me like I had three heads and walk away."

"I…thought you were making fun of me," Alyssa admitted.

"I wasn't! And you made me feel like an idiot! You always gave me that strange look whenever I offered my opinion on what I thought you were trying to express with your painting, as if you were trying to say, 'You must be dumber than a doornail if that's what you think.'"

Alyssa laughed. "I'm sorry about that. If your comments were really genuine, then all I have to say is wow."

"Wow?"

"You were right about what I was trying to express every year. I just couldn't believe Jake Saunders was interested in a painting done by Classless-a Klutzcroft. Plus, you were into sports and we didn't have our class ranks back then so I figured you were like all of the other meathead jocks."

"You were stereotyping," Jake said disapprovingly.

"What is it with you and your hatred for stereotyping? You keep lecturing us about it."

"I just don't think people should judge other people based on their friends and interests."

"Well obviously," Alyssa replied. "I just didn't think you'd be the type to care. You're popular. You're dating the most popular girl in school, your one of the best players on every team you're on, you're the smartest guy in school, not to mention the most sought after. What do you care?"

"Well, people judge me based on my friends and interests. They think because I'm into sports, I can't get good grades, and because I'm popular, I can't hang around people like Caty or Ellie, and because I'm dating Gabi, I pass judgement on people the way she does."

Alyssa raised her eyebrow. "If you're aware that your girlfriend is a judgmental bitch, why are you dating her?"

"I don't think she's a bitch. She just has a rough exterior and I get to see what's underneath and I am in love with that person. As for her being judgmental, no one is perfect. It's a character flaw. So what? We all have them. Bree sometimes talks too much, I sometimes get too competitive. I accept Gabi, flaws and all, and she accepts me the same way. What better reason is there to date someone?"

Alyssa wasn't sure what to say. Even spending day after day being walked to class by Jake and having him hang around the art studio didn't show her how genuine Jake was.

Before Alyssa could respond, Chris walked in, followed by Josh. Alyssa waved at them both, though she wasn't sure what Josh was doing in the art studio. Jake nodded at Chris, and his expression turned sour as he saw Josh.

"You don't like Josh?" Alyssa whispered to him.

"I don't like the interest Gabi takes in him," Jake replied.

"I thought Josh asked out Bree?"

"He did. That doesn't mean Gabi doesn't talk to him 24/7."

Alyssa wasn't sure what to say. She wanted to reassure him that Gabi didn't have an interest in any guy except him, but she honestly didn't know Gabi well enough to say that (although Alyssa doubted Gabi would ever be interested in Josh with the way they spent the last three days fighting all through guardian training. She and the others were relieved when Gabi ducked out early Saturday). And she couldn't tell him the only reason Gabi talked to Josh so much was so that he wouldn't make a stupid mistake like use a fork as a projectile weapon because he thought monsters were invading the school because he was from a different world. Luckily, she didn't have to answer because Josh and Chris came over to see what she was working on.

"Is that my mom?" they asked in unison, Josh pointing at Cornelia in the photo and Chris pointing at Hay Lin.

"I got it from Hay Lin," Alyssa said in way of confirmation. "This is when they were fourteen."

To Josh and Chris, fourteen meant their mothers had their second guardian powers. Alyssa knew they were thinking in terms of W.I.T.C.H., so she quickly said "It was taken on Halloween" even though it was taken after they defeated Nerissa, which was near Christmas.

"Wow, you're really good," Josh said, noticing the painting.

"Thanks," Alyssa smiled.

"But don't you think acrylic paint is a little too loud? I'd go with watercolor if you had to paint, but I wouldn't do a painting of the photograph in the first place."

"I didn't want to," Alyssa admitted. "But the project in class is to paint. _This_ is my first draft." She flipped the easel to another page and showed a fully finished sketch of the same photograph.

"Charcoal?"

"Yup."

"What a fantastic idea! It looks amazing!"

"Thanks," Alyssa beamed. "I thought it would be more authentic with charcoal because I love the way you can really capture-"

"Shadows and shades," Josh finished for her,

"Yeah…are you an artist?"

Josh nodded.

"Drawing is Que-uh, Sage's mother's favorite pastime, and she taught us when we were little. Sage never really took to it, but I ended up loving it and she indulged me by teaching me everything. And it helped Chris and his mother were also artists."

"Hay Lin is an artist?"

"Oh yeah, she used to draw what she saw in her dreams all the time," Chris said. "You know, like Ellie."

"Ellie draws?" Jake asked.

"No, she dreams," Alyssa said.

"She…what?"

Alyssa laughed. "Inside joke," she said. She then noticed two easels set up next to her and saw both Josh and Chris were wearing smocks. So Josh was going to hang in the studio?

"You're working on something?" she asked.

"I scheduled a portfolio review tomorrow with my art teacher to see if I can move into the art class you and Chris take, but I'm missing an acrylic piece."

"Here," Alyssa said, handing him her palette and brushes. "I'm gonna trash this and use watercolors."

"Okay, thanks!"

Chris looked from Josh to Alyssa and suddenly felt a pit in his stomach, but ignored it and said, "Let's get working."

Josh nodded and took the easel next to Alyssa.

"That's mine," Chris said.

"Oh sorry!" Josh switched the easels.

"I meant the spot," Chris muttered, but no one heard him. "Next to Alyssa."

"Is Rae coming?" Jake asked.

"Is that why you're hanging out in the art studio?" Alyssa teased, even though she knew perfectly well the only reason he even struck up a conversation with her that afternoon was because he thought Rae would be with her.

"No…"

Alyssa laughed. "It's okay Jake. But no. She joined academic decathlon, and they meet every Monday and Thursday."

"Isn't Caty in AD?"

"Yeah."

"Student Council meets Thursday."

"Yeah, she and her friends skip AD to go to Student Council. She was complaining about it yesterday," Alyssa said. "Apparently she's never had to skip anything for anything else before and she thinks you set up Student Council meetings on Thursdays just to spite her."

"I did not. Mondays and Thursdays are the only days I don't have practice," Jake mumbled.

"I was pretty sure you didn't actually have a vendetta against her," Alyssa replied. "What happened between you two?"

"Remember how you called Gabi a bitch? You want to see a real bitch, look at Caty."

"But I've been hanging out with Caty a lot. She's a little arrogant sure, and insecure at the same time, but she's not a full on bitch."

"Then maybe it's just with me. We used to be friends. Like, really good friends. But I became her number one enemy the minute she realized I was running against her for student council president."

"Well Caty _is_ competitive."

"And she has a need to be in control of everything."

Alyssa didn't know that. Maybe that's why Caty warmed up to her powers so quickly. She was terrified of the whole thing, but she must've realized she liked having something in her life that she could always control.

"I do wish we weren't engaged in this stupid power struggle though," Jake admitted. "She's still fighting with me, but I'm not really fighting with her anymore. I just can't leave it alone when she insults me. But we used to tell each other everything and I kind of miss that."

"I'll bet she does too," Alyssa said. "She's just too busy trying to be the best at everything to notice. She needs to de-stress."

"Soccer tryouts are soon and soccer always helps calm her down."

"Really? I can only see it causing more stress. But then again, I never liked sports."

"Why is that?"

"I always get so banged up!"

Jake laughed. "I can help you if you want. You definitely have the build of a soccer player."

"No thanks," Alyssa said. It's not like she didn't get banged up enough already from Gabi accidentally whipping her with vines and Rae crashing into her every five seconds.

Jake hopped up on a desk and pulled out a book.

"You're gonna stay here? Rae's not coming, remember?"

"So? I'm here to keep _you_ company. We're friends aren't we?"

"No," Alyssa deadpanned.

"Aw come on, how can you say that? Is it because I almost called you Classless-a? Cuz you called me a dog, so I'd say we're even."

"It's because you know nothing about me."

"That's not true!"

"What's my last name?" Alyssa challenged. "My _real_ last name I mean. It's not Klutzcroft."

"Um…"

"Point proven. You're friends with Rae, not me."

"I want to be friends with you too," Jake said.

"You want to be friends with me to score points with Rae."

"You can't seriously believe that."

"I _do_ believe that. I also don't believe you and Rae know each other that well."

"We do!"

"Prove it."

Jake didn't know where to start.

"What her full name? Middle name included?"

"Uh…"

"Wow, you really want to make me look good, don't you?" Alyssa teased.

Jake realized Alyssa was right. He didn't know very much about Rae. But he wanted to.

"It's not fair," he said. "I've been trying to get to know her and she just acts like I'm a pest. And now she won't even give me the time of day."

"I wouldn't be so hard on her. She cares more than you think."

"Well then, will you tell me why she stopped talking to me?"

Alyssa shifted uncomfortably. "I can't."

Jake sighed. "Okay. I'll figure it out myself."

At that moment, Caty walked in. "Aaarrrghhh!" she screamed, making Alyssa jump, Jake drop his book, and Chris spill some paint.

Josh immediately turned around and said, "Someone's in trouble! I don't have my sword!" He then saw Caty, who was fine and relaxed.

"Sword?" Jake asked.

Alyssa and Chris exchanged, 'Crap!' looks.

"He trains in kendo!" Alyssa cried, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind.

"Oh. That's cool dude," Jake said, and Josh smiled weakly, wondering what 'kendo' was.

"What's wrong Caty?" Alyssa asked.

"Stupid Brian. I friggin' hate him!"

"And this is supposed to be news?" Jake asked, making Caty glare at him.

"What is _he_ doing here?"

"Trying to prove we're friends," Alyssa replied. "And failing to do so."

"Ashcroft!" Jake cried suddenly.

"What?"

"That's your last name!"

"Congratulations Jake, you now know what Josh knew about me after knowing me for an hour. We're absolutely friends," Alyssa said sarcastically. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized this entire afternoon, they went between talking honestly and exchanging banter. So maybe they really _were_ friends.

"Jake doesn't _really_ care about anybody," Caty said. "He's not friends with anyone. Not really."

"Caty, I'm sorry you can't handle a little competition, but how can you actually end up hating me for winning president?"

"You're _president?!"_ Josh cried, looking alarmed and impressed. "You run the entire country!"

Jake gave him a quizzical look. "No, I'm _class_ president. For the junior class. I only have jurisdiction over everyone in our grade. And that jurisdiction only extends to fundraising ideas and themes for dances. I'm not president of America."

"And America would be…?"

"The country we live in…" Jake was really confused. Was Josh _playing_ dumb?

"That's Josh, always trying to be funny!" Chris covered up. "Such a jokester!" He forced a laugh and Alyssa and Caty joined in. Josh looked away, realizing he'd made some sort of mistake.

"Um…" Jae was at a loss.

"So Caty," Alyssa said loudly, "what are you doing here? Don't you have AD?"

"It ended. Rae's on her way, she needed to stay behind for some materials first," Caty said, an annoyed look settling on her face as she thought about AD.

"What did Brian do exactly?" Chris asked.

"He…he…ugh!"

"And you thought Gabi was inarticulate," Alyssa muttered, making Josh laugh.

"You know, it just figures he'd wait til he and I were playing the lightning round in AD before asking me how I did on the pre-calc quiz!"

"Did he do better than you?" Jake asked. "Because I know you guys are usually tied, but he is a bit better in math right? And you're better in history."

"_Bit_ better is different from _better _better," Caty replied, not even caring she had to address Jake.

Alyssa sighed and gave Jake a '_Do_ something!' look. The whole point of going to the art studio everyday was to work on her project so she wouldn't fall behind in class (which she would-part of the senior class was to put in work after school). Thanks to Jake's insistence on conversation, she hadn't done a thing. And just when he was ready to settle down with a book and let Alyssa work, Caty walked in. Alyssa liked Caty, but she didn't consider her a friend just yet, and she had no idea how to calm her down from the meltdown she was about to have. Jake however said he and Caty used to be close. He knew her better than anyone else in the room.

Jake figured Caty wouldn't take too kindly to his help, but grabbed her arm anyway and said, "Come on Caty, let's talk about this outside."

Surprisingly, she didn't protest as he dragged her out of the art room.

"Okay, tell me what happened."

Caty sighed. "Okay, you know how I never look at my grades right away because I don't want anything to distract me?"

Jake nodded. Caty usually looked at her grade on any test of quiz she got back when she had nothing of importance to do, like before dinner, so a possible bad grade wouldn't distract her from important things. However, Caty never had a bad grade to speak of.

"Well today, in AD, Steven, he's the senior in charge this year, put Brian and I against each other to show all the new members what the competitions are like. By the end, we were tied, so Steven started a lightning round and while he was pulling up the questions, Brian insisted I tell him my quiz grade and told me he got 100%. I had to tell him."

"And what did _you_ get?"

"I…an…86%!" Caty wailed.

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Caty I used to get worse than that in pre-calc all the time." Jake was in pre-calc the previous year and was one of the only two juniors (the other being Rae) to be in the senior calculus class this year. Alyssa actually should've been in the class too, but she took AP calc over the summer so she could take the college level course this year. She was going to be a math major after all.

"Well I'm not you!" Caty said. "I can get a bad grade and then do amazing on the next test to pull my average up. The way I start the year reflects the entire rest of the year! And that's not even the worst part!"

"What could be worse?" Jake asked in mock shock.

Caty glared at him, but answered, "Brian offered to…to…t-tu-_tutor_ me!"

"And that's bad?"

"It's terrible! If Brian tutors me, or even thinks he's in a position to tutor me, then that tells him he's superior to me!"

"Then don't let him be. Get a tutor, but not Brian. Someone else. And do better than him. And in the meantime, you can show him up in APUSH. I'll even stop answering questions so you'll have more opportunities if you want."

Caty regarded him with suspicion. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because despite what you believe, I don't hate you. I didn't run for president to get a rise out of you Caty. I knew you wanted it, but I did too, and I wasn't going to bow out because you wanted it more. Mainly because I didn't think you wanted it more. But I also didn't think it would hurt our friendship."

Caty sighed, not sure what to say.

"How are you? I know you're neurotic about your grades, but this freak out can't just be because of one bad grade. What's going on?"

So Caty told him about the internship and the recommendation letter and peer evaluation she needed. She thought about telling him about Misha and Lili's plan, then realized he'd never approve, and held her tongue.

"You know one thing you have going for you that Brian doesn't?" Jake asked. "Besides the fact that you want this more?"

"What?"

"You have flair. You know how to package yourself and paint yourself as the picture of perfection. Brian just lets himself get teased. There's no way he knows how to package himself. Just use the writing skills you have to sell yourself and you should get the internship no problem."

Caty smiled. "Thanks Jake. But it's not just between us you know. There are eight other high school students vying for this spot."

"Please. Who's gonna get it over you?" Jake scoffed, making Caty giggled. "So how's life at home?"

Caty's smile disappeared. "Well my mom's…you know."

Jake nodded. He'd noticed Caty's mother was pregnant this summer.

"Boy or girl?'

"Girl. And guess what they're naming her? Catherine. Or Cathleen, they haven't decided yet. But mainly Catherine."

"That's a pretty name."

"It's _my_ name. They're giving her _my name _because they don't want to feel like they wasted their favorite baby name on _me_. They're finally having a kid that's really theirs."

"Caty, you are absolutely really theirs as well!"

"Sure. Maybe my dad thinks so, a little, but all my mother can talk about is the new baby."

"Your mother loves you. I can tell," Jake insisted. Caty almost believed him. Almost.

"Right. They can't wait to have a child that's all their own. One that shares their blood."

Before Jake could say anything, Brian and his friends walked by. "Hey Caty," Brian said.

"Hi Brian," Caty replied before turning back to Jake. Then, with a start, she realized Brian had said hi to her, politely, of his own accord. Come to think of it, he hadn't made fun of her when she told him his grade, and he sounded sincere when he offered to tutor her. Maybe he hadn't asked her about the grade on purpose, to mess her up. Maybe he was genuinely curious. Maybe he wanted to make conversation. Maybe he _did_ like her. Maybe that's what Nina and Misha were trying to tell when she ranted angrily about Brian after the AD meeting. And maybe she wasn't as bad at talking to boys as she thought. Maybe if she didn't try so hard, she and Brian could have a normal conversation. But would a normal conversation be enough to make him fall for her?

"Jake? What attracts to you a girl?"

"Um…I don't know."

"Of course. You go through girls like they're socks," Caty said, rolling her eyes. Jake looked hurt, but Caty didn't notice. "Okay, let's try this: Why are you going out with Gabi?"

"I'm in love with her."

"But what attracted you to her in the first place?"

"Her eyes. They change color and I can get lost in them," Jake said immediately. "I can stare into them for hours and just be happy. Her smile. It lights up a whole room. Her laugh. The sound can make me feel better. Her touch. She can make me feel better just by putting her hand on my shoulder. And I love the way she looks when she's happy, and the way she's willing to do anything to protect Bree or her brother, and the way she can silence anyone with just a look, and the way she shows me she really does care and she's trying to spend more time with me, and the way she's so dedicated to what she loves…" Jake trailed off. "Sorry, I was rambling. Did that answer your question?"

"No," Caty admitted. "But it helped anyway." Jake actually was in love with Gabi, as surprising as that was. She had no idea a player like Jake could fall in love or a bitch like Gabi could be loved. But Jake loved all the innate things about Gabi. Caty couldn't _make_ Brian like her if he didn't. But she still had to do _something_!

"Are you sure?" Jake asked.

"Yeah."

Jake wasn't sure how that was possible but shrugged. Maybe they were on their way to becoming friends again.

"Well, I'm always here to help."

"Thanks Jake," Caty smiled.

Rae walked by them then, and paused when she saw Caty outside. "Is Alyssa…?"

"Oh yeah, she's in there."

"Okay. Are the others here yet?"

"No. Soon I hope," Caty replied.

Rae nodded and went inside the studio. Jake's gaze followed, his eyes sad. She hadn't said a word to him since Friday.

"She's still avoiding you?" Caty asked.

Jake nodded. "You know about that? Can you tell me why?"

"It's not really my place to say," Caty said uncomfortably. A few minutes ago, she would've immediately told Jake what Gabi was doing, both in order to rescue Rae (though she wasn't really sure how much this was affecting her) and so that Jake would break up with Gabi. But now that she knew how much he loved her, she couldn't do it. "But I can help."

"How?"

"Rae's smart, no doubt. But let's just say, she's having a little trouble in your calculus class."

Jake furrowed his brows for a moment, not sure how this information helped him in the slightest. In the next second, his face lit up, understanding what Caty was getting at. "I love you!" he declared.

"Don't let Gabi hear you say that," Caty giggled.

"Don't let Gabi hear you say what?" Ellie asked as she approached them.

"Nothing important," Caty assured her.

In the next second, Gabi and Sage joined them, followed by the rest of cheerleaders.

"See you tomorrow Gabs. Bye Sage," Bree said.

"Bye Bree," the girls both said as she and the rest of the cheerleaders left.

Gabi smiled at Jake and kissed him. As usual, it turned into a make out session that made everyone around them uncomfortable.

Chris and Rae exited the art studio. "Chris, you're still wearing your smock. Are you gonna mistake it for your Silver Dragon apron again?" Rae giggled. The sound of her voice made Jake pull back from Gabi and look at her.

Rae avoided his eyes and looked at Caty and Ellie. "Ready?"

"Where's Lyssa?" Ellie asked.

"And Josh?" Sage added.

"They're cleaning up in there," Rae said.

"And talking about the pros and cons of kneaded erasers," Chris added, his tone dark.

"Um…is that bad?" Sage asked.

"No," Chris muttered unconvincingly. Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

"Are you okay Chris?" Caty asked.

"Of course."

An awkward silence came to pass, and for once, Caty appreciated Gabi's existence, because she broke it by saying, "Why do you even bother with Classless-a?"

"For the millionth time Gabi, stop calling Alyssa names!" Rae cried in frustration. "How many times do I have to repeat myself before it gets through your head?"

"What exactly are you going to do about it New Girl?" Gabi asked. "In case you've forgotten, you can't _do_ anything while I give things _life_."

Caty coughed exaggeratedly, trying to tell Gabi that Jake was still with them. Gabi rolled her eyes. She knew Jake was there. They were holding hands. That's why she was being vague.

"In case you've forgotten Gabi, I give _you_ the ability to give things life," Rae replied.

"Please New Girl," Gabi scoffed. "A leaf can come to life without you."

"Cuz bringing a leaf to life is the true testament of your power," Caty said sarcastically, actually enjoying the confused expression on Jake's face that grew deeper and deeper as the girls continued speaking.

"Without Rae, you couldn't bring anything more to life," Ellie agreed.

"Then again," Chris said, "without Rae, she also wouldn't injure you guys either."

Everyone began to laugh.

"What are you guys _talking_ about?" Jake burst out.

"Cheerleading sweetie," Gabi said, patting his arm.

Jake clearly didn't believe her, but at that moment, Josh and Alyssa came out of the studio, laughing.

"And you thought adding _green_ would help?" Alyssa asked between laughs. "It was clearly _blue_ in that pink, not green!"

"I thought it was purple in the pink, but I didn't have blue and red, so I thought green was the closest thing," Josh defended. "But it worked out. The pink I made matched the color I needed way better."

"Since _when_ are they such good friends?" Chris growled out.

"Since they bonded over charcoal half an hour ago," Jake joked.

"Not funny," Chris said darkly.

"Okay…sorry?" Jake said.

"You were in the studio? Why?" Rae asked.

"Cuz I'm always there when I don't have practice," Jake said, surprised Rae actually said something to him.

"Stop annoying Alyssa," was Rae's response.

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Jake nudged Rae with his pencil the next morning.

"What?" she snapped, annoyed.

"Just want to make sure you're paying attention. The last thing you need is to fall behind," he shrugged.

Rae just gave him a glare and went back to looking out the window, as she was doing before Jake interrupted. Fall behind? She was way past that! She wasn't even sure what class she was in. French? Did she even take French? She wasn't sure anymore.

Rae wasn't the type to lose focus, especially not in school, but she couldn't help it. Like Ellie, she'd been having dreams too, but they weren't prophetic. She'd been having a dream about the battle they'd already fought in Meridian, and in that dream, everything that could go wrong, did.

She managed to escape two monsters by flying up and caused them to crash into each other, just as they had in real life. But after that, she crashed into the first wall just the right way and cracked her head open. Somehow, she managed to keep going, and hurt her back.

Then, she joined Caty in the air and came up with the same plan, but this time it didn't work. Cornelia and Cara managed to herd the monsters together, like they had in real life, but Rae had helped with this task. She keep crashing into monsters though and she was always within their grasp. Thankfully, she managed to get away.

In the dream, she wasn't so lucky. One monster grabbed her and crushed her wings. She was in unimaginable pain, probably because in guardian form, the wings were part of her body. She dropped to ground, but no one noticed since they were all so focused on their own tasks. Rae was trampled.

In real life, Rae shot out encouragement to help Caty and Ellie, who were nervous about protecting Josh and Caleb. Her words also helped Alyssa. She didn't launch a single amiss fireball. But without Rae, Caty's water shield broke, Alyssa was off aim, and Ellie, who completely freaked out, forgot she was supposed to be protecting Caleb, and he ended up protecting _her_.

In the end, the plan failed, everyone ended up hurt (except Rae, who was lying there dead), and the guardians had to flee. Ellie, Alyssa, and Caty, still in guardian form, were forced through the portal by Caleb. The Lyndons stayed behind to help. Sage arrived at the battle scene, but at that point, Rae woke up. She'd had this dream since the day of the battle. The same dream with the same outcome and the same waking up point.

As if that weren't enough, real life wasn't looking much better. Sure she was learning to fight, and sure Josh was saying she was doing really well, and clearly he didn't hold anything back, so he was telling the truth, but it didn't help her.

Josh was teaching her hand to hand combat. That wouldn't help her against monsters. Every time she asked Josh to teach her how to fight with a sword, he'd give her an amused smile, Gabi would laugh and say something condescending like, "Are you sure you're ready to handle such a big blade Short Stuff?" as if she knew anything about a sword, and Sage would caution her, telling her maybe a sword would be too much for her.

Yes she was skinny. Chronically underweight in fact, and no strength to compensate. And yes, she was short. Barely 5'1" and a half, surprising for the daughter of a 5'11"mother and 6'4" father (but a 4'9" grandmother and 5'3" grandfather). But that didn't mean she couldn't handle it! Josh told her she probably wouldn't be able to pick up or swing a sword properly, and he was teaching her hand to hand so she could defend herself, but she didn't need to use to fight because she would gain powers, but she was getting tired of waiting. According to Chris, the guardians didn't gain their second powers (aka the time when Will gained her first offensive power) until a year after they became guardians. GRACE was only in business for a couple of weeks, and she was still too skinny and short to fight off someone with what Josh was showing her.

On top of that, Gabi still injured another member of GRACE when she practiced, Ellie preferred to practice flying because she didn't see the point in practicing with air, Caty was more interested in controlling water rather than launching offensive attacks, and Alyssa's aim was still terrible. The girls could barely defend themselves, let alone fight a battle. Rae realized the battle in Meridian was won out of pure dumb luck.

She was supposed to be the leader. But how could she protect her team when she could barely protect herself? And how could she protect a team who was lazy, terrified, and accident prone? Every time she watched the rest of GRACE practice, she saw Hay Lin cringe. She got the message: they were _way_ worse than W.I.T.C.H. was. Why was that? Why did G.R.A.C.E. suck at controlling their powers? Why did W.I.T.C.H. do better when they were three years younger and their teacher was much older than them and didn't really teach them the way Hay Lin was trying to? Why, when they had their first battle the _day_ after they became guardians, did they do better than G.R.A.C.E. did after four days?

Rae sighed as her teacher droned on about…what was she talking about? Friction? Did she even take physics this year? No, her teacher must've been talking about moles…but chemistry didn't seem like the right subject either.

Rae looked around the classroom, and suddenly, her heart stopped. She technically wasn't allowed to talk to Jake, but this was an emergency. She scribbled a note to him. _Where's Alyssa?_

She nudged his leg with her foot, and handed the scrap of paper to him.

He read the note and threw her a confused look. Then he wrote something back.

_She's not in this class. Are you okay?_

Alyssa wasn't in this class? What class _was_ this? Spanish? But Jake wasn't in that class either, right? Did she even take Spanish? Somehow that didn't seem right, but French wasn't right either. What else was left?

Finally, _finally_, the bell rang. Rae got up, packed her stuff and followed the rest of the class, but before she could make it out of the room, her teacher said, "Rae, Jake, will you stay back for a moment please?"

"Certainly Miss. Johnson," Jake said pleasantly as Rae sighed and walked over to Miss. Johnson's desk. What subject did she teach again? She'd erased the board. What was this about? Had she caught them passing the note? It was one note at the end of class. What was the big deal?

"Rae," Miss. Johnson started, "you're a very impressive student. Or at least, you have been in the past. We got your records this summer, and it seems as if you don't even have a best subject since you're top of your class in all of them. As for this class, you were one of the only people to score full marks on the pop quiz I gave on the first day, the other student being Mr. Saunders here."

"Um…thanks?" Rae said, not sure where she was going with this.

"However, it seems your performance has dropped. You've stopped handing in homework, even though when I walk by your desk, I notice you have all of it done. You're barely taking notes, not doing the classwork exercises, and failing tests."

Tests? They'd only been in school for two and half weeks! How many tests could she have had? She remembered having two in one class, and a quizzes in whatever language she took.

"I've talked to your other teachers, but they don't seem concerned. It seems you're doing fine in other classes."

She was? Well maybe that's because Alyssa was with her in those classes and kept her focused? So why wasn't Alyssa in this one?

"This is a very challenging course."

God, what class _was_ this? Rae looked around, hoping to see something that'll tip her of-a poster of George Washington or a poster written in…German! That's the language she was taking. But no such luck.

Miss. Johnson, as if reading her thoughts, sighed and said, "You and Mr. Saunders are the only two Sheffield students in the senior calculus class, and are two of the only three students who will be able to finish college calculus before graduating high school since…several years ago when Miss. Ashcroft's mother did it."

"So?" Rae asked, still not sure where Miss. Johnson was going.

"So, it would a shame to see such a bright student fail. I heard from your guidance counsellor you want to go to Yale. How would it look if you failed this class? And how are you going to be a physics major without a strong math background?"

The late bell rang.

"Miss. Johnson, I have to go to…" Rae stopped. Where was she supposed to go next?

"English," Jake coughed.

"Yeah," Rae agreed lamely.

"I'll write you both late passes," Miss. Johnson said dismissively. "Rae, I want Jake to tutor you."

"What?!"

"He's the only student that gets the homework completely right and received full marks on both tests I've given. His hand is always up when I ask a question and his answer is always right. Mr. Saunders, would you be willing to tutor Miss. Dylan?"

"Of course," Jake grinned.

"Get me another tutor. _Anyone_ else," Rae begged. "I'll work super hard, I promise!"

"I believe you Miss. Dylan, but I believe Mr. Saunders will be most beneficial for you. He only has practices three times a week, and I don't know what clubs you are in, but I'm sure you can find time to make this work. Any schedule conflicts will have to be brought up by _both_ of you if you need me to switch tutors."

"How long does this have to go on?"

"Since it is only the beginning of the year, I want Mr. Saunders to tutor you for half the quarter. If you improve substantially, you may stop the tutoring."

"And if I don't?"

"I will assign you another tutor. Your success is very important to me Miss. Dylan, as is the success of my other students. I want to see you do well."

"Okay," Rae sighed, glaring at Jake, who just grinned back at her.

Miss. Johnson wrote them both late passes.

"Did you have something to do with this?" Rae asked Jake accusingly as they walked to English together.

"Me?" Jake asked, overdoing the innocence, on purpose. "Well…if you call talking to Miss. Johnson in the beginning of the class and telling her that if any students need help, I'd be happy to tutor them 'something', then yeah, I guess I did."

"_Why_?"

"I honestly had no idea how else to talk to you."

"Well how'd you know I was having trouble?"

Jake didn't want to rat Caty out, so he said, "Because I could see your test scores from my seat, you're always daydreaming, and I could tell you weren't even sure what class you were in."

"I hate you!" Rae declared, speed walking ahead of him.

"Let's see if you feel that way when I help you ace calculus class!" Jake called. Then jogging to catch up with her, he said. "Tomorrow morning? Before school? Get here half an hour early. We can use the calc classroom before class starts."

Rae sighed. She knew she needed to pass calculus and she knew Miss. Johnson was going to make her get tutoring by Jake for at least half the quarter, and if she didn't do well with Jake, she'd get assigned another tutor, but not until half the quarter, which meant at least three more tests. She could not fail three more tests. Gabi would just have to deal.

"Fine," Rae said as they slipped inside their English classroom. "But I still hate you."

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**A/N: So what did you guys think? For those of you that miss the guardian stuff, I'll be getting back to that next chapter. There will be a couple mentions of the old guardians too. For those of you that like this regular high school stuff, there will be more of that too. Some things in this story are developing a lot faster than I originally anticipated, so I might have to slow it down a bit by putting in some filler stuff, but the story should be getting more exciting soon, as we get to why G.R.A.C.E. is the most important batch of guardians yet. Thank you for all the support guys, and please review!**


	12. Friends For-not-ever

**A/N: Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm back with another update! Two updates in the same week, that's new. But this chapter is a little shorter than all the rest. Thank you all so much for the reviews. A lot of people seemed to enjoy the last chapter, and I'm very happy about that. Chapter eleven is one of my favorites too! I hope this chapter receives as many positive reviews as the last one did. Enjoy guys!**

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**Guest: Thanks, I'm so glad you like it! I'm so happy to have a new reviewer. I hope you enjoyed the rest of the story and this chapter.**

**Emily: I know you hate Jake, but I love him, and he piqued a lot of people's interest, so I wanted to develop his character, and a lot of people seemed to like that. Well, I personally don't like this chapter either, but hopefully you'll like the rest a little more.**

**Misa: Jake seems to be a popular character, so I wanted to give him a little development since people were asking. I can't comment on the couples, you'll just have to wait and see. And actually, I do have an interesting twist with Lana's character, but that won't be until much later.**

**SilvenArrow: Caleb's one of my favorites too, especially in Happy Birthday Will! I think Caty's next attempt with Brian will be coming soon. I have that chapter written, I just don't know when in the story that chapter will be posted. It'll probably be a double update though. Hope you like what I came up with for this chapter.**

**WaterAmulet: I didn't even plan to make Josh and Sage like Caleb and Elyon, they just kind of turned out that way. I guess it only makes sense, considering who their parents are. And like I said, even though Gabi and Jake will break up in favor of Rae, I don't who whether the final couple will be Rae and Jake or Gabi and Jake. They may get back together. We'll see. Yes I definitely want to develop Jake and Caty's friendship more, but I don't know if I'll actually succeed, because their friendship isn't really important to the story. I'm glad you liked the previous chapter and I hope you like this one just as much!**

**Taylor: I'm glad you liked it! I mean, in W.I.T.C.H., they all had problems to deal with. Boys, divorce, betrayal. I wanted to give the G.R.A.C.E. girls, who seem more self-absorbed, and are older, their own problems. I hope you like this chapter! Thanks for the review!**

**Shay: I didn't realize it til recently either, but you're right, Jake has a relationship with all of the guardians. Jake is definitely going to find out about G.R.A.C.E. eventually, and having a friendship with every member will help him to figure it out. Originally, I wanted Chris and Gabi to end up with each other, but then I liked the idea of Chris and Alyssa, and I might put Gabi with Jake in the end, even though they'll break up, and I also had an idea with Chris and Rae, so now I'm very confused! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you anticipated you would.**

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Tuesday morning, Rae and Sage got dropped off by Harvey forty minutes early. He stopped the car five minutes away from the school, as he always did when Rae asked for a ride.

The girls walked the rest of the way. The first thing they saw as they stepped through the arch was Jake walking indoors, waving good bye to Gabi and Bree, and nodding at Josh. He didn't see Rae and Sage.

Sage joined Bree and Gabi, who were delighted that their friend showed up early. Bree and Josh were holding hands and smiling like crazy at each other. Alyssa told Rae she was pretty sure their relationship was fake, but it looked pretty real to her. Maybe it was _supposed_ to be fake, but they wouldn't be pretending for long.

"What're you doing here so early?" Josh asked.

"Rae needed to get here for her tutoring session," Sage said.

"Tutoring? I thought you were a brain," Gabi said, rolling her eyes.

"I have other things on my mind in calculus," Rae replied. 'Like the fact that I dream that I die every time I go to sleep.'

"Is Queen Nerd tutoring you?" Gabi snickered.

"Caty's only in pre-calc," Rae said. It was time for the conversation she was dreading. "Actually, I'm getting tutored by Jake."

"Excuse me, _what?!"_ Gabi screeched.

"I'm sorry," Rae said, rolling her eyes. "But I didn't choose my tutor, my teacher did. I begged her for a different tutor, but she insisted on Jake. What was I supposed to do?"

"Give her a _reason_ to assign you a different tutor," Gabi said.

"I can't. She said if we have scheduling conflicts, we _both_ have to bring them up. Jake's not going to lie and you shouldn't ask him to."

"I'm _not_ asking him to. I'm asking you to. Don't go. Tell your teacher he's tutoring you, but don't actually get tutored."

"But if I don't go, I'll fail."

"_That's_ not my problem," Gabi said. "All I know is, if you don't do any better with Jake "tutoring" you, she'll assign you a different tutor."

"She's sticking me with Jake for half the quarter. That's at least three tests. I can't fail Gabi. Honestly, I'm not any happier about this than you. But I don't really see the big deal. I'll study with him, twice a week, max, and I'll ignore him the rest of the time like you want me to. And, if it makes you feel better, you can come with me."

"I can _what_?"

"Yeah. Come with me to tutoring. You can be with Jake and keep an eye on me and I don't have to fail calculus."

"And have Jake think she's insecure and jealous? Because of _you_?" Bree spoke up. "_Not_ an option! Right Gabs?"

"Right. Why can't you get Classless-a to be your tutor? She must take calculus."

"_Alyssa_ took it already actually. But Miss. Johnson didn't assign her to me. She assigned Jake."

"Why does she have to know?" Gabi asked. "Classless-a will be more help than Jake anyway, since she took the entire class already. Jake may not fully understand later topics himself, and then he won't be much help. And Classless-a is your friend. You tell Jake you're gonna get tutored by Classless-a, and you both keep up appearances for Miss. Johnson. Then you can stay away from Jake and still pass your silly class. Problem solved."

Rae opened her mouth to say something and realized Gabi was right. Having taken the class already, Alyssa would be more help with Jake. Getting tutored by her super smart best friend would be fun. And she wouldn't have to be around Jake. Sure she missed him, but the more time she spent with him, the more she would fall for him, and with Gabi's blackmail hanging over her head, she could not go there. All she had to do was to get Jake to agree. But how was she going to go about that?

Before she had a chance to bring this point up, the school doors opened, and out walked Jake Saunders.

"You know, I made sure to be on time today. I'd appreciate it if you'd extend the same courtesy to me," he said to Rae, grinning.

"Babe, you never did tell me why you were here early today. I thought it was for student council, but I didn't know New-I mean Rae-was in student council," Gabi said, smirking at Rae.

"Actually, Miss. Johnson asked me to tutor Rae for a while in calculus. She's having some trouble keeping up."

"I've been preoccupied," Rae grumbled and Sage looked at her sympathetically. Rae hadn't particularly wanted to, but found herself telling Sage what she'd been dreaming about for the past week.

Jake went to stand in front of Gabi. "You don't mind, do you babe? I know you and Rae aren't on the best of terms, but it's out of my hands. Miss. Johnson insisted, and I'd really like to help Rae out."

Gabi bristled at that. Why did he want to help New Girl out so badly? But looking into his eyes, she couldn't refuse him. She never could.

"Oh fine," she said.

Clearly that wasn't the answer Jake was hoping for because he frowned and said. "If you have a problem with it, I could tell Miss. Johnson that we having some scheduling conflicts and she has to assign Rae a different tutor."

Gabi smiled. The fact that he was willing to do that for her was uplifting. He was so sweet! She couldn't play the role of the insecure girlfriend. That wouldn't bode well for her later on.

"No, don't be silly! I don't mind at all! It's sweet of you to want to help."

"You sure?"

"Of course!"

Jake smiled. "I knew you'd understand." He gave Gabi a kiss, then looked at Rae. "Come on. You've got a lot to learn."

Rae looked at Gabi. She rolled her eyes and Rae took that as a sign that she was allowed to get tutored by Jake.

_But no funny business_, Gabi's look said.

"Don't worry Gabs, you've got nothing to worry about with _her_," Bree said soothingly.

"I _know_ that already Bree," Gabi said, rolling her eyes.

Josh and Sage exchanged looks, but didn't say anything. One thing they knew about the old guardians was that they were all friends already. Well, except for Will, but she became friends with the other girls pretty quickly. That's probably the reason they did so much better with their powers. If G.R.A.C.E. couldn't get along the way W.I.T.C.H. did, they'd never get a handle on their powers. Josh had hoped by this time, Hay Lin could start telling them about the Thousand Year Prophecy, but at this rate, they'd never be ready for that.

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"How'd early morning tutoring go?" Alyssa asked as she and Rae walked to the cafeteria.

"Fine. I thought Jake was going to try to talk about us, but he focused on calculus the entire time. And I actually understood what he was saying."

"Well, he _is_ a top student," Alyssa reminded. "But what's going on with you? With your GPA, you were ranked number 4 in the junior class. The number 4 student doesn't fail a class."

"It's the guardian stuff. It's just so distracting. Caty was complaining about the same thing, that the guardian stuff is distracting her from school."

"Caty has a lot of clubs," Alyssa said. "If she cut down, she'd have more time for school."

"So why doesn't she?"

"She's too much of an over achiever for that," Alyssa joked, making Rae laugh.

As they entered the cafeteria, Josh, who was sitting with Bree at the cheerleader/jock table smiled and waved at the pair. The girls waved back. They took a seat at their usual table, waiting for Caty and the others to arrive.

"Josh is really cool, don't you think?" Alyssa asked. "He knows so much about art."

"He is cool," Rae agreed, smiling. "I'm learning a lot from him."

"Like what color his eyes are and how he felt when Cornelia brought home his sisters?" Alyssa asked. "Because I didn't see a lot of training going on yesterday."

"Well, we took a break, so what?"

"A break that lasted for the duration of guardian training? You guys even ate at a different table."

"So we wanted to talk alone. So what?"

"Rae, I think you've got a crush," Alyssa teased.

Rae rolled her eyes. "Josh is hot Lyssa, but I don't like him. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Sage has a crush on him."

"And yet he's going out with Bree."

"Which was a relationship you said was fake."

"It is!" Alyssa said. She was going to explain her theory, but Jake came over to them.

"Hey," he said, sitting down.

"What do you want?" Rae asked. She looked over at Gabi's table. Most the LAX boys were at an extra practice. Jake and a few of his friends didn't have to go because the coach called this extra practice for the boys he thought were being lazy. "Your table looks a lot less crowded today. You can go eat there."

"Come on Rae, we did so well in tutoring this morning. Are you really gonna treat your tutor so coldly?" Jake teased.

"_Yes_!" Rae spat, and Jake looked hurt. Rae looked away and Alyssa sighed inaudibly. This was crazy. Rae was trying to avoid Jake which was hurting him, and seeing him that way hurt Rae. And it was all Gabi's fault.

Alyssa wanted to intervene, but before she could think of anything to say, Ellie approached them. She addressed both Rae and Alyssa, but looked only at Alyssa.

"Caty and her friends are doing something for Mock Trial or Model U.N. or something during lunch," Ellie said. "She told me to tell you that you guys can join them if you want, but you'll probably get bored. So you guys can come sit with us today."

"You mean with the other drama kids?" Alyssa asked, realizing 'us' included Adam.

"Yeah."

"Sure," Rae said. "It's better than eating _by ourselves_."

Jake looked hurt again and Rae bit her lip guiltily.

"You can come too Jake," Ellie said, blissfully unaware of what was going on.

"No thanks. I think I'll go join Gabi," he muttered, going back to the cheerleader/jock table.

Rae stared after him, then abruptly got up. She and Alyssa followed Ellie to her table. Rae sat down next to Adam, and Alyssa took a seat beside Ellie, across from Adam.

"Hi," Adam said, clearing his throat. He looked everywhere but at Alyssa.

"Hi," she replied, just as awkwardly.

"Ellie, what are Classless-a and New Girl doing here?" a raven haired girl asked. Jade, Rae remembered.

"Jade," an auburn haired girl hissed. Milly.

"_Alyssa_ and _Rae_ are sitting with us today."

"Why, is Encyclopediork too busy?" Jade snorted. That was another of Caty's nicknames.

"Jade, be nice," Adam said firmly, shutting her up.

Rae looked at Adam, impressed. He seemed to have an air of control over his friends. The rest of lunch passed by uneventfully. Ellie kept trying to get everyone involved in conversation, and eventually, Rae and Milly found they did have a few things in common. Jade wasn't as receptive to the new additions, and mainly talked to Ellie. Adam and Alyssa were silent, throwing each apprehensive glances from time to time. The one time their eyes met, they both gasped and looked down at their lunch immediately.

When the lunch bell rang, Alyssa rushed out of the cafeteria. Rae had to run to catch up with her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Alyssa shrugged. "I guess being around Adam again was a little weird. I never realized, but I guess I'm still mad at him for everything that happened six years ago."

"But if you're still angry with Adam, why aren't you mad at Ellie? _She's_ the one who dropped you for no good reason! And don't give me some story about having differing interests. Jake and I decided when we were still friends that there was more to the story than you were letting on."

"There is," Alyssa sighed. "Look, I can't tell you exactly what happened because it's Ellie's secret, not mine. But she didn't _drop_ me. At least, not in the way everyone thinks. She stopped being my friend, but not because she got into drama. We got in a fight and she didn't want to be friends with someone who knew her secret. I'm mad at Adam because he actually did drop me. I know he got no explanation from Ellie, because if she'd told him what really happened, he wouldn't have abandoned me. I'm not sure what she told him, but Adam said hi to me when we were alone, but ignored me when Ellie was around, and pretty much ignored my existence after I earned my nicknames."

"And he seemed like such a nice guy," Rae mused.

"Adam's interesting," Alyssa said. "I guess he's nice…but only when he wants to be. Like, he's an absolute sweetheart 24/7 when it comes to Ellie, but he can be a bit hostile at time with other people. He was pretty nice to me, but I've noticed some awkward exchanges between him and Jade."

"To be fair, Jade has a rough exterior," Rae pointed out.

"That's true. I just…I didn't notice it when we were friends, but I feel like I didn't really know him."

"That can be scary," Rae said. The pair took their seats in APUSH. Rae tried to change her seat in every class, but every time she did, Jake somehow ended up next to her anyway, so she stopped trying. She used Alyssa as a buffer.

APUSH was the worst. Mrs. Taylor got tired of people talking, so she assigned people seats a day or two before Gabi ordered Rae to stay away from Jake. If it was done alphabetically, Gabi and Jake would be next to each other, but it wasn't since she placed 'Dylan' next to 'Saunders.' Alyssa was next to Rae on the other side, and Caty sat in front of Jake, which made her angry since she hated Jake. Rae and Alyssa had switched seats so Alyssa could be between Rae and Jake, and Mrs. Taylor hadn't said anything. It figured the students had assigned seats in the one class Rae had with Gabi.

Caty, who was turned around in her seat, smiled at the pair as they took their seats, and continued telling Jake the story of how she creamed Nick in mock trial at lunch.

"Guess those two are friends again," Rae whispered.

"Jake is the exact opposite of Adam," Alyssa said. "He's open and genuine. You never get a surprise with him."

Rae just shrugged, but she agreed. And of course that got her mind started on listing everything Jake had going for him. He was hot, smart, sweet, genuine, persistent…Rae sighed. She needed to get over this guy unless she wanted to cause trouble with G.R.A.C.E.

Rae looked in her backpack and realized she forgot her history book. She tapped Alyssa to ask her to share. Alyssa yelped.

"Ow!" she cried. "Rae, you shocked me!"

Caty and Jake looked over at them.

"Sorry," Rae apologized. "I've been really staticy lately. My hair goes flying in the mornings and I shock people by accident all the time."

"That's weird," Caty said, launching into an explanation about the presence of static electricity and why it didn't make sense that Rae was experiencing the effects before Winter.

Rae tuned her out and looked down at her hands. It could've been a trick of the lights, but she could've sworn she saw some white lightning emitting from her hands before disappearing. What was happening to her?

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

"Where's Hay Lin?" Ellie asked that afternoon.

Chris shrugged. "Mom's usually never late," he said.

"It's just as well," Josh said. "We need to talk to you anyway. I guess Hay Lin being here would help, but I think Sage and I can cover it."

"Cover what?" Gabi asked. "And why are you sitting in front of us instead of in the corner with you weapons?"

Usually, the girls all stood around while Hay Lin stood in front of them and explained what they were going to do that day. Sage and Josh sat on the floor in the left corner of the room, and Chris and Cara sat on the boxes stacked in the right corner of the room. Today, the Lyndons were at their usual spot, but when the guardians came downstairs, Sage and Josh told them to sit down. They sat down in a semi-circle and Josh and Sage sat in front of them, wearing serious expressions.

"We figured out why you guys are so terrible at using your powers," Sage said.

"Well don't keep us in suspense!" Rae cried, excited. Maybe she'd finally get the answer she was looking for. If she could stop worrying about how to protect everyone else, she could figure out how to properly protect herself.

Sage gave Rae a sympathetic smile, one that she was getting extremely used to. Was this Sage's way of telling Rae that even though they had the answer, it wouldn't solve all her problems?

"When W.I.T.C.H. became guardians, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin were already best friends," Josh said. "Will had just moved to Heatherfield a couple days ago, and she was the new girl. I'll admit the other girls weren't really planning to become her friend, but Hay Lin invited all of them over for a snack one afternoon and her grandmother, Yan Lin, told them the story Hay Lin told you guys, and told them they were the new guardians. They went to practice immediately, and they weren't much better than you guys are."

"So what changed?" Alyssa asked.

"They did," Sage said. "They'd only practiced for two days, including the day they found out they were guardians, when they went on their first mission, to save Will."

"Save Will?" Rae repeated.

So Josh and Sage told them the story of what happened with Cedric and Caleb, and how Will got captured too, and how the Heart led the other guardians to her.

"None of us know Will," Chris spoke up when they were done, "but Mom says that was day the rest of the guardians all became friends. Will was worried none of them cared enough about to her to even notice her disappearance, but the other girls counted Will as one of them, part of their group, so of course they went after her even though they were only in human form."

"Now this leads us to another story," Josh said. "About Queen Elyon."

Ellie leaned forward, interested. Anything that had to do with Elyon fascinated her. She hoped she would eventually get to meet her. If G.R.A.C.E. managed to pull it together and rescue her, which seemed to be a lost cause at this point.

Josh and Sage told them how Cornelia and Elyon were best friends, and when the guardians found out about Elyon being the princess, Will and the others forbade Cornelia from telling Elyon. They told them how Cedric got Elyon to Meridian, and how Cornelia got so angry, she quit being a guardian.

"She could do that?" Caty asked.

"No. Like Mom said, the power is still there. Just because she quit being a guardian doesn't mean she isn't one," Chris said. "Being a guardian is part of who you are from the very minute you use your powers for the first time. And Cornelia knew that…I think. She essentially just quit the guardian business, not being a guardian. And she wasn't too happy with her group of friends either. She blamed them, mainly Will, for Elyon getting taken to Meridian and for believing Phobos was good and her friends were evil."

"Well she was right," Gabi said. "If they'd just told Elyon in the first place, then all of that could've been avoided."

"What were they supposed to tell her?" Cara asked. "That she was the princess of a different realm where magic exists and most of the inhabitants are creatures that humans were taught to think of as monsters?"

"Well maybe not exactly like that," Gabi conceded.

"Look, we all know you think you're a princess, with blue blood and all," Rae started, "but it's easier to believe you're the princess of this world. It's harder to believe you're the princess of another world. Think about it. If we told you about Meridian before Hay Lin told us that story, would you have believe the world even existed?"

"Blue blood?" Sage repeated. "Do royals here have blue blood?"

"I thought you had a president here," Josh said.

"We do. Presidents or prime ministers…some communist rulers," Caty listed. "But we still have royals in some counties. They just don't rule."

"Well…they do rule in some countries," Alyssa reminded.

"Yeah, but only in small countries," Rae pointed out.

"And no they don't literally have blue blood," Caty said. "It's just an expression."

"An expression that doesn't even make sense, because the color of royalty is purple, not blue," Rae said.

"Oh, well, actually it's because royals were very pale skinned," Caty said. "Pale enough that you could see their blood vessels and veins, which are blue. That's where the term comes from."

"Also, blood only turns red when it touches oxygen, and before that, it is blue," Alyssa said. "So the term 'blue blood' can loosely be called 'pure blood' because when blood is blue it's untouched and pure. And royals were called pure blooded or pure bred."

"I thought it had something to do with hemophilia too. Since so many royals had it or something," Chris piped up.

"It may have," Rae agreed.

"As interesting as all this talk of _blood_ is," Cara interjected sarcastically, "I think Josh and Sage had a _point_."

"We did," Josh said.

"_But,"_ Sage said, glaring at Josh, "the topic change was our fault."

"Why don't you guys just finish what you were saying?" Caty suggested.

"Okay. So like I said, Mom quit being a guardian, saying someone else can take over, and quit being friends with the rest of WITCH. Then the guardians had a run in with some mudslugs."

"Which are?" Gabi asked, sounding disgusted.

Sage shuddered. "Nasty little creatures. They're blind, but they have a great sense of smell and it's hard to defeat them."

"And where those little guys are, the mother's not far," Josh added. "And there's nothing little about _her_."

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Hay Lin asked, coming downstairs.

"Hay Lin! Excellent!" Josh exclaimed. "Can you take over? We're telling them a story and it'll be better if they get a firsthand account."

"What story?"

"The time you guys faced the mud slugs," Sage said. She filled Hay Lin in on what the girls already knew Hay Lin took over.

"So the four of us, plus Caleb fought the mudslugs, but we didn't do much. They could stick to the ground so air wouldn't do anything and when Taranee shot fire at them, they dug and hid in burrows. Water only makes more mud, which they thrive on, so Irma couldn't do much. We needed Cornelia. We finally got to her using the Heart. It put Will on the air of the radio station we were pretty sure Cornelia was listening to. We apologized to Cornelia and she came to help us out. While Taranee, Irma, and I distracted the mama slug, Cornelia managed to lift up the piece of Earth it was standing on and thrust it through the portal, back to Meridian. And fun fact, Alyssa…the mama slug chased after Taranee and she had to do some pretty fancy flying to escape it's tentacles. No I don't know how a slug has tentacles. The point is, I think this was the adventure that truly got her over her fear of flying."

Before Alyssa could respond, Rae jumped in.

"So, all through this, Will did nothing?" she asked.

"She united us," Hay Lin shrugged weakly.

"But nothing else?"

"No."

"Because she couldn't."

"Yeah."

Rae closed her eyes and sighed.

"Rae, I promise, you will get your second power," Hay Lin said earnestly. "And then you'll feel powerful too."

"Honestly," Alyssa said, "you'll probably be the most powerful out of all of us. You _are_ the guardian of quintessence."

"I don't even know what that means," Rae moaned.

"Don't tell her. She can't know about it yet," Hay Lin warned. "Knowing about certain powers beforehand can lead to experimentation, which can lead to death. And you'll be less powerful with one less guardian, especially if it's the Keeper. You can't transform them, and just because one guardian dies doesn't mean another one is born or chosen until the time is right."

"Which is the point I was trying to make with this mudslugs story," Josh broke in.

"Oh, you mean you didn't tell us about those disgusting creatures for our entertainment?" Gabi questioned, her tone overly innocent.

The others laughed. Gabi was a bitch, but she had her moments.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Hay Lin, what was it that Yan Lin said when Cornelia first quit being a guardian?"

Hay Lin thought hard. Her face lit up. "She said we can't take on Phobos, or any enemy really, without all of us. Even just one of us missing is bad. Her exact words were, 'Divided, your powers are diminished.'"

"Mom, how can you _remember_ that?" Cara asked, shocked.

Hay Lin smiled. "Most of grandma's advice is burned in my memory forever. Good thing too, since I'm the new guide for the guardians."

"But you see what I'm saying?" Josh asked. "All of the guardians need to be together if they want to have their full power."

"So Rae, this should prove to you that G.R.A.C.E. needs you for more than just uniting them and giving them their powers," Sage said. "I don't understand how you can't see that you have the most important job of all, but since you can't, look at this way. You may not have any powers, but if you united the guardians, then fled the fight, their powers would be diminished without you."

"That's not all," Josh said. "You need to be together…and you all need to _work_ together. You guys aren't doing that. You may all be there at guardian training, but you're not working together, so your powers aren't getting any better. W.I.T.C.H. were friends. That's why they had an easy time handling it."

"It's not exactly easy to be friends with the girl that tormented you for six years of your life," Alyssa said, glaring at Gabi.

"Or working with someone who looks at you like you're an _idiot_," Ellie said, looking at Caty.

"Try working with someone you like, but are afraid will overshadow you eventually," Caty said, glancing at Rae.

"As if it's easy working with someone who can do so much with her powers when I can't do anything," Rae replied, casting a sideways look at Alyssa.

"No!" Josh cried, frustrated. "I tell you to be friends and now you and Alyssa, the best friends of the group, are complaining about each other?"

"I feel a little inferior to her," Rae said. "But she's still my best friend."

"I don't _mean_ to make you feel inferior," Alyssa said.

"I know. It's not your fault you have fire. And it's not my fault I'm the Keeper. I know you don't do it on purpose."

Alyssa smiled, then gave Rae a hug which the leader easily returned. Ellie bristled at the scene. _She_ should've been the one Alyssa was hugging. _She_ was Alyssa's best friend first!

"Now if all of you could get along the way those two do," Hay Lin said, "we wouldn't have any problems at all."

"We should try guys," Caty said. "I tried. I invited Rae and Alyssa to sit with me because I knew it'd be easier to work with them if I actually liked them."

"And we accepted for the same reason, and now we're kind of friends," Alyssa said.

"So I guess the rest of us need to try," Ellie said.

"I'll stop talking to you like you're an idiot. Honestly, I don't think you're stupid," Caty said.

"And you can start by _not_ blackmailing Rae," Alyssa said to Gabi.

"Better yet, start by _not_ calling Alyssa names. I've been saying it since day one anyway," Rae added.

"If I stop blackmailing you, you won't avoid Jake. You are not going to take my boyfriend form me!" Gabi cried.

"Jake loves you," Caty said. "You should trust him more. I know he was a player in the past, but he's serious about you."

"Anyway your relationship can't be all that strong if you think he'll go running to Rae the minute she stops ignoring him," Ellie said, making the others laugh.

"We're just friends Gabi," Rae sighed. Then, knowing that wasn't true anymore, she said, "But fine. Do whatever you want to me. Eventually I'll forget it's blackmail. But you can't call Alyssa Classless-a or Klutzcroft anymore."

"Fine. Then you can't talk to me in front of my friends," Gabi countered. "Because I can't call you Alyssa in front of them."

"Don't worry," Alyssa said. "Your pom-pom shaking bimbos are the last people I want to talk to anyway."

Gabi bristled at the comment, but didn't say anything.

"Good. Maybe this could actually work," Josh said in relief as the group walked to their clearing to practice.

"Yeah. _Maybe_ being the operative word," Chris sighed.

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

"Hey Little Man!" Josh said as he and Gabi walked into Gabi's house later that night. He gave Luc a high five.

"Hi Josh!" Luc said enthusiastically. Josh and Luc had really bonded over the past week and Gabi had to admit, as much as Josh annoyed her, she was glad Luc had someone to talk to.

"Lucifer Abel Shay!" Gabi said sternly.

Luc winced.

Gabi hated having to use his full name, but needed him to know she was being stern. "It is 11:30pm. Why aren't you in bed?"

"I think the better question Elena," Daniel said, walking into the room, an annoyed look on his face, "is why you are just coming home now."

"It's late," Sienna agreed.

"Shut up, I don't need your opinion," Gabi snapped at the step-monster. Then she looked at her dad and gave him a response before he could yell at her for being rude to his newest gold digger. "I was at school working on a project Dad." That wasn't the truth, but what was she supposed to say? She was so tired of guardian training that she needed to unwind at the mall on a school night? "The real question is what were you doing while Luc stayed up two hours past his bedtime?"

"I wanted to say good night to you guys," Luc said.

Unlike most little brothers, he didn't get annoyed when Gabi tried to take care of him and acted like his mother and was overprotective of him. He never knew his mother, and for as long as he could remember, while his dad worked all hours of the day and his dad's latest girlfriend spent her days doing some frivolous activity or the other, Michael took care of Gabi, and Gabi took care of him. He knew Gabi worried about him, so he tried to make things easier for her by not complaining, even when she went a little far with her mothering efforts.

Gabi's eyes softened and she let a smile grace her lips. "That's really sweet Luc," she said. "But I don't want to be the reason you're really tired tomorrow morning. But if it'll help, I'll try to come home earlier."

Luc shook his head. "It's okay Gabi. I'll go to bed on time from now on, even if you're not home. I'm sorry."

"I love you Luc. Good night," Gabi said, hugging him. Luc was her favorite person in all the known worlds.

"Good night Gabi," Luc replied. "Love you too. Good night Josh."

"Good night Little Man. I'll see you tomorrow." The boys did some dumb secret hand shake they developed on Josh's second night at the Shays', and Luc went to his room.

"Homework?" Gabi asked Josh.

Josh nodded and followed the Earth guardian to her room.

Gabi started to close the door.

"Door open Gabrielle," Daniel demanded.

Gabi rolled her eyes, waited til her father moved out of view, and closed her door anyway. She walked over the chrysanthemum. Most were yellow, orange, pink, or dark purple, but Bree bought one that would grow to be lavender because that was Gabi's favorite color. She had the best bestie ever

The flower was pretty much her practice dummy. She did something to it every day. Today she shot her hand out toward a leaf. It came toward her. She concentrated on the vine the leaf was hanging from and forced it to wrap itself around the stem in a spiral shape.

"Nice," Josh said.

"Thanks."

"You know, Luc comes into this room a lot," Josh commented. "You think he notices that flower looks different every day?"

"I don't think that's the first thing on his mind. Or the 20th," Gabi replied bluntly. "But sometimes, I hope he notices."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I mean, this whole guardian thing seems cool, but I'm honestly not into it. And it'd be so much easier if I could just tell Luc. I know I can't. It's dangerous for him to know, especially with Eva being the Heart of Earth. But I wish I had someone to talk to. I don't really like the other guardians, and I know I have you and Sage and Chris, but I don't think anyone will understand like Luc."

"Understand what?"

"I don't want to battle or put myself in danger. I _can't_ put myself in harm's way. That's why I didn't go with the others that day. But, it's not just because I'm a bitch. If I put myself in the midst of a battle, I might not come back. And if I don't…what's that going to do to Luc?"

Josh didn't say anything, waiting to see if she would expand.

"His…_our_ mother…died during childbirth. She died giving birth to Luc. She knew it was a possibility. She fainted during her sixth month and the doctors told her if she had the baby, there was a very good chance she wouldn't make it. My dad wanted to see if they could get rid of the baby, even though she was starting the third trimester. It's really hard to abort a baby at that point…oh sorry, do you know what abortion is?"

Josh nodded. "We…have a way of doing that…in Meridian."

Gabi nodded. "Well my mother…she wouldn't hear of it. She wanted to have Luc. She said she didn't care what happened to her. She chose the name Lucifer, and even though my dad hated the name, but he named Luc that because she died before she even got to hold him." Gabi stopped and took a few breaths. It was at this point in the story she usually started to cry (not that she told this story very often; only once to Luc when he asked, once to Bree because they were best friends, and once to Jake, three years ago, when they were still just friends, the day she realized she was in love with him). She held it together in front of Luc because she needed to be strong for him, but she had no such reservations in front of Bree of Jake. Now, the reservations were back. She didn't want to cry in front of Josh.

"Luc demanded the story out of me a couple of years ago. I'd already told Bree and Jake about it at that time. He would ask me a couple times every year and I'd always tell him I'd tell him the story when he was older. I wanted to protect him. But when he was nine, he said he couldn't take it anymore and he just wanted to know. So I told him, and he's managed to convince himself Mom died because of him, just like I knew he would. Just like I didn't want him to."

"It's a natural reaction," Josh said, knowing that was the lamest response he could ever come up with.

"The reaction I wanted to protect him from," Gabi said. "That's why I avoided telling him for so long. Ever since then…every bad thing that's happened…like me breaking my leg, or getting in a fight with Bree…he's always been there for me because he's convinced he needs to protect me. He thinks he's responsible for taking my mother away from him, and so now he doesn't want to be the cause of anything else. And he thinks he needs to protect me. If I can tell him about the guardian thing, and then I get hurt or die in battle…at least if he knows, I can explain to him there's nothing he can do to protect me. But if he doesn't know…"

"You think he'll think it's his fault."

Gabi nodded. "Mom's death wasn't his fault but he thinks it is. And he knows he didn't just take my mother from me. My dad lost his wife that day. So if I get hurt and Luc doesn't know, he'll think he's not only the person who took Dad's wife from him, but his daughter too. And if I die, Luc loses his caretaker. I was the one who always took care of him. I cooked for him, helped him clean, helped him with his homework, stood up for him, put him to bed…what would he do without me? I mean, Dad and Sienna were both home today and neither thought to tell Luc to go to sleep! I know Meridian needs the guardians, and it's my duty, but my first duty has always been to my brother. I can't put my life at risk for a world I don't have any attachment to, even if the whole world needs me. My brother is more important."

"I understand. Not completely, because I'm not a parental figure to my sisters, or my brother, but I get it to some extent. Whenever there were battles in Meridian, protecting Jilly and Julia came first and protecting everyone else came second. But…look, I'm not supposed to say anything until you guys get a handle on your powers, so I'm not going to tell you too much and you can't tell the others, but…your generation of guardians is the most important generation in a thousand years. Usually the guardians are chosen to protect two worlds: Meridian and Kandrakar. But every thousand years, a special group of guardians are chosen, to protect not just Meridian and Kandrakar, but all known worlds, Earth included."

"And _we're_ this special group?"

Josh nodded. "The first group of guardians were chosen by the Heart exactly 10,000 years ago on the 31st of October."

"On Halloween?" Gabi asked.

Josh nodded, knowing about Halloween thanks to his mother. "Creepy, isn't it?"

"I'll say. And you're saying I have to put my life at risk as a guardian because I need to save Earth too?"

"Yeah. And who lives on Earth? Luc."

Gabi sighed. "Now I really wish Luc knew because I'm more inclined to put my life at risk if I'm protecting Earth. That's why I wish he'd notice and ask me so I can tell him. Then it wouldn't really be my fault, because I wouldn't have brought it up to him, but I could still tell him because he'd be asking questions."

"Maybe do something more elaborate with that plant," Josh suggested. "Maybe then he'll notice."

"Yeah, maybe," Gabi agreed, but she knew in her heart, she couldn't tell Luc. That would put him in direct physical danger and she couldn't live with herself if she put him in harm's way. But if he didn't know...he'd be hurting in another way. "I just want to protect him, you know?"

For a minute, Josh didn't know what to say. He knew Gabi was nice because he saw how she was with Luc, but he never knew she was so _kind,_ and yes there was a difference, thank you very much. This was a side of Gabi he'd never seen before, and even though he didn't want her to be sad, he liked this side of her. She was genuine, sincere…she was herself. And Josh found out he liked Gabi's true self very much.

Finally, Josh got up and pulled her into a hug. Gabi was surprised, but took comfort in his embrace. That was exactly what she needed.

"Yeah," he whispered, tightening his grip around her. "I know."

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

It was 11:30pm when Rae, Alyssa, and Sage, who decided to go with Rae to Alyssa's house that day, finally finished their homework. Rae knew they were going to finish late that night, so she told Harvey to pick her and Sage up at midnight instead of at 11pm, after making sure it was okay for her to stay that late with both Silena and Mrs. Ashcroft. They both said it was fine since the girls were doing schoolwork, as long as they didn't make a habit of late nights.

"So I was thinking guys," Alyssa said as they put their books away.

"Do I want to hear this?" Rae joked.

"Oh shush," Alyssa said, rolling her eyes. "I was just thinking about the story Hay Lin told us about the mudslugs. Not about the mudslugs themselves, but about how Will got in contact with Cornelia. The Heart helped her get on the air because it knew they need her to win. The Heart is what unites the guardians, brings them together and keeps them together. And even though W.I.T.C.H. weren't always the best of friends, they stayed together for any guardian related activity. But then they all fell out of touch. None of them who got married to who or if they got married or had kids or anything."

"And…?" Rae asked.

"Well, they all fell out of touch because they didn't have any guardian related activities after a while. Kandrakar didn't need them, so the Heart didn't unite them anymore. They didn't have the Heart, so they didn't stay friends. And it seems a shame, doesn't it? They used to be like sisters, and now they know nothing about each other."

"I guess it's kind of sad," Rae agreed.

"Cornelia and Elyon are still best friends because they have so many years of history behind them," Alyssa went on. "But according to Hay Lin, Cornelia only had three more years of history with Elyon than she did with Irma and Hay Lin. And Irma and Hay Lin were friends since they were two, just like Cornelia and Elyon. But they didn't stay friends. Rae you're my best friend, and we just became friends with Caty, and Josh, and you Sage. And I don't want us to be torn apart too."

"How do you know that's going to happen?" Rae asked.

"Yeah. We'll always keep in touch," Sage agreed.

"We say that now. But how do we know?"

"The guardians were torn apart because of a fight," Sage said.

"They had years of friendship behind them, destroyed because of a fight. We've only been friends with each other for a couple of weeks. It could happen to us too, and it'll be much easier with us since we don't have the same history." Now Alyssa was thinking of Ellie. It was so easy for a fight to tear them apart. "I need to know that friendship can survive. I need to prove it."

"How are you going to do that?" Rae asked.

Alyssa smiled widely. "I'm glad you asked. I was thinking. Irma still lives in Heatherfield, Cornelia is in Meridian, we already know where my mom and Hay Lin are, and we could internet search Will and find her. What if we brought them all back together? I'm pretty sure the other members of Wreck 55 were the boyfriends of the other guardians. Those must be the friends my mom had a fight with, resulting in Wreck's break up. So we can get the band back together and that would force the wives to come together too."

Sage and Rae suddenly understood. Rae wanted to protest that this wasn't the best idea they'd ever had, but knew there wasn't any point to try and talk Alyssa out of this.

"So…are you in?" Alyssa asked.

"I guess," Sage shrugged.

Alyssa smiled, satisfied, and turned to Rae.

Rae smiled. "Oh yeah. We're getting the guardians back together."

**A/N: So? What did you think? I know that was an abrupt ending, and shorter than usual, but if I added anything else, it'd be too long, so I decided to leave it at that, Hope you enjoy guys. Review!**


	13. Heritage and Lineage

**A/N: Hello people! So to be completely honest, I was really blocked for this chapter, so much so that I went ahead and wrote a future chapter instead of working on this one, so if this chapter isn't up to par, I apologize. I know what's going to happen in the future, but I need one or two buffer chapters first, and I'm stuck on what to write for those. I also need certain things to happen in these buffer chapters in order for the future chapters to make sense. Hopefully though, this won't turn out as badly as I think it will, especially since I got it done sooner than I thought I would, so I feel like maybe I didn't spend enough time on it. If it does (turn out badly), please bear with me guys! Anyway, here are the shout-outs!**

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**Emily: Well, aren't you sweet? I wonder how people would react if they read your reviews and my responses without knowing we're friends? But anyway, you got this chapter sooner than you expected, didn't you? Although you kept screaming all through OAUT for me to finish the last few sentences during the break. Calm down! How would you like it if I kept screaming all through Supernatural? Love you too!**

**SilvenArrow: I wanted Gabi to have more depth than the popular girl who tears people down, so I wanted her to date Jake because she actually likes him, not just because he's hot and also popular. It'll also be more heartbreaking for her when they break up, although not as heartbreaking as people may think. You'll figure out why I say that when you read this chapter. I got distracted while studying for finals and watched the season 1 episode The Princess Revealed, and then got the idea to include the mudslugs story for the last chapter, and then I had to watch that episode to, to remember it. Not that I minded of course! You'll find out more about whether or not Josh and Gabi have a romantic future in this chapter. I'm planning on writing about getting the guardians back together in the next chapter. Hopefully it goes according to plan. I hope this update was soon enough for you and I hope you like the chapter!**

**Shay: I'm glad you keep checking back. You're right about irregular! I start work on the next chapter as soon as I post the current one, and I spend as much time as I can writing. Some days, with less homework (or more recently, no finals to study for), I get more done and update faster. My last final is tomorrow, and I'll be free for a week, but then I start summer classes, but I still will have more time to write than I did during the semester, so hopefully I can do a couple chapters a week, but we'll see. My chapters are pretty long, so it's almost like two when I update. Although I know my chapters get "droney" and boring at times. And yes, you will get to hear about Daniel's other girlfriends and see Michael. And it's interesting you bring that up because this chapter skips over a few weeks. I've been waiting to skip to this point in the story for a while. It's still October, but next chapter will skip another week and a half ahead, so it'll be Thanksgiving sooner than you think. As always, I can't comment on the couples, so you'll just have to read, and the reuniting plan should start in the next chapter. Until then, hope you like this one!**

**Taylor: Thanks! I wanted Gabi to show her soul a little more. I'm extremely protective of and motherly with my little brother, so I guess in that respect, Gabi is like me. It only took four days for me to finish this chapter. I hope you like it!**

**WaterAmulet: Yup, it only took four days for this chapter to be up :) I skipped over it so as not to make this chapter too long, and also I needed to refresh my memory of calculus (the last time I did calc was over two years ago in my freshman year calc class), but I wrote about it in this chapter. I planned to write about it anyway. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Misa: I hope you check this story so you'll see this update and won't miss it. I always seem to come up with twists that make a once small character, like Lana or Silena and Frank, much bigger and more important. I'm glad you like that. I'm actually surprised all my reviewers have taken such a big interest in my future romantic pairings, because a lot of my fanfics are romance stories, but in this one, the romance takes a back seat to the guardian thing and the teen drama, which involves more than just boys. But I'm glad it's a point of interest because I've gotten a lot better at developing romance, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. You'll see more of Josh and Gabi and they're possible romance in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it.**

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For the next few weeks, everything went by smoothly. G.R.A.C.E. wasn't doing much better in the friendship department when it came to Gabi. She had a hard time breaking the habit of calling Alyssa by her nicknames, and spending more time with the other girls caused her to start using their demeaning nicknames more regularly too. Needless to say, no one was impressed.

However, Caty and Ellie had made a lot of progress. Once Caty stopped addressing Ellie as if she were a five-year-old, they found that, as different as they are, they truly enjoyed each other's company and became fast friends. They were no Alyssa and Rae of course, and between Nina and Misha, and Adam, Jade, and Milly, both girls still had their own _best_ friends, but they were as close as they needed to be to work together.

Caty's relationship with Rae and Alyssa had improved, as everyone predicted it would. However, the pair still had a hard time connecting with Ellie, and Ellie's jealousy and dislike of Rae didn't help the situation any.

Josh began spending a lot of time with Bree for their fake relationship, and it seemed to be going well. Dalton was getting jealous and both Bree and Josh knew how to sell it. Gabi hoped Sage would've asked Josh out by now, but the relationship just seemed to depress her.

Other than when he was with Bree, Josh spent all his free time with Rae and Alyssa, even joining their lunch table instead of staying at the cheerleader/jock table, stopping by Rae's house in the mornings so he could walk with her, Alyssa, and Sage to school, and spending time in the art studio (although that could just be for him as well-he managed the join the senior art class Alyssa and Chris were in and needed to log in studio hours). It seemed clear to the guardians he liked Rae, although he knew how to keep that hidden in school to help Bree.

Cheerleading tryouts came and went. A few freshman made the squad, and a few sophomores were upgraded to JV, but none of the new juniors that tried out made it, so Gabi's friend group remained the same. Seventeen seniors and three juniors signed up to try out for Varsity. Only five seniors and one junior was supposed to make it. Gabi and Lana were two of the juniors, and Sage was the third. She didn't want the spot, but Traci convinced her to try out anyway.

The other girls and Josh had gone along to support Sage. She'd done well, but she did fall during her last move. Gabi's routine went flawlessly. Lana seemed to be doing okay, but she stepped up her game to impress. Gabi's anger flared and she caused a mini Earthquake, causing Lana to fall. Then she made the floor fix itself before anyone noticed. Gabi got the spot on Varsity and Rae walked out of the gym as she and Jake made out after.

Rae's tutoring had been going well. Thanks to Jake, she had gotten perfect scores on three quizzes and a 96% on the unit test. Their relationship was improving as well. Jake learned that as long as he left Rae alone most of the time, she'd be sweet and talk to him normally during tutoring. What Gabi didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

After a lot of begging, and some flirting, Rae had gotten Josh to agree to train her with a weapon. He still thought she was much too small for a sword, so he decided to equip her with a bow and arrow instead, which were Cara's forte. She took over Rae's weapon training, and Josh, Sage, and Chris sparred while the guardians practiced with their powers.

With the friendship factor improving, the teamwork did too. All the girls got much better with their powers. Alyssa could conjure up a flame anytime she wanted, and she finally got over her fear of fire and heights, Caty was able to get fancy with her water tricks, and Gabi had grown especially powerful, able to do almost anything she attempted without hurting anyone. Rae was very good with archery, but her flying skills left something to be desired.

It was Ellie that showed the most improvement. She would come to school or guardian training with a couple of bruises or cuts and offer no explanation as to how she got them, but however it happened, it seemed to pump her up, because she was working harder and becoming much stronger. She also worked with Rae on flying, but it seemed like Rae was a lost cause when it came to using her wings.

October crept up on the gang and Josh, Sage, and the Lyndons grew concerned. They knew the girls would have to learn of the Thousand Year Prophecy soon if they wanted to protect themselves, but they knew so little about the prophecy, they weren't sure how much good it would do them. Meanwhile, it seemed like the guardians were preoccupied their own lives and problems. They needed to be one hundred percent focused on G.R.A.C.E. once the prophecy was told, and between all their other activities, Josh, Sage, and the Lyndons were worried about how much devotion they could give to G.R.A.C.E.

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

"Okay, let's start by going over what you already know," Jake said one October Thursday morning. "If the expression is y = 3x + 6, what would the derivative be?"

"Um…y' = 3," Rae replied.

"Good. So, if y = -10x + 4 then-"

"Then y' = -10," Rae interjected.

"Good. So what if y = x2?" Jake asked.

"Um…I don't completely remember," Rae admitted.

"That's okay. So, what you do is take the exponent and multiply it with the variable and subtract one from the varaible's exponent."

Rae processed that information, then said, "So y' = 2x."

"Exactly. What if the expression is y = x4?

"Y' = 4x3," Rae answered, remembering what they went over last week.

"Right. So what if y = 2x3?"

"Um…y' = 6x2?" Rae asked questioningly.

"Perfect!" Jake said, making Rae glow with pride. Normally school work came easy to her, but without Alyssa, she was lost in calculus. Miss. Johnson was no help, so when she got answers right with Jake, she felt really good about herself.

"Now let's start with what we're doing this week," Jake said, pulling out his homework. Rae followed suit.

"I didn't exactly do it," she admitted.

Jake smiled. "That's okay. Let's do it now. We have enough time to finish before class starts. Okay, the first problem is y = 12/x. What do you remember about that?"

"I'm not sure. I know we have to move x up to the numerator. And there's something involving negative numbers?"

"Right. When x is in the denominator, it's the same as a negative exponent. The exponent number will remain the same, it'll just be negative. So simplify the expression."

"Okay, so it's y = 12x-1," Rae said, writing it down.

"Exactly. Now to take the derivative. Remember the exponent is negative, and you're subtracting from a negative number."

"Right. So y' = -12x-2," Rae declared.

"Yup. But Miss. Johnson always says to leave the answer in the way the problem was originally presented, so you have to convert it into a fraction. So what's the final answer?"

"Y' = -12/x2," Rae answered, sounding confident.

"Great job. You got this! How about the next one?"

Like Jake promised, they finished the homework before class. In fact, they had twenty minutes left.

"Do you feel better now?" Jake asked. "You think you won't need a tutor after mid-quarter?"

"I hope not," Rae said. "This used to come easy to me."

"Everyone has that one subject that they can't really understand. For me, it was chemistry."

"Chemistry's so easy!" Rae cried.

"Well I feel that way about calculus, but you clearly don't. Although, maybe you'd do better if you paid attention once in a while. Your mind is always somewhere else in that class."

"I have a lot going on right now," Rae admitted. Then, knowing Jake would ask what that was, she changed the subject so she wouldn't have to think of a lie to substitute 'Oh I think I'm going die.' "Anyway, I don't get the point of calculus. When am I going to use this stuff in real life anyway?"

"Probably never," Jake admitted, smiling. "But you'll feel really good when you get an A on the test. I mean, I saw how happy you were about those quizzes and the test."

"Yeah, I guess," Rae agreed. "Speaking of happiness…how do you do it? You're always so happy. _Annoyingly_ so. And you always have a smile on your face."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. It's just…I'm always more sad than happy. I had to leave everything when I moved here, and I thought I wasn't going to have any friends. Then I met Alyssa, and even though I had plenty of friends, I'd never had someone I was close to the way I am with Alyssa. And then I started hanging out with Caty. I became friends with Chris, and with Chris came Josh and Sage…but I still feel so sad."

"What are you sad about?" Jake asked.

Rae knew she shouldn't share. The last thing she needed was Jake to be sweet and make her feel better. But she couldn't help it.

"My father. Ever since my parents got divorced, I never get to see him anymore. He always promises he'll come back for special occasions, then cancels last minute because of some new idea or a convention or promotional meeting…it's always something. And my mother…well, I recently discovered that she's been keeping secrets. And my dad has been too, and my mother has had every opportunity to come clean since Sage moved in, and she still hasn't. And then, just a few weeks ago, Alyssa mentioned how Josh and Sage's mothers are best friends since they've been friends since they were two. But Chris's mother and her best friend since she was two don't even talk anymore. They don't know if the other is married or has kids. And Alyssa and I have only known each other for a month. What if we're not friends anymore? I can't lose Alyssa. But I'm worried I will."

There was more to that last thing. She could lose Alyssa as a friend, or she could lose Alyssa's life. Even though she could shoot arrows now, she still wasn't powerful like the rest of G.R.A.C.E. and the Lyndons, and she wasn't as skilled a fighter as Josh and Sage (who didn't even need to be a kick ass fighter since she had such powerful magic, as she'd demonstrated, but knew how to fight anyway). She was supposed to be the leader, the Keeper, the most important guardian, but she was weakest one. She was even weaker than the Regents and the rebels who had no powers except combat skills. How could she protect Alyssa or any of the guardians if she couldn't even protect herself?

"If you're that determined to make it work with Alyssa, then you will. I have a feeling Alyssa's not going to let the only friend she's has since fifth grade go that easily, and you clearly don't want your friendship to end either. You guys will find a way. As for your mother keeping secrets, you have to remember whatever she does is for you. If she's keeping secrets, she's doing it to protect you. If you think you have a right to know…confront her. She can't escape if you're direct about it. I don't know what Sage has to do with your mother's secrets-she's just your pen pal-but maybe have her there when you confront your mother, if Sage's presence will help. Now about your father, I don't know what to do about that. I'm sorry he's away so much. You don't' deserve to be neglected by anyone. But I guarantee you he knows how special you are."

Rae blushed, and gave him a sad smile. "Thanks Jake. I don't know if Alyssa and I will always be friends or if I'll ever stop feeling neglected by my dad, but at least I know what to do about my mom."

"Anytime," Jake said. "Now, as for why I'm always happy…it helps to look at the good things you have. The bright side. Like, sure you and Alyssa may not be friends forever, but at least you have the opportunity to be friends with her now. And your mother may be keeping secrets, but at least you know she loves you enough to want to keep you safe. And sure your dad cancels on you a lot, but at least he cares enough to try and make plans, and at least he doesn't bail on you without any warning."

"You're one of those people who can always find the silver lining in things, aren't you? Alyssa's that way too. I wish I could be like that."

"Well, why can't you? You can't train yourself to start looking on the bright side. Every time something bad happens or you feel sad, analyze your situation and try to find some good in it. I find that if you really try, it's rare that you can't find some good in even the worst situations."

Rae smiled but didn't say anything. She didn't want to disagree with him out loud because she didn't want to upset him, but she couldn't say she agreed with him when she didn't. She understood what Jake was telling her, and she could see the bright sides to some bad situations, but it couldn't always be true. What was the bright side to being the weakest girl chosen as one of the five people that had to put her life at risk and save another world? And why was this guardian stuff consuming her? Alyssa was obsessed with school, Gabi concentrated on her social life, all Caty wanted to do was show up her rival Brian, and Ellie ran lines with Adam in her free moments. Why was she the only one obsessing about G.R.A.C.E.? Maybe it was the burden of being the Keeper? Or, more likely, it was the burden of being weak and useless.

"And it also helps to take your mind off the sad stuff," Jake added. "How about I tell you a story?"

"Okay," Rae agreed, doubting anything could take her mind off the way she felt.

Lana and Kelli walked into the room at that point.

"I just left my notebook here during algebra," Lana was saying to Kelli. The two girls walked to the back of the room to look for it.

"So yesterday," Jake said, "my grandparents were leaving. They came to visit and they stayed for the week, and they had a long drive back to Georgia, where they live. My grandpa insisted my dad put his car in the driveway so my grandpa's car stayed in the garage because it was raining all this week and he didn't want his car to get wet."

"He sounds like a nice guy," Rae said sarcastically.

"He is though," Jake said. "He's just a jerk to my dad because he never thought my dad was good enough for his little girl. My mom was his third and last daughter, so he was more protective of her than he was of my aunts. I wish he'd open his eyes and see what deadbeats my uncles were, compared to my dad, who is awesome."

"My grandpa was like that too, but he was my paternal grandpa. My mom had to forgo college to start her company and my grandpa didn't think my dad should waste his time with a girl who didn't even go to college."

"But it's not like she didn't get _in_ to college. She just didn't go. And she became so successful!"

"Yeah, and after that, my grandpa warmed up to her. So much so that he still visits all the time even though my parents are divorced."

"Nice," Jake laughed.

"Wait, you were telling a story," Rae remembered.

"Oh right! So, after all the bags were in the car, my grandpa started the car and backed out of the garage. But the garage door wasn't open."

"Oh no."

"And, my dad had told my grandfather he needed to move his car because it was the way, but my grandpa didn't hear."

"Oh boy."

"So my grandfather's car crashed through the garage door and into my dad's brand new BMW."

Rae had to laugh. She couldn't help it. "That's terrible," she said between laughs.

"You should've seen the look on my dad's face. You would've gotten a kick out of it. In fact…" Jake pulled out his phone and showed Rae a picture of a man that had to be Jake's father looking horrified and near tears.

Rae laughed harder. "You took a picture?"

"My sister did and sent it to me."

Jake had talked about his sister before. Her name was Brittany and she was 21, and in college, but she came home one weekend a month. She and Jake were pretty close.

"So, are you still sad?"

"No. Thanks Jake."

"Anytime," he said again.

"You know what I always wondered?" Rae said randomly. "Why is it that we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?"

"Uh…"

"And if you put a block of ice in a cup of boiling water, does the water melt the ice or does the ice make the water cold?"

Jake opened his mouth to answer, then closed it, realized he needed to think about this one. "My mind is blown," he finally responded.

Rae laughed and went on, "How come West Virginia named themselves West Virginia? We all know it's to the West of the regular Virginia, they don't need to make it obvious. Couldn't they come up with anything more original? And what about North and South Dakota and North and South Carolina? Why can't they just become one big state, Dakota, and Carolina? God knows North Carolina pales in comparison to South Carolina, so if they combined themselves, the whole state would be better."

Jake tried to agree with her on this point, but Rae kept going.

"And what's with the Middle East? Why is it called that? It's either in the middle or the East. It can't be both! Hey, have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?"

Jake burst out at laughing at that one. Rae grinned.

"If like is the opposite of dislike, then why isn't 'aster' the opposite of _dis_aster? You know, like instead of everything going wrong, everything goes right? Shouldn't that have a world? It should be aster, but asters are flowers. How come disaster doesn't have an opposite like aster when dislike, disadvantage, and disaccustomed do? It's just something I've always wondered."

Rae wondered why she was rambling. She only rattled off weird questions like that when she was nervous. She honestly did ponder all these questions, but they were the kind of questions she wouldn't normally _ask_ anyone out loud. She wasn't nervous right now, right? But as she looked into Jake's beautiful hazel eyes that sparkled with amusement at Rae's words, she realized she _was_ nervous.

'Man, I really like this guy,' she thought. 'I like him a lot.'

"Wow you're so-"

"Weird? Yeah, I know. I get that a lot actually."

"No, it's awesome. _You're_ awesome," Jake insisted, making Rae blush.

"Um, thanks. I think you're awesome too."

"Not like you though. All those questions were funny, but also wise. Any other wise questions you've got?"

"No, but I've got a pretty wise statement," Rae said, blushing harder.

"Let's hear it."

"Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason people have trust issues."

Jake laughed.

"But I am weird though, I know it. I mean, I'm the daughter of a famous designer and famous inventor and just look at me. I'm not amazingly pretty or creative, like my mom, and I guess I'm smart, unless we're talking about calculus of course, but I can't invent things like my dad. I'm just me. Just…average. Sometimes below average."

She was back to thinking about G.R.A.C.E. How did the rest of the girls keep from letting the guardian business consume them? It seemed like they didn't even care!

"You? Below average? Never!"

"Come on Jake, you know it's true! I mean, think about it this way. Everyone at this school is completely different from me. Let's take you for example. You're popular and smart and athletic. You're good looking and you've got lots of friends. You say all the right things at the right time, and you can win people over in a heartbeat. And on top of all that, you've got your thing. The one thing that you're good at. Yours is sports. And everyone at this school has something. Cheerleading, Student Council, art, drama, music. My parents both had their thing too. And I have nothing."

"You're good at science and you play tennis."

"But I don't want to play professionally, and yes I'm going to major in physics and chemistry, but only because they're my best subjects. I'm not sure I really want a career in either of those things."

"What _do_ you want a career in?"

"I don't know. See, everyone at this school has a direction. You and everyone else have these perfect little lives and these perfect little minds, and it's like I've got my wires crossed or something, making me weird. And I have no direction and my life is far from perfect."

"Our lives only define us if we let them."

"I guess I'm letting mine, because I'm not perfect either," Rae said.

Jake smiled at her. "Nobody's perfect," he said. "But you? You're pretty damn close."

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

"Dad, this is so unfair!" Gabi screamed the next afternoon.

"Get used to it Gabrielle. _Life_ isn't fair," Daniel replied.

This had not been Gabi's week. She'd thrown up at guardian training two days ago from flying too high (she'd been getting better at flying, but she was getting tired of the other girls, even Classless-a, who was supposed to be afraid of heights, and New Girl, who couldn't spend five minutes in the air without injuring herself, raving about how amazing it was to fly above the clouds and wanted to try it herself). Then, last night, after a fight with her father, she'd cried herself to sleep, remembering her mother. And when her father had woken her up this morning, he noticed she'd been crying and tried to talk to her about it, as if he actually cared about her at all. And now he was taking away her wallet.

"But I didn't even do anything!"

"And that's the problem. You've always had an easy life. I let you do pretty much whatever you wanted, and you've taken advantage of that freedom. You think you can say whatever you want to Sienna and your sister with no consequences. You think you can stay out for all hours of the night with no consequences. And worst of all, you think you can run up credit bills of thousands of dollars with no consequences."

Gabi huffed and rolled her eyes. Her dad was being completely unreasonable! She hated Sienna and Eva, and just because her dad was pretending that the step monster and the she-devil weren't replacing her mother and herself in the Shay household didn't mean she had to pretend too. And it wasn't her fault she trained so hard that she wanted to go to the mall every day for some retail therapy. Sure her dad didn't know about G.R.A.C.E., but she sure wished he did. Then he'd know Gabi was working her butt off to get strong enough to save all the known worlds.

"And you think you're off the hook for getting _suspended_."

Gabi rolled her eyes again. Okay, so seeing New Girl walk out of APUSH with Jake, _laughing_ with him, when she'd explicitly told her not to even think about him set her off and she'd tackled the shorter girl. And okay, so New Girl didn't take kindly to this, and pulled Gabi's hair. So the whole thing had turned into an all-out brawl and both girls had gotten suspended for four days. So what? Gabi got the worst end of it.

New Girl was short and skinny, and not skinny in a good way. Skinny in a chronically underweight, you look like a skeleton sort of way. Still, she'd managed to give Gabi a black eye, and when Gabi gave New Girl a bloody nose, she'd gotten angry. Like, mad scary, your death is upon you angry. And she'd screamed in rage, and started choking Gabi. And even though Gabi managed to pry New Girl's dingers off her neck, something extremely strange had happened.

The lights started flickering on and off. She felt wind blowing everywhere, and papers from students' hands and binders started flying everywhere, as if the doors had opened somewhere. And then, heavier things like books and purses started flying around and girls were screaming, as if Ellie was doing something with her powers, except Ellie and her drama freak friends were on a field trip that day. And then, without even trying, New Girl shocked her. Just her leg, but it felt like electricity was frying it. She'd screamed and New Girl immediately jumped back, shocked, and staring at her hands as if she'd done that. Gabi wasn't sure what had just happened, but the shock wasn't because of New Girl, was it?

Either way, Gabi couldn't walk on her leg for a long time after, and it was still burning. Both girls had been taken to the principal's office, and he'd suspended both girls for four days, then given Gabi an extra _week_ for starting a fight. Obviously Gabi couldn't say it was New Girl's fault. She had a feeling, "But _she_ started by talking to my boyfriend when I specifically told her not to and blackmailed her by telling her I'll tell the whole school her secret if she did," would go over to well.

When Gabi got home, Sienna was there. Sienna was a web developer and she usually worked from home. Of course Sienna tried to talk to Gabi about what happened, and offered to help her explain what happened to her dad. Gabi immediately refused and shut herself up in her room until it was time to go to guardian training. She walked right of the house.

"Mommy, Gabi's going out!" Eva had cried when she saw this, but Sienna had no idea how to stop the teenager who would surely go out no matter what she said, and didn't do a thing. Gabi didn't come back until midnight since she wouldn't be going to school the next day anyway. Daniel told Josh to stay in the guest room for a while so he could talk to his daughter.

Daniel yelled at Gabi, calling her Elena every time he had to address. Gabi explained the fight using what her dad referred to as "complicated girl rules."

At the end of the "As if New Girl knows anything about class and respect after hanging out with Class_less_-a", "as if I hadn't specifically told her to stay away from my boyfriend", "as if someone at her rank on the totem pole has a chance with someone at _my_ rank", "and then she started a wind storm as if the Drama Freak was helping her", "as if she weren't enough of a freak already, she shocked my leg" story, Daniel got a head ache from the drama and nicknames and just sent Gabi to her room.

Josh had come to her room later that night to make sure she was alright. She smiled and her heart had skipped a beat when Josh gave her that concerned look. She scolded herself, then told him she was fine. That's when Josh had given her a manila folder.

"What's this?"

"I don't know. Sienna asked me to give it to you."

Gabi looked at it like it was going to explode, then tossed it on her nightstand. The pictures inside spilled out and Gabi gasped.

"What's wrong?" Josh asked.

"Nothing. It's just…" Gabi picked up the pictures and showed one to Josh. In were two tall guys and short girl in the middle. "That's my mom. From when she was in college I think. She looks about that age and she kept mentioning her two best friends from college were these two guys Joel and John, and these guys match the descriptions she gave me."

"Descriptions? You've never seen this pictures before?"

"I was six when she died. I wasn't interested. By the time I was…well Dad said he didn't have any pictures of anything of hers left."

"But then how did Sienna get these?"

"He must've been lying to me. I guess he missed her a lot and didn't want to be reminded of her by looking for her stuff or something?"

Josh just shrugged. He stepped inside her room and looked through the pictures with her. When he got tired, he left, but Gabi stayed up late looking at the pictures. Finally, she hid them under her pillow and began to cry, as she always did when she thought of her mother. She eventually cried herself to sleep.

"But the Halloween dance is coming up soon!" Gabi protested. "How am I supposed to buy a dress?"

"I guess you'll just have to get a job."

"A job?!" Gabi spluttered.

"It's how I make my money," Daniel said cheekily. Then he turned serious and sighed. "Gabrielle, I'm afraid I've given you and your brothers the impression that money grows on trees. That's my fault. Sienna has helped me see that I need to teach you guys how to _earn_ your money, through hard work, rather than hand you everything on a silver platter. That's how she raised Eva, and that's how I should've raised you guys. When your mother died, it was easier for me to let you guys take the easy way out. She was the disciplinary one. But that's not right, and it's not too late for me to change, at least for you and Luc, if not for Michael. Anyway, Michael has a job and is much more responsible than you two."

"Because he had Mom for ten years while I only had her for six," Gabi muttered.

Daniel's eyebrows crinkled in concern, but Gabi did not want to have a heart to heart with her dad so she said, "Dad, even if I go out and apply for jobs right this minute, it'll take a week, minimum to get a job. It'll probably take longer, and even if I get hired in a week, or even on the spot, the Halloween Dance is in three weeks. There's no way I'll be able to make enough money for a dress. Between cheerleading and newspaper and ZOOM and coaching Cara Lyndon, I'll only be able to work weekends. And I obviously can't do that between my Friday sleepovers, my Saturday dates, and my Sunday hang out session."

"Actually, I think you'll find you have more time on your hands than you think. Besides school and your after school activities, you are grounded and not allowed to hang out with your friends or go out unless it's to work."

"What?!"

"And this includes coaching Cara."

Now Gabi was really at a loss. If she couldn't "coach Cara" how was she supposed to get to guardian training and gain enough power to save Earth?

"Daddy, that's not fair!" Gabi protested, the word 'Daddy' sounding foreign on her lips. Ever since Eva started calling Daniel 'Daddy', Gabi had taken to calling him Dad, or sometimes even Father, in an attempt to protest. Sienna wasn't only going to be married to Daniel for a few months, so Eva had no right to think of Daniel as her dad. And even if Sienna stayed married to Daniel for a long time, he was not Eva's father!

"I'm sorry Gabrielle, but coaching Cara is a frivolous activity. I understand cheerleading can get you a college scholarship and ZOOM and newspaper will be impressive on your activity resume when you apply to college. But coaching Cara is a leisure activity like sleepovers with Bree and dates with Jake."

"It's a volunteer thing," Gabi begged.

"Not officially. Doesn't count," Daniel declared. "But I'll tell you what. If you get a job and one paycheck before the Halloween Dance, I'll give you back your wallet for accessories, and I'll pay for however much of the dress your paycheck doesn't cover."

Gabi sighed. The truth was, she didn't need a new dress. She was going to wear one of her mother's old dresses. It would make her look like a princess, so she'd be in a dress and a costume at the same time. And all she needed money for were a few alterations. She even had her mother's old jewelry and hair pins for accessories. The step monster, also known as Miss Kiss Up, had just recently bought Gabi a ton of really expensive, great quality make up that she could stand to use as long as she pretended Sienna didn't give it to her. She didn't want a job and she didn't think it was fair for her father to take away her wallet, but maybe she could handle this. If worse came to worse and she really couldn't find a job, Hay Lin had offered to make alterations to anyone's costume for the Halloween Dance should they need it. She was making Chris and Cara their costumes. But she had to at least pretend to have a job, even if she had Hay Lin do her alterations. At least that way, she could pretend to be working when she was really at guardian training.

Gabi found herself nodding, before realizing it was time for guardian training. So she announced she was going out to look for jobs and drove to The Silver Dragon. Surprisingly enough, for the first time ever, she wasn't late. In fact, she was the early, and the first one there, probably because she drove instead of walking. It was easier to walk to Hay Lin's from school. She sat at the counter in the restaurant, waiting for the others.

A boy walked out of the kitchen wearing a Silver Dragon hat, apron, and holding a notepad. "Hi, welcome to The Silver Dragon, what can I-oh hey Gabi."

"Hi Josh," Gabi replied. Josh had been working at The Silver Dragon for a few weeks now, ever since Hay Lin guilted him into it, though Gabi didn't know the specifics.

"Can I get you anything?" Josh asked.

Gabi's heart skipped another beat at Josh's grin, but she forced herself to remember that she had a boyfriend and her good friend Sage was in love with Josh and Josh was currently fake dating her best friend, and those were three very good reasons for her not to develop any random feelings for Josh.

"A fairer father might be nice," Gabi said, making Josh chuckle.

A young couple walked into the restaurant and a girl led them to a table, and gave them menus. "Josh, that's you table," she said as she got behind the counter.

Hay Lin came out of the kitchen as Josh walked over to the couple. "Hi, my name is Josh and I'll be your server tonight," he said slowly, making sure to remember exactly what to say. "Can I get you guys drinks to start?"

"Coke please. For both of us," the man said.

Josh nodded and returned with the drinks. When he set them down on the table, he saw the couple was making out. Not sure what to do, he said, "Can I get you guys an appetizer?"

The couple continued making out.

"Or anything at all?"

The couple ignored him.

"Are you guys gonna order anything?!" Josh cried, annoyed.

The couple just kept making out and Gabi felt like laughing at the look on Josh's face. She expected him to huff and walk away, then take their order when they were ready. Unfortunately, Josh had the combined temper of both his parents and didn't know when to walk away.

"You know what? Fuck it!" he yelled, finally catching the couple's attention-as well as the attention of everyone else in the restaurant. "Since you're clearly not going to order, I'll bring you whatever I feel like bringing you, and not only will you _eat_ it, but you'll _like_ it and you'll _pay_ for it! Got that you disgusting-"

"Josh!" Hay Lin cried, shocked and embarrassed.

"What was that about?" Caty asked as she walked up to Gabi.

"Josh is not a very nice server," Gabi replied.

"Ex_cuse_ me?" the man said. "I will thank you to not be rude and use such language while me and my girlfriend are trying to eat!"

"My girlfriend and I," Caty corrected.

The man glared at her and she shrunk back.

"Sorry," she murmured.

"Eating?" Josh cried incredulously. "You're _not_ eating and you know why? Because you guys are too busy sucking each other's face to order!"

"Josh!" Hay Lin cried sharply. She smiled sheepishly at the customers. "I'm so sorry! He's new."

"I will not stand for him being rude to us while we eat," the man said.

"Eat _what_?!" Josh exploded. "In case you haven't noticed, there's no food on your table. So I'll ask you one more time. _May I take your fucking order_?!"

"Someone's in a mood," Caty muttered, making Gabi laugh. Chris joined them, looking on curiously, wondering why his mother looked like she was about to have a panic attack.

The girl gasped and looked at her boyfriend as if to say, 'What are you going to do about this boy?'

"Josh," Hay Lin growled menacingly.

"I'm sorry, but on Meridian-" Josh started stiffly before Hay Lin interrupted.

"Well you're not on _Meridian_," she yelled.

"What's Meridian?" the man asked.

"Who cares?" his girlfriend said. "I want to know what's being done about our incredibly rude waiter!"

Josh looked ready to explode and Gabi couldn't help but step in. She couldn't stand seeing Josh crash and burn, no matter how entertaining it was.

"He's going through a hard time," she said. "But he's really sorry, and usually sweet. But I'll tell you what. Since you weren't treated well, you guys can have free desserts."

The woman contemplated this, but her boyfriend glared at her, then at Gabi.

Gabi gave him a bright smile. "_And_ free appetizers," she added.

"Okay," the woman agreed on behalf of both of them. "But…"she looked at Hay Lin. "We want _her_ to be our server instead of him."

"Her?" Josh gasped. "But she doesn't even work-!"

"Of course!" Hay Lin cried, shooting Josh a death glare. She gave Gabi a hopeful smile which Gabi returned with a nod.

She hadn't expected to get a job out of helping Josh, but she was grateful for it. The faster she started, the faster she'd receive that paycheck she needed.

"Thank you," Hay Lin whispered.

"You can't just offer people free stuff," Josh grumbled pettily as Gabi put on the apron and hat Chris handed her. "The restaurant loses money that way."

"Not if the total cost for their appetizer and desserts are taken out of _your_ paycheck," Gabi replied. "Since, you know, _you're_ the reason I had to offer them the free stuff in the first place."

Hay Lin grinned evilly as Josh groaned.

Gabi smiled, grabbed Josh's notepad out of his hands and said to the couple, "Okay, can I take your order." She stood shocked when she realized the couple was making out again. "Or, you know, not."

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

Ellie woke up early the next morning. It was only 5am, but she couldn't get back to sleep, so she went downstairs. She was met with a horrifying, but sadly familiar, sight.

The house was trashed. There were burnt out cigarettes, trash, take out boxes, and empty vodka bottles all over the floor. There was no food in the refrigerator, not that she should be surprised. Her mother was passed out on the couch, empty beer bottles scattered all around.

Sighing, Ellie grabbed the throw draped over the couch and put it on her mom. Then she grabbed a couple of trash bags and started to clean up. She'd just finished when Jason came downstairs.

Ellie sighed inaudibly as she joined him in the kitchen. The living room was not a pleasant place to be in right now anyway. Jason always had to get up this early so he could work and bring home money they needed because God knows what their father did with the money he made. If he ever brought it home, they might be able to live in a place that didn't look like an MSU freshman dorm.

"Hey El. It's early, what're you doing up?"

"I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep," Ellie replied. "I figured I might as well get ready for school, but I was hungry and…"

"Mom forgot to go grocery shopping, didn't she?"

"Yup…again."

Jason sighed and took out a granola bar from his backpack. "It's all I have. I'm sorry," he said tossing it to her. "But I'll go shopping tonight after work."

"What about your breakfast?" Ellie asked.

Jason shrugged.

Ellie hated that he had to give up meals just so she could eat, but her stomach growled, and she couldn't help but unwrap the granola bar and take a bite.

"Where's dad?"

"At work."

'Of course,' Ellie thought. 'Not like he has a family here or anything.'

Ellie felt herself growing angry. Why was this happening to her and her brother? What had they done? Jason had done nothing but take care of and help and love Ellie for as long as she could remember. Why did he have to work three jobs to pay his way through school because his parents were too lazy and didn't care enough to fill out financial aid forms? Why did their dad have to go off with any pretty blonde he could find, and spend his nights in hotel rooms with them, instead of come home and make sure his children were fed? Shouldn't he be the one taking care of their drunk out of her fucking useless mind mother?

Although, if her father _did_ come home, and didn't spend every night with another dumb bimbo, not only would the Kramers be living in a nicer place, but their mother probably wouldn't be drinking all the time…or keep losing her job…or taking out her anger and frustration on her children, namely Ellie, considering Jason wasn't a child anymore.

And what the hell was Bree's family doing through all this? They were fucking rich as hell. They lived on Larson Street, and they had the second biggest 'without a guest house' home on the street. Were they really so blissfully unaware of their extended family's situation, or did Mr. Kramer just not take charity from anyone, including his own brother? It was not like he was home enough to know what kind of conditions Ellie and Jason had to endure anyway.

Soon Ellie's anger melted away and gave way to tears. She covered her mouth to try and muffle her sobs, but she didn't do a very good job because Jason looked over at her in concern immediately.

"Oh no. El, please don't cry," he said gently as he pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, wishing she didn't appear so weak. Jason already took care of her more than a brother should. Why did she have to make it harder for him? "It's just…I hate this. I hate being here and waking up to this and living like this…"

"I know," Jason whispered. "It's not fair that you have to go through all this. It's not right. And you've been so strong, but you shouldn't have to. You're so young. You're only fifteen. I'm sorry. El. I'm so _so_ sorry."

"You're going through it too," Ellie said, pulling away from her brother. "And at least I have you. You always remember my birthday and stick up for me and take care of me and…love me."

"Always," Jason repeated firmly, in affirmation.

Ellie gave him a smile, wiping away her tears so he could be satisfied she was alright and could make his much needed coffee. But she was not alright, and Jason knew it. He also knew she wouldn't want to be coddled.

Ellie sighed again and went upstairs to take a shower. A cold shower since they never had hot water. She loved her brother with everything she had, but she hated her life and her parents. It wasn't fair. She wasn't the smartest person around, or the friendliest or the bravest or kindest, but she tried to be nice and helpful when she could. Sure she couldn't stick up for Alyssa when Gabi tormented her in middle school, but hadn't she stuck up for Bailey Maxon last year when Gabi picked on her? And sure she sometimes took advantage of Adam's willingness to do anything for her, but wasn't she the one that always took his side when he was in an argument with Jade, even when she wasn't completely sure he was right? What had she done to deserve this?

Neither of her parents came from humble beginnings, but it looks like less than humble was where they ended up. Or at least where her mother had ended up. And she was dragging her kids down with her. Ellie may love Jason, but the rest of her family could burn in hell for all she cared. She hated her life, she hated her family, and most of all, she hated where she came from.

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

That same afternoon, Gabi sat at The Silver Dragon's counter, finishing up her break. She waited patiently for Josh to make her the Shirley Temple he promised her, but he seemed completely lost.

"I can make it for myself if you want," she offered.

"No! You made me a milkshake. I'll make you a Surely Temple."

"_Shirley_," Gabi corrected. "At least let me talk you through it."

Josh nodded.

"Okay, first off, I don't want that much, so get rid of the tall glass. Grab one of the champagne coupes."

"Huh?"

"Um, look at the glass the guy on table 42 has. One of those," Gabi rephrased. "Although why he asked for root beer in a champagne glass is beyond me. But anyway…fill it up with ice and grab some 7-Up from the back."

Josh did as he was told. "I couldn't find 7-Up," he said.

"It's not a fountain drink here," Gabi said. "But Chris said there's some in the employee fridge. You usually use sprite for a Shirley Temple, but it tastes better with 7-Up. That's what Chris uses and that's why he makes the best Shirley Temples."

Josh nodded and went back into the kitchen.

"Excuse me, miss, can I have a refill?" a girl asked, holding up her empty coke glass.

Gabi nodded and refilled the glass, even though it was her break. It was a rather slow day today. Thursday afternoon, when Gabi saved Josh and Hay Lin from the angry couple who looked ready to walk out, she got to work for a whole hour before all the other guardians showed up. It was Ellie who was the latest, muttering an apology, but not offering any explanation for her tardiness.

Hay Lin told them that day that they were getting better and only needed to train two hours on weekdays, and three on Fridays and weekends. To Gabi, this meant she could work for a couple hours after guardian training every day. The more she worked, the bigger her paycheck, and the longer she stayed at work, the less she'd have to see the step monster and the she devil. It was a win-win, especially since Hay Lin let her facetime Luc on her break and Bree and Jake had taken to visiting since she told them about the job on Friday.

Since she wasn't going to be in school, Hay Lin offered her all day shifts til the end of the week (besides during guardian training), and Gabi had accepted. Hay Lin said it was her way of thanking Gabi for taking over with Josh's table, and Gabi had to admit, she felt a little guilty for not telling Hay Lin that she needed a job and Hay Lin was helping her out, but she didn't say anything. When Gabi came home Thursday, her father couldn't believe she'd been out til 10 when she was grounded.

Gabi explained she actually got hired on the spot at The Silver Dragon.

"You know, since Josh was pretty much bombing."

"You go to a restaurant to _eat,_ not make out!" Josh insisted.

"Have you ever heard of the customer is always right?"

"What kind of stupid rule is _that_?"

Gabi just laughed. Josh's insistence that Earth had it wrong and Meridian had it right didn't irritate her anymore. Instead, it cracked her up.

"Isn't The Silver Dragon where you go to train Cara?" Daniel had asked suspiciously.

"_Yes_ dad, but you _know_ Josh _does _work there and he can vouch for me and if you really don't trust me, you can call Hay Lin or even come in any day to check up on me. I will be working all day as long as I'm suspended and after school every day once I go back."

Daniel nodded approvingly. "That's all I wanted Gabrielle. I'm proud of you."

"Funnily enough Dad," Gabi said, "I don't want or need your approval or you praise. Come to think of it I don't need your respect or trust either, and most certainly not your love."

"Gabrielle!" Daniel protested, looking hurt.

Gabi just shrugged and dragged Josh into her room so they could start their homework. Josh made a habit of bringing her the homework each day and he offered to teach her anything she didn't understand. He was really sweet!

Gabi had already worked two all day shifts by Sunday and she didn't especially love the job, but so far, it wasn't terrible either. Cara kept saying some customers were terrible, the kind of people that Gabi would probably blow up at, but so far, none of those people had sat in her section.

Josh returned with the 7-Up. "Okay, what next?

"You'll want to pour in the 7-Up until the glass is almost full."

Josh obliged.

"Now pour in some of the Grenadine syrup."

"How much?"

"The normal recipe calls for a dash, but Chris uses two teaspoons of it."

Josh poured in two teaspoons. "What's next?"

"Okay, take out three of the maraschino cherries and the sugar. Put in a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar."

Josh did so.

"No squeeze the juice out of two of the cherries, then stir."

"What do I do with the third cherry?" Josh asked when he was done.

"Just drop it in there. A Shirley Temple is always topped with a maraschino cherry. The sugar and the cherry juice are also Chris's idea though, not standard."

"Hopefully this is as good as Chris's," Josh replied, sliding the glass over to her.

Gabi took a sip and smiled. "Perfect!"

"Who's doing drinks today?" an employee named Anna asked.

Every server had side jobs, and today Gabi and Josh had the job of making the mixed drinks. It was the only side job that servers did while they served. Most other side jobs were done while the servers had down time, like rolling silverware, packing chopsticks, and filling up condiment containers.

"We are," Gabi said.

"I need an Arnold Palmer."

"Why are all the mixed drinks named after people?" Josh asked as Anna walked away.

Gabi giggled. "No idea," she admitted. "How are drinks named in Meridian?"

"They're named after the color they are and the fruit or animal used to make them."

"Animals? In your drinks?"

"The Cian Crocodile juice at The Drink Hut is my favorite."

Gabi made a face. "That sounds disgusting!"

"Don't knock it. How do you make an Arnold Palmer?"

"Want me to do it?"

"You're on break!"

Josh and Gabi had both been at work since opening. They opened the place together and Gabi let Josh take his break at one, and Gabi took hers at 2. It was almost 3 now, time for the other girls to arrive for guardian training.

"Okay, it's really easy. Fill half of a tall glass with ice, fill two thirds of the glass with lemonade, and the rest with unsweetened iced tea. I would add half a teaspoon of sugar first, stir it, then add the iced tea. It tastes better than way."

Josh nodded, as if he understood everything Gabi said. Then he took out a tall glass, slid it over to her and said, "Okay, you make it."

Gabi laughed and made the drink.

"Wow Gabi, this looks great," Anna said approvingly as she walked up to the counter to get the Arnold Palmer. The colors blended perfectly, and the lemonade was at the bottom, like it was supposed to be.

"Thanks."

For the next fifteen minutes, it was quiet. Gabi sipped her Shirley Temple, Josh cleaned off the counter tops and chairs, and no one came in.

"Josh, tell me more about why we're more special than other guardians," Gabi said, wanting to break the silence, even though it was rather comfortable.

"I can't really. There's a prophecy and everything, but I don't want to tell you until Hay Lin thinks you're ready."

"How are we supposed to protect ourselves if we don't know anything?" Gabi challenged.

"I'm sure she'll tell you before you're ready if she thinks you need to know. Hay Lin is probably the second best guardian guide you guys could have. The only person better would've been Will, the old Keeper. But no one knows where she is."

"Well tell me something!"

"Okay, but you have to promise not to tell the others…or Chris or Cara or Sage…and definitely not Hay Lin."

"Promise," Gabi agreed.

"Okay, so there are three things that set you guys apart from the rest of the guardians. The first is what I already told you. The guardians are called upon to protect every world. Most important are Meridian and Kandrakar, but they save any world that needs their help. But you guys are destined to save all the known worlds, and only the Thousand Year guardians ever have to save Earth."

Gabi nodded.

"The second thing is unknown right now. Every member of the Thousand Year guardian group has a special ability or power that the other guardians don't get. It's different every time. One group of guardians all had the ability to phase through solid objects, like Cara can. Others had the ability to fly without changing forms. Stuff like that."

Gabi's eyes shone at this. Maybe their powers would be the ability to be able to use their powers at full strength even while in human form.

"The third thing, and this is the most important thing that you have to keep a secret…well, you know how Alyssa was chosen as guardian because her mother was one and Hay Lin was chosen because of her grandmother?"

Gabi nodded.

"Well, every group of guardians has one member that's related to an old guardian somehow. But you guys take that to the next level. It goes back to the first guardians. Their names were Marie, Anya, Gwen, Isobel, and Corrine."

"That spells MAGIC," Gabi noted.

Josh smiled. "I never realized, but you're right. So, MAGIC, I guess, were five ordinary girls. Before them, every world's army defended their own worlds. Then an evil ruler took over a world called Timberwood, and a veil was created and placed between Timberwood and all the other worlds so that the evil wouldn't spill over to the other worlds. Then the Oracle decided maybe all the worlds needed other heroes. He looked for people on every world and finally settled on Earth."

"Why?" Gabi asked. "I mean, people have magic on other worlds. Earth beings don't have that."

"No," Josh agreed. "But humans only existed on Earth back then. Humans have moral compasses, a sense of right and wrong. They have empathy and compassion, determination and smarts. They have emotions that are needed and they can think. So the Oracle created the aurameres and put a bit of power into each one. Then he created the Heart of Kandrakar, a jewel that holds the power of Kandrakar. He let the Heart tell him which human in the entire world was worthy enough to control it. It chose Marie, a seventeen-year-old girl from Germany. The Oracle chose the rest of the girls."

"How?"

"Well, he decided it would be easiest to choose other girls in the same German town as Marie. He looked for people that exemplified what each element was about. Anya, the first guardian of water, could swim like a fish and was all about conserving water. She was also best friends with Marie, so that helped. Gwen, the first guardian of fire, was Anya's sister. She was fifteen, cautious, and smart. The perfect person to wield the most dangerous element. The first guardian of Earth, Isobel, was truly in tune with nature. She didn't know the other girls, but she was able to come together with them to help save Timberwood. So was the first guardian or air, Corrine. Like the other girls, except Gwen, she was seventeen, and she was chosen because she was the kindest person you would ever meet, and the guardians needed a good person in the group. Now the Oracle chooses people for different reasons, but those were the reasons back then. And these five girls defeated the evil ruler of Timberwood and the veil was dropped. Then they helped with the reconstruction of Timberwood, and defeated evil in other worlds as well. Now here comes the tricky part. There's a reason every thousand years the guardians have to save all the worlds, but I can't tell you that yet. What I can tell you is that, the Thousand Year guardians don't just have one continuation of spirit guardian."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that each of you is related to an old guardian. Alyssa is related to more than one fire guardian. It's not just her mother. She's also related to Gwen."

"The first fire guardian?"

"Yes. And she's not the only one."

"What?"

Jake looked her square and the eye and spoke. "Every member of the Thousand Year guardians are direct descendants of M.A.G.I.C."

G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E G.R.A.C.E

**A/N: I originally wasn't going to end it to that. I was going to make Josh explain it a bit more, but I thought that'd be more of a cliffhanger, and considering I haven't done any cliffhangers (which isn't like me, I'm usually a big fan of those), I decided to rewrite it to end that way. Anyway, as I said, I was blocked for this chapter, so I really hope you guys like what I come up with. There's one more chapter of filler-ish stuff after this, with a big twist, then the chapter I already have written, and then the story gets into the really good stuff. Hope you can stick with me til then!**


	14. Poor Little Rich Girl

**A/N: Hello lovely people! Thank you for coming in for my next update! Yes, this is a **_**double**_** update! That's because I already had chapter 15 (the one after this) written, and since it took me a little longer to update this time, I decided to edit them both and post them together. I hope you guys like it, and like with all double updates, your shout outs will be split up. Enjoy guys!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: You never know. Just don't start screaming when Once Upon a Time comes back on, and we should be okay. Now all my shows are ending. Good bye Once Upon a Time, The Flash, Arrow, TVD, and The Originals. Only Finding Carter still has a little way to go before mid-season. And I think Catfish is still going on? I have to catch up. Anyway! Yes, I definitely spend too much time on Gabi, and I wanted to make this chapter mainly Alyssa and Rae, and I did, but I added some Gabi for purpose of plot. And the next chapter is all her (with Caty). Guess I can't stay away from her. And yeah, a few more things need to happen before Ellie's secret and backstory is revealed. Ha, the boys will get a kick out of that. I would've done Joel and Josh, but I already used the name. I know when you came over, I only had three pages, but now this chapter is on the longer side. And I shifted the order of things.**

**WaterAmulet: It's true! I was exempt from my high school final, but you will forget everything, I did. My teacher made us make Calculus for Dummies books where we went over every concept we learned in each chapter with examples and everything, for a grade, and before I knew I was exempt, I studied from those and they were so helpful. I love Rae too. She's naturally serious and has a couple trust issues, so yeah, she's in leader mode a lot. But Jake brings out the sweeter side of her. I think you'll really like this chapter!**

**Taylor: I hope you like the next two chapters. It'll mention more of Sage and Gabi, and Gabi and Josh. Thanks for your review!**

**And that's all for now guys. Rest of the shout outs in the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Hi Josh!" Alyssa exclaimed Wednesday morning. After four days, Rae was finally returning to school after her suspension. Although life in her house, or rather, the palace, as Alyssa called it, couldn't have been that bad. Her mother didn't even punish her for getting in a fight or getting suspended. Rae wasn't grounded, so she could easily go to guardian training every day, and since training lasted for only two hours instead of the usual five or six, Alyssa and Rae had a lot more time to hang out. The only rule Silena had was, that for the duration of Rae's suspension, Alyssa and any other friends Rae wanted to hang out with (this usually being Sage and Josh), would have to come to Rae's house, not that anyone minded this.

Gabi on the other hand, had gotten an extra week suspension, and according to Josh, she'd been grounded and forced to get a job, and if she hadn't been working at The Silver Dragon every day, she would've had to _sneak_ out to get to guardian training.

Even though Alyssa had seen Rae every day after school, she didn't enjoy not seeing her friend _in_ school, although Josh had kept her company. Sage and Josh came over to Rae's house every day after school. Sage couldn't go to Gabi's since she was grounded and Josh had been feeling weird there since Gabi got suspended, so he only went back at night, to help Gabi was her homework and go to sleep.

Sage still sat with the cheerleaders at their table during lunch and hung out with them after school on days they didn't have cheer practice. Josh sat with Alyssa at her table though (Alyssa felt weird sitting with Caty and her friends on her own-Caty must've felt the same way because she didn't say anything when she realized Alyssa stopped sitting with her). He also hung around Alyssa as much as possible. He sat at her table in art, spent every afternoon during guardian training helping her with her powers, and walked her to school every day. She was surprised he still walked her to school because she suspected he only did that to be with Rae, but she wasn't complaining. Josh was very good company. He immediately put a smile on her face.

He was also maintaining his relationship with Bree-the one that Alyssa knew was fake, but couldn't get him to admit it was fake. He spent afternoons with her when there was no cheer practice, and she came to The Silver Dragon a lot to visit both him and Gabi. Gabi spent most of that time with Jake, who also visited every day, leaving Bree with Josh. From what Alyssa had heard, Jake continued to ask Gabi every day what had possessed her to get in a fight with Rae, but Gabi refused to answer. Alyssa found it quite surprising that Jake would let her get away without answering her, but didn't question it.

"Hey Lyssa. You ready?" Josh asked.

She nodded, grabbed her backpack, and the four set off to school together.

"You excited to be back?" she asked Rae teasingly.

"Oh definitely," Rae replied, matching Alyssa's sarcasm.

They both laughed and walked into Sheffield with high spirits. They got to Sheffield extremely early, as always. Sage was so "in" with Gabi that she had to arrive at school as early as Gabi and Bree did. The only other people at school already were people who had an early morning meeting. When they walked into school, Josh and Sage split from them and met up with Bree at her locker as usual. It was too cold for Gabi and Bree to sit outside.

Rae, who never really used her locker, followed Alyssa. Jake and Caty, who were talking by Caty's locker smiled at waved.

"Good to see you again," Jake said.

"Thanks," Rae replied, giving him a shy smile. Gabi had tackled her while she and Jake were walking out of APUSH. Yes, they were talking and laughing, but only because Jake had made a quick comment about Mrs. Taylor as they exited the room. As usual, he would've left her alone after that. But Gabi went crazy. She wasn't ready to let Gabi expose her secrets, but for the week she was gone, Rae would spend every moment she could with Jake. She was falling for him, and it was only a matter of time before he and Gabi broke up. She was sure of it!

Caty looked at the time on her phone. "Jake, we have to go," she said.

"Where?" Rae asked.

"Club presidents meetings," Jake replied. "Student council president and vice president hold them once a month."

Rae nodded. She and Alyssa headed to the art studio since they had about an hour before classes started.

This was the routine they followed for days. Before they knew it, a week had passed, and Gabi had come back to school. Rae, completely forgetting about this fact, openly hung out with Jake the entire day. It wasn't until the end of the day, when Gabi marched right up to Jake and Rae, who were hanging around Rae's locker, that Rae remembered. Josh and Sage had walked with them this morning even though Gabi was coming back. She'd missed two Varsity practices while she was out, so she skipped lunch and ditched APUSH, which is was study hall for all the Varsity members, to catch up. Rae hadn't seen her all day.

Gabi cleared her throat loudly and Jake turned to her with a huge smile on his face. He gave her a kiss and said, "I feel like I haven't seen you all day!"

"You haven't," Gabi replied coldly. "You welcomed me back this morning, and then I didn't get to see you at all, even though you said you'd come to Varsity practice during lunch."

Jake groaned. "I'm so sorry Gabs!" he cried. "I knew I was forgetting something. Coach called an extra lacrosse practice."

"I know. Bree told me. You didn't."

"I should've texted you, I just forgot. I'm sorry."

Gabi sighed, then turned her voice cheery and sweet again. "It's fine babe, I forgive you," she said.

Rae marveled at Gabi. She envied the way Gabi could change her voice and eyes from cold and snake like to cheery and bright in a second. Rae wished she could do that.

Gabi looked at Rae. "I'm really sorry about what happened between us. I was having an off day."

Rae refrained from rolling her eyes, knowing she was only apologizing to impress Jake.

"It's alright. I'm sorry too," Rae replied, trying to put fake sincerity behind her words the way Gabi did.

"That's fine, we all have our bad days," Gabi said with a smile.

Jake smiled too, glad Gabi was at least being civil to Rae, since he knew she didn't particularly _like_ Rae. She felt pretty insulted when Rae declined the offer to become a cheerleader. But as he got to know her more, Jake knew Rae wasn't the type of girl to want to be a cheerleader, and he liked that about her. In fact, if there was one thing about Gabi he wished he could change, it would be that she was a cheerleader. He knew she loved it, so he didn't say anything, but he didn't particularly like cheerleaders.

After that, Gabi went to newspaper, Jake went to lacrosse practice, and Rae went to her first science honors society. The group met outside the art studio as usual. All the guardians had some activity after school or the other. Sage attended drama club and chorale practices with Ellie and cheerleading practices with Gabi, and Cara was in the eighth grade volleyball team. Chris was in all the same clubs as Alyssa (today was Art Honors society). Josh, not having anything else to do, spent all his time in the art studio. On days there was no cheerleading, like that afternoon, Bree hung around with him.

When Josh and Bree came out of the art studio, the others were already there. Bree kissed Josh good bye, gave Gabi and Sage hugs (she had asked Gabi before why she hung around with New Girl, Classless-a, Queen Nerd, and a drama freak, but when Gabi told her it was a means to an end, she left it alone), told Gabi she was busy that day, but would visit her at work the following day and left, leaving Team G.R.A.C.E., as Josh, Sage, and the Lyndons (including Hay Lin and Eric) had taken to calling them, to walk to The Silver Dragon.

The Lyndons walked along with Sage, Caty and Ellie followed them, chattering endlessly, Rae, Alyssa, and Josh were behind them, and Gabi brought up the rear. At one point, Caty turned around and said, "Alyssa, could you settle something for us?" Alyssa walked up to them and Gabi caught up to Josh and Rae.

"So," she said.

"Look Gabi, Jake only said one thing to me that day you tackled me," Rae said quickly. Last week, all she wanted to do was spend time with Jake, but now that Gabi was back, she wanted to protect her secret. "And we would've left each other alone after that. It was a misunderstanding."

"Okay, but-"

"And today, he just came up to me to ask if tomorrow or Friday would be better for our tutoring session," Rae went on. That wasn't exactly true, but Rae needed to protect herself here.

"You're lying. My friends know that you've been hanging out with Jake for a week now. And even if they hadn't kept an eye on you, Jake visited me at work and he told me you guys hung out when I asked how his day was."

Rae's mouth dropped open. Of _course_ Gabi knew. She'd been so stupid! Just because Gabi wasn't in school didn't mean her friends weren't spying and reporting back to her. It didn't mean Jake, who still trusted Gabi, wasn't telling her who he was hanging out with.

"It's _okay_ New Girl," Gabi said, enjoying the look of horror on Rae's face. "I vented to Bree, Lana, and Kelli this morning and I've decided…I'm going to drop the blackmail."

"W-wh-what?" Rae stammered, hardly believing her ears.

"I have to trust Jake to come back to me even if he's spending time with you. So hang out with him if you want. I'm not going to blackmail you anymore."

"Why not?"

"New Girl, if I were you, I'd accept this and move on before I take it back because you irritate me with pointless questions."

Rae nodded. "Thanks," she said slowly. She knew better than to trust Gabi, but she had a feeling she was being sincere at this moment.

Gabi nodded and Josh smiled. Rae ran to catch up with Alyssa and Caty to tell them what was going on. Ellie had already moved on and started a conversation with Sage.

Josh looked at Gabi. "I'm really proud of you Gabi. I knew you were kind," he said.

Gabi bit her lip and tried to stop herself from blushing. The truth was, Josh's approval was the reason she lifted the blackmail. She knew he'd be happy with her if she stopped torturing Rae. He never approved of her bitchy attitude, and even though she wasn't sure why, and she felt bad thinking this while she was still with Jake, she _really_ wanted Josh to like her.

Gabi sighed, finally admitting to herself that she liked Josh. Was that wrong? Sure she had a little crush on him, but she was still in love with Jake. She could like someone if her boyfriend was still the one she loved, right? It happened to other people, she was sure of it. Like with Bree…she was into Dalton, and still wanted Dalton, but Gabi had a feeling she started to like Josh as well.

Gabi had to kill this crush. She had a boyfriend…and her best friend might have a legitimate crush on him…and her good friend was in love with him. But all the reasons she'd fed herself for the last week and a half didn't work anymore.

'Come _on_,' she urged herself. 'What about Jake?' She had Jake. The boy she became friends with the first day of second grade. The boy she wanted as a boyfriend since she was 10, before she even knew what love was. The boy she fell in love with three years before they started going it. He was the guy for her, not Josh, who she only met a few weeks ago. He didn't know her like Jake did, and he was literally from a different world…then again, the old Earth guardian made it work with the old rebel leader, and they were Josh's parents. They settled down, had four kids, and seemed quite happy. Maybe it wasn't impossible.

But it also shouldn't be in her future considering everything that was going on. So that was it. Her crush on Josh had to die. Of course, that was easier said than done. But she was confident she could get over it. After all, she had the best boyfriend ever. She just had to concentrate on him.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

On Friday, Alyssa was excited to spend an afternoon relaxing in the art studio with Josh. Chris and Cara had to go home early, Alyssa didn't have any club meeting, and neither she nor Josh had a project to work on, so they could work on personal projects. Alyssa was excited to show Josh some of her personal pieces.

She didn't know when or even how it happened, but somehow, she and Josh had become best friends. Maybe going through school for four days without Rae did it, or maybe it was because they connected through art so quickly, but now they talked all the time, they could tell each other anything, and they were practically attached at the hip. It was making Bree very jealous, which Alyssa found weird, since they were supposed to be _fake_ dating.

She revealed to Josh she knew they were fake dating earlier that day during lunch. She and Rae had gone to the library to get some peace and quiet and study for their APUSH test. Josh and Jake (who had, surprisingly enough, become good friends in their own right once Jake got over his initial jealousy) had both come in twenty minutes later and joined them in their private corner of the library where the girls had dragged a few beanbag chairs. Caty and her friends were studying at the lunch table, but Rae and Alyssa quickly learned Caty and her friends made studying an intense competition, and Alyssa and Rae found that both unproductive and a little too aggressive, so they just skipped lunch.

"So FDR's New Deal included many programs," Alyssa was saying. "One of these programs gave millions of dollars of direct aid to unemployed workers. This act was known as…"

"FERA," Rae said. "Federal Emergency Relief Act."

"And it was enacted in the year…"

"1933."

"You know, if you stayed focused in calculus the way you do in APUSH, you wouldn't need a tutor," Jake teased as he and Josh joined them.

"Please," Alyssa scoffed. "Tutoring Rae is the best thing that ever happened to you."

"Lyssa!" Rae hissed, blushing.

"Not the _best_ thing," Jake said, smiling easily. "But it's close."

Rae blushed harder.

"What're you guys doing here anyway?" Alyssa asked, laughing at Rae's red face.

"You skipped lunch. We thought you might be hungry," Josh replied, holding out two brown squares.

"Brownies, excellent!" Rae exclaimed, taking one. She bit into it and melted. The school's brownies were so good!

"We're not supposed to eat in the library," Alyssa hissed, declining her brownie.

"Alyssa doesn't break rules," Rae said rolling her eyes. "Josh, won't Bree get mad that you're in here giving food to your female friends? I have a feeling she's the jealous type."

"You have _no_ idea," Jake agreed.

"Why would she? They're fake dating, remember?" Alyssa said.

"Okay, I give up!" Josh cried. "Yes. We are _fake_ dating. How do you know that?"

"I've known Breanna Kramer since we were five years old, and everyone knows she's been in love with Dalton Drew since they were seven years old. But I heard Dalton is dating Lana, so I figured Gabi got you to fake date Bree to make Dalton jealous since he likes Bree too, and I don't why he's dating Lana if he likes Bree, but I'm guessing Gabi's plan is for your fake relationship to make Dalton jealous enough to break up with Lana and ask Bree out, because you're totally Bree's type, except you're into art instead of sports."

"That's so complicated," Rae said. "Why doesn't Bree just ask Dalton out, if they both like each other?"

Everyone shrugged.

"Well, why does Gabi think it's okay to ask you to do that?" Rae asked Josh. "What if something goes wrong and one of you ends up falling for each other? Or what if Dalton never works up the nerve to ask Bree out, or actually ends up liking Lana and you guys have to keep fake dating and you miss your opportunity to go out with someone great?"

Alyssa knew Rae was thinking of Sage with that last comment, but she also knew Josh thought Rae meant her. Even though Josh hadn't admitted this to Alyssa yet, she knew Josh had a crush on Rae. Too bad Rae liked Jake. Or maybe it was good, because Rae would never go out with Josh even if she did like him because Sage liked him too.

The boys spent the rest of lunch in the library with them. They even helped Jake a bit because he didn't realize The Second New Deal would be on the test and didn't study that part. When they got to APUSH, Bree was standing outside of the classroom, bidding Gabi and Lana good bye. When she saw Josh, she threw a fit, telling him he could not leave her during lunch. When Josh pointed out he never ate lunch with her, she said that had to change because he was her _boyfriend_. Alyssa cringed and actually exchanged an 'Uh oh' look with _Gabi_. Clearly, Rae was right. One of them had fallen for the other. Bree seemed to actually _like_ Josh.

So that's why Alyssa was happy to spend an afternoon with Josh. Until Ellie shattered that dream.

"You're coming with me," she said, grabbing Alyssa's arm just as she was heading for the studio.

Ellie always ran and never slowed down, so Alyssa had to run along with her to avoid falling.

"Ellie, where are you taking me?" Alyssa asked, surprised. Ellie hadn't talked to her at all outside of guardian training.

"The gym."

"Why?"

"Cuz. I signed you up to be on the Halloween Dance decorating committee with me. Before you get mad, you can get extra credit for art for doing this, and I know you don't _need_ extra credit, but you always do extra credit stuff even when you don't need to. And I told Josh about it, so he'll be doing it too. _And_, there's this insanely hot new guy who's helping out too and he's a _senior_! What was his name again, John? Or Jeremy…"

Alyssa smiled at the way Ellie went on. That was one thing Adam and Alyssa both envied and got irritated by. Ellie would never stop talking. She was a total motor mouth, and what's more, because of all the pent up energy she had, she's get louder and more excited with each word she spoke until she was screeching and bouncing off the walls, jumping up and down like a little kid. It got both annoying and irritating, but Adam and Alyssa, both calmer than their friend, did wish they had as much energy as her. They also envied her attitude; nothing fazed her. She'd be acting like a five-year-old, people would snicker, Gabi would make a rude comment, and Ellie would just insult her back, then go on with whatever she was doing before the interruption.

"Ellie," Alyssa broke in when she realized Ellie stopped to take a breath and she either had to speak now or lose her chance forever. "Why are you doing this?"

Ellie smiled shyly. "Making up for lost time?"

Alyssa knew it was a statement, but it came out sounding like a question. Ellie was rarely that shy.

Alyssa smiled. "I get it. I know we haven't talked much since.." Alyssa stopped. She was going to say 'since I found out', but knew that would upset Ellie. "Since we were ten, but-"

"Lyssa, we haven't talked at all," Ellie said. "I don't even have your cell phone number."

"If I give you my number, can I not join Dance Committee?"

Ellie sighed, rolled her eyes, grabbed Alyssa's shoulders and turned her around. "I think you'll want to stay when you see Jared…or was it Jaden?"

"Holy Mother of Sexy!" Alyssa breathed as she caught sight of the boy.

"See?"

"He looks exactly like…Grant Gustin."

"That's just what I was thinking! You watch Glee?"

"What? No. John watches The Flash and I sort of got into it."

"Jason watches that too," Ellie said.

"How is he?"

"Jason? Okay. He started working 80 hours a week, but Markus works with him now."

"Oh that's lucky. Is Markus still cute?"

"So much cuter!"

Ellie and Alyssa giggled and it felt like old times for a moment.

"So, will you stay? At least to say hi to the fastest man alive?"

Alyssa nodded, laughin. Grant Gustin was her celebrity crush, and he was hot as hell. She had to say hi to his look alike.

"Hi!" the boy said as he noticed the girls. He looked at Ellie.

'Oh God,' Alyssa thought. Being this close to Grant Gustin look alike was scarier than she thought. This boy was so gorgeous it hurt.

"Ellie, right?"

"Yeah. And you're…uh…"

"James," the boy supplied. "James Mason."

"Of course," Ellie said, then looked at Alyssa as if to say, 'Well at least I got the first letter right.'

"James, this is my friend Alisha Ashcroft," Ellie stumbled.

"Alyssa!" the African American hissed.

"Alyssa!" Ellie corrected, blushing. Ellie tended to call Alyssa 'Alisha' every time she was really nervous or super excited.

"Hey," James said, smiling even bigger at her.

'Wow, even his smile is like Grant's! Maybe they're brothers?' But in the back of her mind, Alyssa knew Grant Gustin only had one brother and his name was Tyler.

"Yeah, hey," Alyssa said.

'Yeah, hey?' she thought to herself. She was such a dork!

"I like your headband," James said.

Alyssa subconsciously touched her headband. She hadn't braided her hair today, so it was in an afro style, which she usually held down with a headband. Today she was a wearing a headband with dark blue, sky blue, and watery blue beads that matched her shirt.

"Thanks. I made it myself," Alyssa said.

"Really?"

"I'm kind of an artist, so I like to make my own accessories. Like, these earrings." She pushed back her hair and showed James the hanging earrings she made from jade colored ribbon.

"Kind of? She's an amazing artist. She has a great eye," Ellie broke in.

"Which must be the reason why you're here," James concluded.

Alyssa nodded, not really listening. She got lost in his gorgeous, Grant Gustin-esque blue eyes. Unlike Grant though, he wasn't lean. He was still tall, but more muscular. Like…

'His muscles remind me of Chris Hemsworth,' Ellie said.

Alyssa gave Ellie a startled look because she hadn't seen Ellie move her lips or say anything, even though Ellie was silly enough to say something like that out loud. So Ellie must've been thinking that. Did Alyssa hear Ellie's thought in her head? That was creepy!

"Did you make your shoes too?"

"Well, I bought the shoes, but the paint was me," Alyssa said. She had one white converse that she'd splatter painted that summer, when she bought them.

"That's really cool," James said.

Ellie coughed, grabbed Alyssa's arm, and said, "Will you excuse us for just a minute?" She dragged Alyssa away and squealed, "Oh my God, he's totally flirting with you!"

"I know!" Alyssa squealed back, even though she wasn't much of a squealer. Then she said, "Well maybe he flirts with everyone? He could be naturally flirty."

"He didn't flirt with me!" Ellie replied, her tone half annoyed, half 'I'm right about this, don't fight it.'

"So what, you think he likes me?"

"Alyssa and James, sittin' in a tree," Ellie sang childishly in way of a response.

"Oh, I'd sit in a tree with that boy any day," Alyssa said. "If I don't melt first."

"Well, don't stand here talking to _me_!" Ellie cried, pushing Alyssa forward. "Go talk to _him_."

"You sure? You signed me up for this so that we could spend time together, didn't you?"

"That's before James liked you. Give me your number later at guardian training, and we can text. James is important."

Alyssa laughed and went up to James, offered to help him hang the streamers he was fiddling with, and spent the rest of the afternoon flirting with him. She didn't notice Josh, who'd finally gotten there, spend the entire hour they decorated, blowing up balloons and glaring at the pair.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What do you mean you grew up together?" Gabi screeched when she and Josh entered her house after work that night. No one was home, as expected. Her dad told her he was taking Sienna and Eva out for a late dinner and she was welcome to join them if her shift was over. She told him she was working til closing that day (then begged Hay Lin to _let_ her work til closing so that she wouldn't have to go, because in reality, she finished early that day), so Hay Lin let Stella go home early and had Gabi work her shift. This meant Stella owed her anyway. Luc was having a sleepover with a friend. Normally, Lana, Kelli, and Bree would be over by now, for their weekly sleepover, but Gabi was still grounded, and she didn't know how long that would last.

"A little louder Gabi, I don't think the people in Meridian heard you!" Josh said.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "You totally messed up the expression Josh. Sound doesn't carry across dimensions."

"Has anyone ever told you you're really annoying?"

"Not as many people as you'd think. Besides Bree and Lana, most people are too scared to say that. Except the Drama Freak."

Josh glared at her.

"I mean Ellie," she corrected hastily. "Anyway, explain this to me. You're protective of Alyssa because you grew up together?"

Josh sighed. He'd been moody all day, and when Gabi asked what his problem was, he told her about James.

"The new kid? I know him. It's weird, people don't transfer to Sheffield ever. Rarely, but only at the start of sixth or ninth grade. I mean, there was you and Sage, but you guys are from Meridian. Lilianne and New Girl actually, they were anomalies. But transferring once the year has already started is unheard of," Gabi had said.

"You think there's something off about him?"

"It's strange, not dangerous," Gabi assured him. "Anyway, I'm not complaining. Not when he looks the way he does. Yeah, he's like a modern day Adonis. A Greek God…or a Norse God, since he's built like Chris Hemsworth. Oh, he's an actor who plays this superhero Thor in this movie…and you don't care," Gabi had said. "Okay, what about him?"

"He was flirting with Alyssa. I don't like that."

"Are you jealous?"

"No."

Gabi believed him, because she was pretty sure if he was into any of the guardians, it was New Girl, not Klutzcroft. But then why did James bother him so much?

"So why don't you like him?"

"I guess I'm protective of Alyssa. We did grow up together after all."

And that had blown Gabi's mind.

"Okay, so when she was born, her mother and mine were still friends. They stayed friends with each other longer than they did with any of the other guardians, even though Taranee was closest to Will. Anyway, they used to visit Meridian a lot, and every now and then, I'd come to Earth. They'd spend some holidays with the Hales. And we'd always play together. And we were really good friends and we told each other everything, but I guess she never mentioned me to Ellie or the other guy she hung out with-"

"Adam?" Gabi asked.

"I guess. I mean, if she'd mentioned me, I figured they would've remembered, even if she didn't. Anyway, whatever fight split up the guardians caught up with Mom and Taranee by the time Alyssa and I were ten, so the last we saw each other was the last day of Alyssa's summer vacation. The one between fifth and sixth grade."

"That was the same year the Drama-uh Ellie-dropped her," Gabi said.

Josh nodded. "She told me about that. She didn't really explain."

"Okay, so you grew up together and you were best friends. But why doesn't she remember you?"

"Honestly? I think Taranee had something to do with it. Once the guardians are 18, which is an official adult in our world too, they are each entrusted with one thing. Like Hay Lin was entrusted with the Heart because the Oracle decided she'd be the best mentor to the new guardians, even though I heard at first Hay Lin thought that responsibility should go to Will. But Will was entrusted with secret keeping, meaning she is notified every time a non-magical person hears about Meridian, and she makes sure they keep the secret. If she thinks they can't, she needs to erase their memory with a magical herb that makes you susceptible to suggestion. You have to mix it into a drink. But she needs to work with Taranee for that. Taranee is the guardian entrusted with magical items because she's the most sensible. I doubt she'd use any of them frivolously, but I think Taranee might've erased Alyssa's memories of me and Meridian, not wanting her daughter to know about that since she herself was done with Meridian and my parents."

"Wow," Gabi breathed.

"You can't tell anyone!" Josh said. "Especially not Alyssa. It's dangerous for a person who's forgotten something thanks to the herb to get those memories back. It makes people lose their minds and they can become brain dead."

Gabi raised her eyebrows. "Ever think you shouldn't grow something like that? But whatever, I wasn't planning on telling anyone anyway. Is there any way she can safely get the memories back?"

Josh nodded. "You have to drink something with the herb in it again, and then you have to recite a memory or give them an object that'll trigger all the memories. Unless you're a guardian…then you will remember all memories erased by the herb when you reach zenith."

"Zenith?"

"When you're at your strongest. But even that's dangerous. When a guardian reaches zenith, she loses her self-control and will. She's just a mess of her powers. Most guardians reach zenith when they are 21, at which point they need to practice being in that form to control it and take on stronger enemies. But if you reach zenith early, you may never come back."

"Has that happened before?"

"Reaching zenith early or never coming back?"

"Either," Gabi whispered, looking scared. "Both."

"W.I.T.C.H. reached zenith early. They were only fourteen, except Hay Lin, who was still thirteen. But they were brought back, and managed to not go back into that form again until they were 21. But it was a traumatic experience for them, and they were reluctant to go back to that form and it was harder for them to learn to control it. As for never coming back…it happened to Faye, the leader of FAITH, the first batch of Thousand Year Guardians. But no one else."

Gabi relaxed, then said, "I need to talk to you about what you said about MAGIC. You said we were each related to one member of MAGIC. As the fire guardian Class-uh Alyssa-is related to Gwen, the first guardian of fire, and Queen-Caty-is related to Anya, the first guardian of water, right?"

"Right."

"Well, Encylopedi-uh, _Caty_\- said she was adopted. And Anya and Gwen were sisters. If Caty was adopted, she wouldn't know this, but wouldn't she and Alyssa be related too? Since they're direct descendants of the guardians who were sisters?"

Josh nodded slowly. "I didn't think about it before, but you're right. I guess, in a way, they'd be…cousins."

"Should we tell them?"

"No! When Hay Lin tells them about the Thousand Year Prophecy, she'll tell them about MAGIC. If anyone can figure out they could be related, it'll be Alyssa and Caty. They're both geniuses, and you figured it out."

Gabi told herself Josh wasn't calling her dumb, he was just saying she wasn't as smart as Classless and Queen Nerd, which was fine, because few people were. Classless-a, Jake, Queen Nerd, and Dorkzilla (one of her names for Brian Din, who tied with Queen Nerd in class rank) were in a league of their own, within a tenth of a point of each other for GPA. Alyssa had a 102.9 GPA, which was unheard of since…well, Gabi figured since her mother attended Sheffield. Jake had a 102.7 GPA, and Queen Nerd and Dorkzilla had a 102.4 GPA. The highest GPA was Misha Zollar, at 99.6. The New Girl came in with a class rank of 99.8 and won that spot, but there was a vast difference between the GPAs of Queen Nerd and Dorkzilla, and New Girl.

"There's so much we still don't know about ourselves," Gabi said. "I don't like this. It's making me nervous."

"I already told you so much," Josh said. "I don't want to overstep. This is Hay Lin's job, and you have to trust she's keeping you in the dark for a reason."

"But we have to save all the known worlds. That means Earth. That means _Luc_."

Josh sighed and put his hand on Gabi's shoulder comfortingly. "I can't tell you about the prophecy. But I'll do you one better. I'll make you a promise, and I know you don't know me that well, but I always keep my promises. So I promise…no, I swear, no matter what, at the end of the whole 'saving the whole known worlds' thing, Luc will be alive and well. Is that good enough?"

Gabi smiled at him. "It's perfect Josh. Thank you."

Then she realized how much she actually liked this guy.

'Aw shit!' she thought.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That same night, Alyssa and Rae were having a sleepover at the Ashcroft residence. Alyssa had invited Sage over too, although she missed her sleepovers with just Rae. Every Friday they had a sleepover, and Sage came because she lived with Rae, and no one was sure if she should be alone with Silena. Alyssa liked Sage, but Rae, Ellie, and Gabi were much closer to her than Alyssa and Caty were. Luckily, Ellie asked Sage to sleepover that night, so it was just Alyssa and Rae that night.

Speaking of Ellie…Alyssa had given Ellie her number at the end of guardian and they texted for most of the day. At first it was just about James-Ellie wanted to hear every detail, so she texted Ellie and, let Rae read the texts since Rae wanted to know about James as well, and Alyssa didn't want to re-explain. Then, they talked about other things. Alyssa felt like she and Ellie were finally reconnecting. Their friendship would never be the same, but they could work their way up to something that was even stronger.

Rae and Alyssa talked almost all night. It had been a while since the two girls had been alone together. Lately, they were always with Josh or Jake or G.R.A.C.E. Mostly, they were with all of Team G.R.A.C.E. They didn't mind of course-Josh, Sage, and Chris were friends, and they were friends with Caty, and friendly with Ellie (well, sort of-up until today Ellie didn't talk to Alyssa outside of training and she still didn't like Rae)-but they still need their alone time.

Rae had told Alyssa how nervous she was feeling about G.R.A.C.E., how it consumed her, but everyone else seemed focused on other things (which Alyssa had to admit was true-she was more focused on her art and her grades than on G.R.A.C.E.), and the nightmares she'd been having. Alyssa told Rae the story of how she'd gotten the name Classless-a.

Gabi had invited her to a party, back when she'd been known as Alyssa Klutzcroft. She said it was her way to telling Alyssa she was over the cafeteria incident. Alyssa had wanted to go to Yale since she was a little kid, so when Gabi told sixth grade Alyssa the Yale Dean of Admissions would be there because she Gabi's godmother, Alyssa agreed to go.

The Yale Dean of Admissions was really there and she was really Gabi's godmother. That was all true. But Gabi had lied too. She wasn't over the cafeteria incident. Alyssa had permanently ruined Gabi's new dress, a Silena Shane original that had cost almost $700. Her father grounded her and told her she wasn't allowed to buy another dress for the rest of the year! Even though it wasn't her fault!

So she'd gotten her brother Michael to help her embarrass Alyssa in front of the Yale Dean. With Michael's help, she'd gotten the Dean of Admissions to think Alyssa had farted in front of her several times, releasing a bit of the stuff Michael used for stink bombs along with a recording device. Alyssa got so nervous she started to stutter and blurt out random, inappropriate things. The Dean had marched out, declaring loudly that Alyssa had no class. And from that day on, Classless-a Klutzcroft was the only name the African American was known by.

Alyssa was so embarrassed while telling that story that a curtain accidentally caught on fire. Both girls had screamed and Taranee had burst into the room just as Alyssa made the flame disappear. Alyssa made up an excuse ("I was just really emotional and the curtain caught on fire; I can't control that Mom, I still have the power even if I'm not training), and Taranee had left.

Then Alyssa admitted that even though the G.R.A.C.E. thing wasn't consuming her, she started noticing something weird. She told Rae about hearing Ellie's thought earlier that day. She said it might've happened again, during guardian training. She thought she heard Gabi's voice in her head too, saying, 'Huh, Josh looks _hot_ when he's using a sword.'

Rae smiled at this. If that was really Gabi's thought, then maybe she was thinking of breaking up with Jake. Then Rae told Alyssa about the electricity she saw on her hands. Alyssa seemed confused by this at first. By the time she understood what the electricity had meant, they were talking about Rae's crush on Jake instead of G.R.A.C.E.

"And even though Gabi lifted her blackmail, I'm still trying to stay away from him," Rae was saying.

"Why? You missed him when you weren't allowed to talk to him. Now that you can, you don't want to?"

"I'm still falling for him and he still has a girlfriend…who he loves."

"Who doesn't deserve him. Gabi's a full on, hard core, bitch. You're the opposite. You should be with him."

"I don't know why I'm going crazy over one boy."

"One hot, charming, sweet, smart, adorable, athletic boy," Alyssa said.

"You don't even like Jake! Why do you want me to be with him?"

"Because you do. And I never said I didn't _like_ Jake. I just said he's too cocky."

"He is _not_ cocky!"

"Say what you will. He's not as perfect as everyone makes him out to be, and one day you'll see that too. But you'll still loooove him!"

"Shut up," Rae muttered.

"It's okay," Alyssa said. "Jake and I are friends. I do like him. I can just see his flaws too. Unlike everyone else."

"What do you mean?"

"You'd think you couldn't see his flaws cuz you have a crush on him, but it seems like no one can. Caty used to hate him and now it's like she can't even remember why she was mad at him. I'm pretty sure Ellie can't see any flaws and she's in the business of seeing flaws in the popular people…I think the one person that's weary of him is Bree."

"Bree? But she's Gabi's best friend."

"Maybe that's why. She wants to protect her best friend, and I want to protect mine. Maybe that's why we can see his flaws."

Rae nodded. "I'm sure he has flaws, but you don't think he's dangerous or anything, do you?"

"No way! I've known Jake since Pre-K, he's the opposite of dangerous. But he does break a lot of hearts."

"I heard that's because he wasn't ever serious about anyone til Gabi. If we _do_ eventually get together, I'll make it clear I won't be just another girl," Rae promised.

Alyssa nodded. She did like Jake. She just wanted to make sure Rae was careful.

"And what about you? How well do you know James."

"Well, I just met him today."

"And do you know his last name? Or where he lived before he transferred here? Or what his parents do or what his favorite subject is?"

"No."

"Does he know that stuff about you?"

"Well…yeah."

"Don't do all the talking Lyssa. Get to know him. Ask him questions and don't let him keep secrets."

"I know. I will," Alyssa promised.

"Good. Because I want you to be happy Lyss. But I also want you to be safe."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

On Monday, Josh, Sage, Rae, and Alyssa got to school early as usual. They were an hour early, and Alyssa and Rae headed to the art studio. Jake said he was going to be in the calculus classroom early, and Rae could head over if she needed help, but she finished the homework for once, and she seemed to understand it so far.

Alyssa groaned as she got out her supplies.

"Your head still bothering you?" Rae asked sympathetically.

Alyssa nodded. She'd had a pounding head ache since that morning.

"Did you take aspirin or anything for it?"

"Yeah. I guess it just hasn't kicked in yet. I'll be okay," Alyssa said.

It was another twenty minutes before the other cheerleaders got to school. As they did, Alyssa and Rae realized it was louder than usual out there, but they thought nothing of it. It was another twenty minutes before the girls exited the art studio. They saw that the cheerleaders, minus Gabi and Bree, were passing out issues of the school paper. Lana and Kelli, who were right outside the studio, stopped when they saw Rae and Alyssa. Everyone started at Rae and she began to feel really self-conscious.

A huge smirk spread across Lana's face. "And here she is now. Poor little rich girl," she taunted, looking directly at Rae. The cheerleaders near Lana snickered. The other students gave Rae dirty looks.

Alyssa immediately grabbed two copies of the paper from the pile Kelli was holding and dragged Rae back into the studio, where they could get some privacy.

"Is there anything about me in there? Is that why everyone's suddenly mad at me?" Rae asked.

Alyssa paled and nodded.

"Well, what is it? Is it something about the fight between me and Gabi?"

"I think you better read it yourself," Alyssa replied, handing her the paper.

There on the front page was a picture of Rae; it was the same one used for her Sheffield Institute ID.

Under it was the title **'Poor Little Rich Girl: New Girl Rachel Dylan Dishes on Her Perfect Life.'**

'My _what_?' Rae wondered, then read the article.

**For the first time in years, Heatherfield has received a new student. Sixteen-year-old Rachel "Rae" Dylan is a new addition to Sheffield Institute's junior class. Unbeknownst to most, Rae does not come from a modest background like most students. Her mother is famous designer Silena Shane, and her father is Frank Dylan, owner of multibillion dollar company Trapple Industries, and inventor of most electronic devices owned by the population. **

"Oh no!" Rae moaned.

"I think you should keep reading," Alyssa said, looking at her own copy.

Rae sighed, but willed herself to keep going.

**As is expected of a girl from her background, Rae lives on Larson Street, in the house of Sheffield alum, Jeff Boudreau. She has a cook, a maid, a butler, and a driver. And yet, she wants more. As if it isn't enough that she has more amenities in her life than any other Sheffield student, Rae Dylan talked about her tragic **_**disadvantages**_** in life.**

** Of course we feel for Rae. It must be **_**so**_** hard to be a pretty, rich, straight A student with two wildly successful parents. Rae is into tennis and science, but she's worried she doesn't have a "thing" like her parents. No talents. It must be so hard for a girl of her privilege because she doesn't have a talent.**

** But then we thought about the rest of the student body. Gabi Shay used to be the richest girl with the biggest house before Rae Dylan came to school. Misha Zollar used to be ranked number 4 before Rae knocked her down. How are people with good grades but no money, like Nina Simone supposed to go to college? Or what about people with money, but not good enough grades like Breanna Kramer? How are people who look like Bailey Maxon supposed to get into the "pretty girls only" parties with Rae walking around in her mother's clothes and make up?**

** Sure Rae doesn't have a talent, but she has so much more than other kids at this school, and still she complains. Can you say spoiled?**

** What's more is, Rae kept the identity of her parents a secret. Why? Some people say popularity isn't important to Rae, and she likes to keep her private life private. But we know the real reason. Rae doesn't want people to know the truth about the way her parents feel about her. Her father doesn't care enough about her to follow through on the plans he makes with her and her mother is keeping secrets from her. It must be embarrassing! But the really humiliating thing is the way she acts like she's above popularity.**

** As if being spoiled and fake isn't bad enough, Rae Dylan is also a boyfriend stealer. Or at least, she's trying to be, sidling up to Jake Saunders. As if he would ever go for her! He has way more class than to go for a spoiled complainer.**

Rae stopped reading. "What the _hell_ is this?" she asked slowly.

Alyssa suddenly laughed. Rae looked at her with a glare on her face.

"Sorry," Alyssa said. "Just…have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations…that's funny."

"_WhatI?!"_

There, in the same article, was every one of the silly questions Rae had asked Jake (from the one about the parkway and driveway to the one about aster being the opposite of disaster) with _answers. _Granted the answers were _stupid_, but it added to the embarrassment this article caused her).

The article also added what Jake had said to her, about being close to perfect and how the only reason he said that was because she was _blackmailing_ him.

**We all wondered how someone as plain as Rae Dylan managed to capture the attention of someone like Jake Saunders. He's not shallow enough to fall for her money. And then we found out from Jake's girlfriend herself, Gabi Shay, that Rae is **_**blackmailing**_** Jake. She ran into him, literally, on the first day of school and she immediately fell for his looks. Jake won student body president last year against Caitlin Lewis. Their other opponent, Patrick Costa, tried spread a rumor that he had stuffed the ballot box to win, which we all found out wasn't true. However, when Rae found out about this rumor, she created some fake proof and is threatening to use it so he could lose his presidency. Jake has to be nice to her.**

** But once the staff hears about her **_**fake**_** evidence, no one will believe the **_**liar**_** Rachel Dylan anymore. Don't worry Jake Saunders, you won't be under the mercy of that horrible girl for much longer.**

Rae stared at the paper, near tears. She blinked hard and willed herself not to cry.

"Gabi did this," she said quietly. "That's why she decided not to blackmail me anymore. She'd already decided to publish my secrets in the paper."

"But this article practically calls Breanna Kramer stupid," Alyssa said. "And sure Gabi's a bitch, but she'd never say anything mean about Bree or any of her cheerleaders. At least not in a place where they can see, like the school paper. She needs to maintain power by being nice to the whole squad."

"Breanna Kramer is stupid, too stupid to understand what the article said about her," Rae replied.

"What is all this 'poor little rich girl' stuff?" Alyssa asked.

"It's something I said to Jake," Rae replied. "But it wasn't like this. The article is making me sound spoiled, and stupid, but that's not how it happened."

"Of course not," Alyssa soothed. "This is just classic Gabi. But…how does she know everything you said to Jake?"

Rae seemed confused for a moment, then gasped. "He told her. He had to have! I can't believe him!"

She stomped out of the studio and headed to the calc classroom.

Jake looked up at her and smiled when she reached the classroom.

"How could you?!" she screamed at him.

Jake gave her a bewildered look.

"How could I…what?" he asked innocently.

Rae threw the paper in his face. "Everything we talked about is in there!"

"What…?" Jake, who hadn't seen the paper yet, quickly scanned the article and his eyes widened as he realized what Rae was talking about. But he didn't tell anyone about their conversation. Well he told Gabi, but all he said was he talked to Rae because they had time left over after tutoring, because he wanted to be honest. He didn't say a word about what they talked about because he thought Gabi may get jealous.

"Rae, I didn't-"

"Save it!" Rae screamed. "I talked you. I _trusted_ you. But I should've known better. I won't make _that_ mistake again."

"Rae, please-!" Jake tried, but Rae had already stormed out of the room, out for blood. Jake sighed and did the only thing he could think of to do. He chased after her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi groaned, hiding her face in her locker.

"What's wrong?" Bree asked worriedly. She and Gabi had been an empty classroom all day so Gabi could complain to her best friend about Sienna. Neither had seen or heard anything about the paper. As part of the staff, Gabi knew the paper was coming out that day, but few people even bothered to read it.

"My head," Gabi moaned. "It's been pounding since this morning and it keeps getting worse. And this morning, I think I started to see things."

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the stuff on the vanity in my room began to…_float_."

"Float?" Bree repeated. "I think you're hallucinating."

"No kidding," Gabi snapped. "I didn't think my makeup was actually _flying_."

Jake, who was still looking for Rae, spotted Gabi and Bree at Gabi's locker. He was worried about Rae, but Gabi looked terrible, and she was his girlfriend, so he went over to the two cheerleaders.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked. He heard the world 'flying' as he got closer. "What's flying?"

"Gabi's makeup," Bree replied.

Jake gave Bree his best 'WTF' look, making her laugh.

"I thought I saw my makeup floating this morning," Gabi replied. "Probably because of my pounding head ache. It was just a hallucination though."

"You're seeing things?" Jake asked, concern raining in his voice. "Do you have a fever? Maybe you shouldn't be in school today."

"I'll be fine. I just need Tylenol or something."

Then, hearing loud footsteps, Jake, Gabi, and Bree looked up to see an angry Rae marching toward them, a glare on her face.

"New Girl," Gabi said coolly. Then remembering Jake was there, she backtracked. "I mean, Rae," she quickly corrected.

"Don't you mean 'Poor Little Rich Girl'?" Rae asked angrily.

Bree and Gabi exchanged confused looks, as Jake cringed.

"I saw your article in the school paper," Rae clarified.

"The one about the cheer competition Varsity won?" Gabi asked. "What about it?"

"No, I'm talking about the other one."

Other one? The Varsity competition she'd attended was the only story she'd written for the paper that week.

"Don't play dumb!" Rae cried, frustrated, thrusting a copy of the paper at her.

Gabi sped read the article by Rae's picture and gasped. She looked at the author's name. It was anonymous. She didn't understand. She understood why Rae thought she wrote this article, but she hadn't. And she'd seen the final copy of the paper the editors had approved. This article was snuck on. It looked the writer bumped Madison Chang's article about the Winter play and the Glee Club, and Cyrus Marsdon's article about the lacrosse game to include the article about Rae.

"Listen, Rae, I didn't write-" Gabi started, but was cut off.

"I really can't believe you Gabi. I thought you had changed!" Rae screamed, storming away.

"Does she think _you_ wrote that?" Jake asked.

"Apparently."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Gabi said, though that was a lie. "But I didn't."

"The question is," Jake said, "who did?"

"Hey!" Bree cried suddenly as she read the article. "Are they calling me stupid?"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Rae whispered to Alyssa.

Alyssa nodded, then went back to painting. The two girls were spending their afternoon in the art studio as usual, before they headed for The Silver Dragon with the others. For the entire day, neither girl looked at or talked to Jake.

At lunch, Misha and Nina apologized to Rae, not having any clue why Gabi used their names in the article, but assured her they had nothing to do with it. Then Misha and Caty apologized for letting someone sneak this article in, and assured her this was not what they and the editor-in-chief had approved. Rae promised she wasn't mad at them-none of this was their fault.

Sage had also apologized since it was the cheerleaders that were passing out the papers and assured Rae she knew nothing of the article and didn't help with the papers. She also said she didn't think it was Gabi who wrote the article, but didn't defend her when Rae said she was sure it was.

After Sage went back to her table, Caty, Nina, Misha, the four boys, and Alyssa spent the rest of the lunch period comforting Rae and insulting Gabi.

The boys, Misha, and Nina were surprised to learn who Rae's parents were, and realized that was the secret Gabi was blackmailing her with, but didn't say anything, knowing Rae got enough abuse for the secret getting out.

All day in the halls Rae heard mutters of "I can't believe she tried to get with Jake Saunders" and "As if Jake would ever go for _her_" and "Does she think she's the only one with problems? She needs to suck it up!" from bitter students.

Then there were the questions from people who were in awe of her parentage. Like "Can your mom look at this design for me?" or "I dropped my TrappleTab and it broke. Can you convince your dad to get me a free replacement? I know he doesn't care about you but…"

Caty's cousin Lilianne Morrison even stopped Rae and asked if she could convince Silena to pick her as the high school student that got to be part of Silena's internship program.

A minute or two after Rae left, someone else came in. Alyssa turned around with a huge smile on her face, expecting to see Chris or Josh. She was wondering why they weren't there. Her expression turned sour when she saw it was Jake.

"Alyssa!" he cried.

Alyssa glared at him.

"I need your help," he said.

Alyssa stared. She was trying to give off a 'Go away you freaking douchebag, I'm trying to protect my friend' vibe, but apparently Jake got a 'Hey, come ask me for a favor' vibe, because that's what he did.

"You have exactly five minute to tell me why I should punch you in the gut right now," Alyssa said shortly.

Jake gave her a smile. "Because that would probably hurt me more than it would hurt you." When Alyssa glared daggers at him, his smile disappeared. "Come on Alyssa, please."

"Fine," she sighed. "What?"

"Rae won't talk to me, and I know she thinks I told someone what she said to me that day during tutoring, but I swear I didn't. I would never tell anyone what she said to me privately. I care too much about her. All I ever wanted was to get to know her and I could tell from her attitude, she didn't really trust easily. She gets along with you, so maybe it's just guys she doesn't trust. But I got really close to her during tutoring, but then the paper came out and fucked everything up. I don't know what to do and I just want to get her to talk to me. What do I do?"

Alyssa sighed. She could tell he was being honest.

"Alright look, I believe you, but you're gonna have to prove to Rae you didn't tell anyone those things if you want her forgiveness."

"How do I do that?"

"Maybe you should tell off the person who wrote the article."

"But I don't know who did that."

"Seriously? You're telling me after everything that happened, you can't think of one person who would've written his article?"

Jake thought for a moment before his face lit up with realization. "Oh!" he said.

"Yeah," Alyssa nodded.

"Gabe Preston. I knew he played pranks on people, but isn't this taking it too far?"

What?

Alyssa wacked him on the head. "Are you stupid?!" she cried. "Gabe Preston is funny and sweet. I know he's a jock, but he only plays harmless pranks. Besides, how would he even know what you and Rae talked about?"

"I…I don't…but then who?"

Alyssa sighed angrily at Jake's stupidity. How did this boy end up with the number 2 class rank spot? "I'm talking about your girlfriend dumb ass!"

"What? But Gabs would never do something like this!"

"Oh really? Because I know "Gabs" would blackmail my best friend by telling her she'd tell everyone who Rae's parents are if she didn't stay away from you. "Gabs" is pure evil, or do I really need to remind you of the Yale incident at her sixth grade birthday party? Who was the one that made everyone call me Classless-a Klutzcroft?"

It took Jake a moment, but he started to realize Alyssa was right. Rae and Gabi never got along. Gabi was clearly jealous of Rae, but never did anything about it, which was unlike her. Rae randomly stopped talking to him, out of nowhere. Every time he got close to making her smile or say something outside of tutoring, Gabi would always show up and hold his hand or kiss him. They got in a fight and even though Gabi was hurt more, she got a longer suspension. They never seemed to like each other. Rae already thought it was Gabi who wrote the paper. And Gabi was on the staff. She got pretty mad when she found out who her parents were, and as far as he knew, besides Alyssa, who would never do something like this, the cheerleaders were the only ones who knew the identity of Rae's parents before today. And…

"Lana and Kelli," Jake said. "They were there in the calc classroom that day, the day we had this conversation. Lana came in to get her notebook, and I noticed they stayed after she got it and I wasn't sure why, but I didn't think anything of it. They must've overheard our conversation and told Gabi."

Alyssa nodded. "And Rae definitely would've noticed that too, so you have proof now that you didn't do it. She doesn't want to believe anything bad about you, so she'll know you're telling the truth."

Jake nodded, but he didn't seem to hear her. "So Gabi wrote the article?"

Alyssa nodded.

Jake's expression went from one of shock to one of anger.

Alyssa's heart began to pound. She knew Jake for twelve years, and she'd never once seen him get angry. He was always smiling, always happy. Angry Jake was terrifying.

"Excuse me," he said, walking out of the studio.

Alyssa smiled, then started to clean up, realizing it was almost time for guardian training.

Gabi and the other cheerleaders walked over to the art studio together. Rae was coming from the other direction. She froze when she saw the squad.

Lana opened her mouth to say something snide, but stopped when Jake stepped in front of Gabi.

"Jake!" Gabi smiled, leaning in to kiss him.

Jake stepped back, avoiding her kiss. "Gabi, we need to talk."

"O-okay," Gabi said, confused.

"Alone," he said, eyeing the rest of the squad.

The other girls shuffled away, but Sage, Bree, Lana, and Kelli stayed.

"Really?" he asked.

"Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of them," Gabi assured him.

"Fine. We're over."

For a moment, Gabi just stared at him in shock, not that Rae blamed her. She and Gabi's friends were also in shock.

"What?" Gabi asked softly, mystified.

"We're over. Through. Finished," Jake said. "I'm breaking up with you."

"Yeah, I get it!" Gabi snapped. Bree glared at Jake as Lana burst into laughter and Kelli ran over to the other cheerleaders to tell them what was going on. Sage just looked uncomfortable. "Is this because of that freak?" She shot Rae a glare which Rae returned.

Jake turned around and looked shocked that Rae was there, but turned back to Gabi and said, "Rae's not a freak. If anything, you are! I can't believe you Gabi! Why do you get pass judgement on people? You're not perfect either. You're such a hypocrite and you always pick on the nicest, coolest people. Like Sienna, Eva, Alyssa, and now Rae? You're a bitch Gabi! You need to take a long, hard look at your life."

"You've made your point. You should go," Bree cut in, her voice like ice.

Rae lunged forward, grabbed Jake's arm, and dragged him into the studio.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Alyssa told me it was Gabi who wrote that article and…" Jake explained everything to her. "You believe me, don't you?"

Instead of answering, Rae gave him a hug, which he easily returned. "Thank you," she said. "That couldn't have been easy. I know you love her."

"Loved," Jake replied. "I haven't been feeling right with her for a while, and I thought it would get better, but I couldn't stay with her after finding out what she did to you."

Rae pulled out of his embrace and blushed when she realized what she'd just done.

"So, it's cool for us to talk to Jake again, right?" Alyssa broke in, startling the pair. "Yes, I'm still here. This is the _art_ studio, after all."

Rae and Jake laughed. When the trio walked out of the art studio, Gabi and Sage were the only ones left. Sage was comforting Gabi.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Jake said.

Rae nodded as the group waited for the others to arrive. Each member of Team G.R.A.C.E. gave Gabi their scariest, meanest glare as they gathered. Josh was the last one and he gave her a glare that broke her heart.

"I did not write that article!" Gabi burst out. "I swear! I admit, I did know about the conversation you had with Jake. Lana and Kelli overheard it and told me. But I didn't do anything about it. Lana must've been the one that wrote it. The writing was pedestrian anyway, with terrible grammar. I would never make mistakes like that. It was her, not me."

"That's just typical Gabi Shay, trying to blame someone she says is her _friend_," Alyssa scoffed.

"I don't care what you believe Classless-a," Gabi snapped. She looked at Jake, trying to tell him _his_ opinion was the one she cared about. He _had _to believe she didn't do this. But he just turned away from her and led the way to The Silver Dragon.

Josh was finally warming up to her and trusting her and now he hated her. Just perfect.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you think? I know I promised you I'd write about the guardians reuniting in this chapter, but it got away from me, and I couldn't cover it. The next chapter was also too long, so it'll be in the chapter after that. Sorry guys! But I hope you enjoy this double update, and I hope that makes up for the longer wait this time!**


	15. Second Power

**A/N: Second chapter! I don't really have much to say, except this could be my longest chapter yet, and enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**SilvenArrow: You saw more developments with the Jake/Gabi/Josh relationship last chapter, and in this chapter, there's even more. Very good! My readers are so clever. You are right about the whole Michael/Gabrielle/Lucifer connection you made, and it will be confirmed in this chapter. Hope you like these chapters!**

**Misa: I love triangles, although I didn't expect to create any except the Gabi/Jake/Rae one. Then I created Jake/Gabi/Josh, Jake/Rae/Josh, Sage/Josh/Gabi, and Josh/Alyssa/Chris. You're also going to see another triangle soon. My favorites are Gabi and Rae, and for some reason, I can't seem to stop writing about Gabi, but I tried to focus on Alyssa and Rae in the last chapter. This chapter has a lot of Caty mixed in with the Gabi and the next chapter has a big moment with Rae and Alyssa, so hopefully, you'll enjoy that.**

**Shay: It's actually kind of hilarious that you say that because dedication is something I lack. I've only ever finished two out of 20+ fanfiction stories. I have even more novels in the works that are not fanfics that I never finish either. I always get other, better ideas and switch the project I'm working on, but I'm really excited about this story. To be honest, I don't think I've ever gotten this far on a fanfic before (except for my first one, which I finished, but this one is much longer). I do work quickly though. I barely ever have writer's block, and when I sit down to write or type, the words just come out. Sometime in the next couple of chapters, I will cover the Halloween Dance. After that, I don't have many plans, so Thanksgiving should come up pretty quickly. Yes, I thought of Alyssa and Caty being related, and I'm glad you realized that too. I love how smart my readers are! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The walk to The Silver Dragon was tense. Gabi and Sage walked ahead of the group, speaking in hushed tones. Caty and Ellie were texting, and everyone could tell by the looks they kept exchanging, they were texting each other, but no one could figure out what it was they didn't want to say out loud.

Rae, Alyssa, Chris, and Josh tried to keep their conversations light.

"Why did you join Dance Committee?" Alyssa asked Chris. "Extra credit for art and all."

"I don't want to spend my afternoons decorating a gym. I'm surprised you want to."

"She doesn't. She's only doing it because of James," Rae broke in.

Alyssa smiled. "Yeah," she sighed dreamily. "I like to look at him. I joined just so I could _stare_."

"Creep," Rae muttered humorously.

Alyssa shoved her lightly and laughed while both Josh and Chris annoyed.

"The guy sounds uninteresting," Josh muttered. "He's not even in any honors classes. What could he possibly have going for him?"

"Says the boy who isn't in any honors classes himself," Alyssa teased.

"Still. There's something off about that guy," Chris said.

"How on Earth could you possibly know that? You told me you haven't met him yet," Alyssa pointed out.

"Josh told me," Chris said, which was a lie, but considering Josh thought the same thing, he covered for Chris.

"Yup. You're the one who told me guys that look like that usually play sports. Yet, he's decorating the gym for a dance."

"You guys are ones to talk," Rae said, alluding to their mutual hotness.

Chris went bright red, but Josh had no idea what she was getting at.

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind," Rae said as Alyssa collapsed into giggles.

When Team G.R.A.C.E. got to The Silver Dragon, Hay Lin noticed right away something was wrong. Before she could ask, Rae and Gabi got into a screaming match.

Hay Lin had to work hard to put a stop to it.

"You guys have to stop this," she demanded when they quieted down. "You're supposed to work together to stop Prince Kasson. You have to be friends."

"It's not easy to be friends with people like Classless-a or Queen Nerd," Gabi said bitingly.

Josh glared at her. "I think the main problem is you. You're the one who insults everyone and makes bitchy moves."

Gabi gasped. She never expected Josh to say something like that to her.

"The other groups of guardians worked so well together," Sage said, deciding to steer the conversation back to Hay Lin's point before another argument broke out. "You guys need to figure out why you don't."

"And maybe we shouldn't be here while you figure it out," Chris mused.

To show her agreement, Sage got up and led Chris, Cara, and Josh upstairs, leaving the guardians in the basement with Hay Lin.

"Maybe the other guardian groups got along better than us," Alyssa said.

"Yeah, maybe there wasn't friction in the group when they met," Caty said. "We were brought together from completely different cliques."

"A loser, a nerd, a drama freak, the most popular girl in school, and the new kid," Alyssa recited. "It sounds like something from a movie."

"The Breakfast Club!" Rae and Gabi cried together. They both gasped when they realized they said the same thing.

"A ragtag team of kids that have to save the world…if only they can get along," Ellie said.

"It has to be that the other teams got along better," Caty said. "They probably became friends easier than us. Maybe they weren't so different like we are."

"You're right about that," Hay Lin said. "Let's take W.I.T.C.H. for example. Taranee was the smart one, I was into art, Will was the new girl, Cornelia was popular, and Irma liked to provide funny and sarcastic commentary for every situation. But we were already friends and accepted Will into our group."

"Already friends?" Rae repeated. "Maybe that's the problem."

"What do you mean?" Caty asked.

"How did CHYKN meet?" Rae asked Hay Lin in lieu of answer.

Gabi snickered at the name.

"Let's see…Nerissa and Halinor were best friends since their diaper days. The summer before they started fourth grade, Halinor went to sleepaway camp and met Kadma. Kadma became Halinor's camp best friend. The same summer, Cassidy moved next door to Nerissa. Even though she was a year younger than Nerissa, she played with Cassidy that summer, and even took Cassidy under her wing. When Halinor came back, Nerissa introduced the two and they became friends. Kadma moved to Heatherfield a week before school started and Halinor introduced her to Nerissa and Cassidy. Then my grandmother Yan Lin moved to Heatherfield when Cassidy was starting seventh grade and the others were starting eighth grade. Halinor was her first friend and she had every class with Nerissa, so she was immediately accepted into their group."

"And what about WITCH?" Rae prompted.

"Like Nerissa and Halinor, Irma and I were best friends since our diaper days. We met Cornelia and Elyon, who were also best friends since their diaper days, when we started kindergarten, and even though Irma and Cornelia butt heads a lot, the four of us still hung out together. Taranee was the new girl in fourth grade. Irma was the one who introduced her to our group and Will was the new girl when we were half way into seventh grade. Actually I invited all the girls over for a snack and I had a weird feeling that Will should be there even though none of us were friends with her. And, I didn't say this out loud because Cornelia would've killed me, but I had the strangest feeling Elyon shouldn't be there. Normally, I would've invited her over too."

"And that was the day you guys found out about being guardians?" Rae asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "Yup."

"Okay, so it seems like C.H.Y.K.N. and W.I.T.C.H. were mainly all friends before they found out about being guardians. We weren't friends already though. No wonder we don't get along," Rae said. "We were thrown together out of nowhere and we're being forced to work together."

Caty and Ellie nodded.

"But Will wasn't our friend before we found out about being Guardians," Hay Lin protested. "And, ever since that day, even though we didn't really know Will, she became our best friend and the fifth member in our group."

"Well sorry I can't work with the bitch who exposed all my secrets in the school newspaper," Rae bit out.

"For the last time, I didn't do that. It must've been Lana," Gabi insisted.

"Regardless, you're still the bitch that humiliated me countless times in middle school and got everyone to call me Classless-a and Klutzcroft," Alyssa said.

"You never seemed to mind," Gabi said weakly.

"I never…_What_?" Alyssa spluttered.

"Are you serious Gabi?" Caty asked.

"Of _course_ I minded. I just managed to rise above it. But did you really think I _liked_ being a friendless loser for six years? Do you think I _enjoyed_ being laughed at every time I walked down the hallway? Do I think I liked having to sit _alone_ in the cafeteria or library? Do you think I liked it when _every_ time a new teacher said Alyssa Ashcroft during attendance, you and Lana would yell "You mean Classless-a Klutzcroft?" Do you think I liked that everyone _sighed_ or _groaned_ out loud whenever they were put in my group for a project, even though I am one of Sheffield's best students?"

"Not _one_ of. _The _best," Caty muttered, looking put out.

"And yet that didn't help my reputation," Alyssa said. "Not even the nerds Caty hangs around with would come near me."

"Hey!" Caty cried. It was one thing when Gabi called them nerds, but Alyssa thought that too?

"You know it's true," Ellie said and Caty shut up.

"If you want to blame someone for being friendless, blame Ellie. She's the one who dropped you and never looked back," Gabi said angrily.

Ellie blushed and looked down at her feet shamefully, but Gabi's next comment made her look up.

"No one would be friends with you if you got dropped by a drama freak."

"Speaking of name calling," Ellie said angrily, "drama freak isn't very nice either."

Alyssa nodded. "You're the bitch that gave the drama kids a bad name in school. I've heard Ellie and her friends sing, and they're great. And when they act in the community theater plays? They're fantastic there too."

"Wow Lyssa, thanks," Ellie beamed. "I didn't know you saw all that."

"My mom made me go to the school play and you guys were so good, I checked you out in Community Theater too," Alyssa said.

"As for the singing, you guys perform at everything," Caty piped up.

"And with regards to my friendship with Ellie, don't talk about things you know nothing of," Alyssa said. "Ellie didn't _drop_ me. It was mutual. The reason I was friendless was because of _you_."

"And while we're airing our grievances," Caty said, "walking by us and coughing 'nerd' every single day since sixth grade doesn't do good things for my self-confidence, or the confidence of my friends. It's one thing to be thought of as nerds. It's another to be called one every day as if it were the worst thing in the world to be."

"Okay, I'm a bitch. I get it," Gabi said.

"You don't even seem to care that all of us hate you!" Rae cried.

"If I'm not wanted, then fine. I'll leave."

"No! None of you can leave," Hay Lin said.

Gabi wasn't listening. She grabbed her stuff and began to walk away.

"Good riddance!" Rae cried, flinging her arms upward. In the next second, two bolts of lightning hit the roof and all the girls screamed.

Gabi turned around to see what the commotion was about.

"Oh my God. Rae…did you just…?" Alyssa wasn't sure how to finish.

"Shoot lightning out of my hands? Yeah," Rae nodded.

"Wow. Cool!" Ellie squealed.

"Not cool," Gabi disagreed. "She clearly can't control it and she could kill all of us. And why does she get to shoot lightning anyway? All I can do is control Earth." As she said this, she shot her arm out forward to demonstrate, wanting to make the little bud in the flower pot on the window sill blossom. Instead of the bud blossoming, the box in front Caty began to float in the air.

Caty squealed and jumped back. All eyes were on Gabi.

"That has nothing to do with your power over Earth," Rae muttered.

Gabi closed her eyes and the box dropped.

"Telekinesis," Alyssa murmured. "It must be."

"What's going on?" Caty asked Hay Lin, who looked just as stunned as the girls.

"I have a theory," the woman began. "But I need to test it to make sure. Caty. Make me do something."

"What?"

"You heard me. Make me do something."

"Do what?"

"Anything."

"Okay. And how do I do that?"

"Just tell me to do it."

"Okay. Tell me which of the girls in W.I.T.C.H. you were closest to."

Hay Lin didn't say anything. "No, not like that," she whined. "Really want it. Really make me do it. Maybe say it in your mind a few times instead of out loud."

"Okay," Caty said, wondering why her teacher was acting so weird.

_'Tell me which of the girls in W.I.T.C.H. you were closest to.'_

_ 'Tell me which of the girls in W.I.T.C.H. you were closest to.'_

_ 'Tell me which of the girls in W.I.T.C.H. you were closest to!'_

Hay Lin got this weird, dazed look on her face. "I think I'll tell you which of the girls in W.I.T.C.H. I was closest to. It was Irma. We had the same sense of humor, even though I didn't like to tease Cornelia as much as she did." Then the dazed look disappeared and Hay Lin smiled. "See? You _made_ me do that."

"That doesn't prove anything," Gabi scoffed.

Caty looked right at her and thought hard.

_'Get on the ground and bark like a dog.'_

_ 'Get on the ground and bark like a dog.'_

_ 'Get on the ground and bark like a dog.'_

Gabi got the same dazed look as Hay Lin, then got down on the floor, began running around on all fours and barked.

The girls all burst into laughter.

"How long does this go on?" Caty asked between laughs.

"I think you have to stop her. That's what Irma had to do whenever she made her brother Chris do something demeaning," Hay Lin said, fighting a smile.

"Okay. Stop Gabi," Caty commanded and Gabi stopped. She got up, brushed herself off, and glared at Caty.

"I am _so_ getting you back for that," she growled but Caty just rolled her eyes. If she could force Gabi to do whatever she wanted, she had more power than the school's mean girl.

"So, what's going on?" Alyssa asked.

"You girls are getting your second powers!" Hay Lin cried.

"_Second_ powers?" Caty repeated.

"You mean we have more than one?" Ellie asked.

"I wonder how many we have altogether," Gabi wondered.

"Wait, does this mean I'm finally getting powers?" Rae asked.

"I'm assuming that's what the lightning was," Caty said.

"Guardian on Quintessence, remember?" Alyssa reminded.

"Still don't know what that means," Rae pointed out.

"Who cares?" Ellie asked. "You can shoot _lightning_! You really are the most powerful of all of us."

"And the most dangerous. Lightning is worse than fire," Caty moaned.

"Lighten up Caty, I got control, didn't I?" Alyssa pointed out.

"You almost killed each one of us…twice."

"I'm pretty sure we all almost killed each other," Rae said. "Ellie trapped me in a hurricane, Gabi caused an Earthquake where Alyssa was standing, and you almost drowned Gabi that one time."

"We'll learn to control these powers too," Alyssa assured her.

"Besides, your new power is really cool. Maybe focus on that," Rae suggested.

"What about me? What can I do?" Ellie broke in, bursting with enthusiasm.

Hay Lin laughed. "Go invisible."

"I can do that?" Ellie breathed, amazed.

"I could. Watch." Hay Lin disappeared right before GRACE's eyes. In the next second, Alyssa's ponytail undid itself.

Alyssa laughed as Hay Lin reappeared, looking worn out.

"Man, Grandma wasn't kidding when she said using your powers when you're an ex-guardian drains your life force."

"Life force?" Rae repeated, horror stricken. Clearly they'd all forgotten about the aurameres. "Hay Lin, never do that again!"

The other girls immediately backed Rae up, making Hay Lin promise not to use her powers just for fun.

"Okay, okay," Hay Lin said, putting her hands up in surrender. She looked at Ellie. "But you can do this. Try it. Concentrate on making yourself disappear."

Ellie nodded, took a deep breath and concentrated. She vanished right in front of the girls.

"Whoa," they said in unison.

"Did I do it?" Ellie's voice asked.

The girls all nodded. Ellie looked down at her hands (though the other girls didn't know that) and realized she could see through them.

"Wow," she breathed. She concentrated on making herself visible again. In the next second, her hands were back.

"That was awesome," Rae said.

"Okay, my turn. What can I do?" Alyssa asked.

"Okay, Rae, think about something. Alyssa, guess what she's thinking of."

"Huh?" was Alyssa's response.

"What should I think of?" Rae asked.

"Something Alyssa doesn't know about you. Like, your middle name."

"I already know Rae's middle name. It's Louise. Her full name is Rachel Louise Dylan."

Rae nodded.

"Okay, Rae, then think of your favorite color."

"Oh, that's easy. It's red," Alyssa said.

"Favorite number," Hay Lin said.

"Three," Alyssa supplied.

"Favorite food?"

"Pizza."

"Snack?"

"Popcorn."

"Dessert?"

"Ice cream. Specifically mint chocolate chip."

"Pet peeve!"

"When people take hours to text her back. And when her mom is being all over protective."

"Favorite animal."

"Dogs and horses."

"Favorite flower."

"Daisy."

"Favorite tree?!"

"Red maple."

Caty, Ellie, and Gabi were staring at Alyssa in shock.

"Are you kidding me?!" Hay Lin cried, exasperated. "I don't even know my husband's favorite tree!"

"I'm the new girl. I had no friends except Alyssa and I was Alyssa's first friend since elementary school," Rae said. "Of course we'd want to take the time to learn everything about each other. I know all that stuff about her too."

"Well, what's one thing Alyssa doesn't know about you?"

"My mother was going to name me Roy if I was a boy," Rae said.

"Don't say it out loud!" Hay Lin cried.

"Oh. Um…she doesn't know my favorite name," Rae said. "The name I wish I was named instead of Rachel."

"Perfect. Think of it."

Rae nodded. "Okay."

"Alyssa, what's Rae's favorite name?"

"I don't know. She just said that," Alyssa said.

"Concentrate, and try to figure it out. Focus only on Rae and the concept of names."

Alyssa sighed, but trusted Hay Lin. She did as she said and heard Rae's voice, but instead of the sound coming into her ears, she heard the sound in her mind and though she heard her voice clearly, it sounded faraway.

"Rose," Alyssa said. "Rae's favorite name is Rose. Since she wasn't named Rose, she hopes she'll have a daughter one day so she can name her Rose."

"And how do you know that?" Hay Lin asked.

"I…did I read her mind?" Alyssa asked.

"Yup."

"You said you may have heard Ellie's thought in your mind. And you had a huge head ache today. That must've been your telepathy surfacing," Rae realized.

Gabi realized her telekinesis was probably the reason her head hurt, and the reason she saw things floating in her room that morning.

"Okay, so you want to explain what just happened?" Gabi asked.

"Each of you girls have a few powers. The leader of the guardians has the power of quintessence."

"Which is what?" Gabi asked.

"Life," Alyssa said. "Quint essence. The essence of life. It has the power to make things come to life."

"Right," Hay Lin said. "But that's advanced power. For right now, it means Rae can shoot lightning. Also, you can communicate with electrical objects from your cell phone to your calculator to a toaster."

Rae looked a little dumbfounded at that piece of information, but then shrugged it off. That could be kind of cool. At least she actually had powers now. Maybe she wouldn't feel so helpless anymore. And it also explained why she kept shocking people and seeing lightning on her hands.

"The other guardians have powers too. As you saw, the fire guardian is psychic. As you advance you can read and speak in anyone's minds, but right now, it just works with the guardians."

"Nice," Alyssa said as she and Rae grinned at each other, delighted with their new powers.

"The water guardian has the power of mind control. Be careful with that one because if you use it accidentally, it could cause some damage. And try to be specific with it, or you may not always get the desired results," Hay Lin said. "The air guardian, as you just experienced, can go invisible. I don't need to explain the advantages of that."

"Cool," Caty and Ellie said in unison, slapping high fives.

"And the Earth guardian has telekinesis," Hay Lin finished. "Another useful power in battle."

"Why didn't you tell us about our second powers?" Rae asked.

"Because I didn't know you'd get them so quickly. W.I.T.C.H. were guardians for a year before we got our new powers, and even then it took a couple of months for them to fully develop enough for us to realize we had new powers and what they were. You guys haven't even mastered your elements yet and you already have your second powers. I don't know why that is."

Gabi narrowed her eyes. Did Hay Lin really not know or was she lying? Maybe getting their second powers early was another advantage of being Thousand Year Guardians.

"What about dreams?" Ellie asked. "For the past couple of months, Alyssa and I have been having dreams about this dark, depressing castle. I'm guessing it's Queen Elyon's palace. And the guardians were in the dream too. And each of us was surrounded by a glow that's the color that relates to out element. Orange for Alyssa, pink for Rae, green for Gabi, blue for Caty, and gray for me. Nothing really happened, but I basically predicted who the guardians would be."

"I didn't believe in the supernatural before, but after all this," Alyssa said, gesturing to the girls, "I can believe pretty much anything. In the dreams with the guardians in them, we saw the faces of the girls, and one of them was Rae even though we hadn't met her yet. And I read somewhere that if you dream about someone's face that you've never seen before, it's a vision. Is that possible?"

Hay Lin nodded. "It's another power of the air guardian to get visions in the form of dreams. Ellie, did you have these dreams longer than Alyssa?"

Ellie nodded. "For a week or so more. And I saw the guardians in the dreams the same night I first dreamt about the palace."

Hay Lin nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. Since you're the air guardian, you had the vision and you saw the faces of the guardians. You didn't know what to make of this, but since Alyssa is the one you were closest to while you were dreaming about this, you probably sent the dream to her. And since Alyssa is the fire guardian, and can read minds, she dreamt what you dreamt of."

"So, Alyssa had those dreams because of me?" Ellie asked. She blushed. "Sorry Lyssa, it was my fault!"

"That's okay," Alyssa said, waving it away. "It was helpful to be honest. I met Rae first, so I needed that dream. I love Rae, but I probably wouldn't have talked to her if I hadn't had that dream."

"And I wouldn't have talked to Alyssa on my own accord," Rae added.

"So this whole coming together thing would've been a lot harder," Alyssa finished.

Caty looked at Hay Lin. "If our second powers get stronger, do our element powers get stronger too?" she asked suddenly.

Hay Lin nodded. "I'll explain all that later," she said. "Right now, you need to practice. Oh, and Gabi, you can go home right after today. I don't need you to work."

Gabi nodded. She could use a break anyway.

During training, all the girls completely ignored Gabi. None of them believed Gabi had nothing to do with the article. Well…except for Caty.

As the editor, she read all of Gabi's articles and she knew Gabi's writing was much better than the language the writer of the article used. And she also knew Gabi thought very highly of her writing. She would never dumb down her writing, even if she was trying to publish an article and not get in trouble for it. Caty knew it wasn't Gabi, but she didn't say anything. No one would believe her, and Gabi deserved everything she was getting anyway.

The girls mostly focused on their second powers that day. Rae was worse at controlling the lightning than her wings. The girls spent the day trying to focus on their powers, but keeping an eye on Rae, then screaming and running so that they could dodge her misaimed bolts of lightning. Caty was right…this was dangerous!

Needless to say, everyone was relieved when Hay Lin said training was over. The girls all grabbed their stuff and headed home. Gabi checked her watch as Ellie split up from the other girls, and suppressed a groan. Josh still had a shift today, and she was still grounded, which meant she was going home alone. It was too early for her father to be home which meant she had to deal with the step monster and the she-devil all on her own.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Welcome home Elena," Sienna said smiling. Eva stuck her tongue out at Gabi and she just rolled her eyes.

"How was school?" Sienna tried again.

"Fine," Gabi muttered. "And don't call me Elena."

"It's such a beautiful name," Sienna said, following her stepdaughter into her room. "Why don't you like it?"

"_That's_ none of your business," Gabi said in the bitchiest tone she could manage.

Sienna sighed. "Gabrielle. I'm trying here. Couldn't you try too?"

'No,' Gabi wanted to say as she flopped down on her bed and lay on her side, her back facing Sienna. 'I couldn't try and I won't and you can just get out of my room.' But she was too tired and just sighed.

"Gabrielle is in honor of my mom," she said.

"I thought your mother's name was Alexandra," Sienna said. If she was surprised Gabi finally said something non-hostile to her, she didn't show it.

"It was. Gabrielle wasn't my mother's name. It's just the female version of what she would've named me if I was a boy."

"What do you mean?"

"When my grandmother, my father's mother, found out I was a girl, she wanted to name me Elena. My dad agreed, so my mother let it be. But if I was boy, she was going to name me Gabriel and when she found out I was girl, she wanted to name me Gabrielle."

"Do you know why Gabriel?" Sienna asked softly.

Gabi turned to look at the step monster, but Sienna's back was towards her. Gabi rolled back over. She couldn't tell if Sienna asked the question just to keep Gabi talking, or if she really didn't get it.

"My older brother's name is Michael. My younger brother's name is Lucifer. She named them after the arch angel Michael and the devil Lucifer. Gabriel was another arch angel."

"Why do you think she named you guys that way?"

Gabi shrugged before remembering Sienna couldn't see her. "I don't know. Her last name was Arch. It was all symbolic and stuff."

"But she wasn't very religious."

"No. But she loved religious legends and stuff. She originally wanted to name Michael, Cain, but when my father learned she'd choose the name Abel if she had another boy, he ruled against it, so she used Cain and Abel as Michael and Luc's middle names instead."

"Who are Cain and Abel?" Sienna asked.

Gabi rolled her eyes. That was a stupid question. "Cain and Abel are brothers and the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is the first human to be born and Abel is the first human to die. Cain killed Abel, and that was the first murder ever committed."

Sienna gasped softly and Gabi rolled her eyes again, in disgust. That was the reason she never told this story. Everyone thought her mother was crazy to want to name her kids after the brothers involved in the first murder. But Gabi liked how symbolic her mother was.

"If she had twin boys, she wanted to name them Romulus and Remus."

"Twin demigods," Sienna said.

So she knew this story.

"They founded Rome together, but argued about who should rule, so they fought. Romulus killed Remus, and named Rome after himself."

"Yeah."

"I always thought Romulus should've named Rome after his brother, to honor him.

"Rome sounds a lot better than Reme," was all Gabi said.

Sienna, sensing their conversation was over, got up and left, closing the door behind her. Gabi smiled a little, glad Sienna remembered her rule. The smile melted off her face however, when Gabi replayed the conversation in her mind. The tears started to fall as she remembered her mother and all the stories she told Gabi.

"Love you Mom," Gabi whispered.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next day, Gabi was rudely woken up by her father pulling her blanket off her face. The last time he woke her up this way, he told her Sienna and Eva were moving in. What would it be this time?

"Get up Gabrielle," Daniel demanded as Gabi groaned. He sounded mad. What could she possibly have done?

She opened her eyes and was met with the dull glow of her alarm clock. It was 7:30.

"Dad, it's so early," she moaned.

"You need to drive Eva to school," Daniel replied.

Of course. The one day she actually got to sleep in was the one day Eva didn't have a ride to school. Their driver had to take her father to work for an early meeting today.

Gabi didn't write the article about Rae in the newspaper, but everyone thought she did, and that gave her power. Everyone knew Gabi had been in a power struggle with New Girl since the first day of school, and she may have lost Jake, but she won the war. She came out victorious. So she didn't need to go to school early like every other day.

"Why do _I_ need to?" Gabi complained. Sienna worked from home. Why couldn't she do it?

"Sienna took Luc to his doctor's appointment," Daniel said, knowing what his daughter was really asking.

"I'll take Luc," Gabi said.

"He and Sienna already left. It makes more sense for a parent to take Luc."

"Sienna is _not_ his _parent_," Gabi growled, sitting up.

"Gabrielle, I'm not having this discussion with you again, especially not now. You need to get going."

"_Fine_," Gabi snarled, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom.

"You will not talk to me that way Elena!" Daniel exclaimed, following her.

Back to Elena? Gabi couldn't take this. She slammed the bathroom door in his face and turned the faucet on full blast so she wouldn't hear her father, even if he was still yelling at her.

She didn't have time to shower, so she just washed her face and put on her complexion care lotion. She walked back into her room, changed, put up her hair, and contemplated what make up she should put on.

"Gabrielle, five minutes!" her father demanded.

Gabi sighed and decided eye liner would be enough. She huffed, annoyed, and reached for her green eyeliner. It floated away from her.

At first Gabi was really confused, before remembering she could move objects without touching them. But she hadn't tried to do that. Hay Lin said their emotions could control their powers. Her anger was doing it.

She took a deep breath and tried again. The eye liner stayed put. Gabi breathed a sigh of relief and put it on. She also put on a quick coat of lip gloss and surveyed her reflection.

"Elena, now!" Daniel yelled, once again angry. What was with his mood swings lately? He cared so much more about Eva than he did about Gabi.

Gabi felt herself getting angry again. Before she even knew what was happening, the branch from the tree outside her window appeared in front of her.

What? She saw the branch grow and came through the open window. Immediately, all the browning leaves turned green and healthy again.

"Great," Gabi muttered. What was she supposed to do now? She made things grow, not shrink. How was she supposed to force the branch back out?

Gabi concentrated and used her telekinesis. It worked! The branch pulled itself out of the window and ended up in an awkward position, but at least it was outside. Gabi turned around and saw Eva standing there, gaping.

"Eva!" she exclaimed.

Eva started at Gabi for a few seconds before running out of the room yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, Gabi's a witch!"

'GRACE actually," Gabi thought before rushing after the she-devil.

"Daddy, I saw her using her powers. I _saw_ it!" Eva insisted. "She made a branch come through her window and made it go outside again!"

For a moment Gabi just stood there, not sure what to say while Daniel looked at Eva in confusion. Finally, she forced a laugh and said, "Wow Eva, I think you've been watching too much TV."

"No I'm not! All the brown leaves turned green!" Eva related.

Gabi put her hand on Eva's forehead. "You must've been hallucinating! Are you sick?"

Eva backed away from Gabi. "Don't try to deny it! I _saw_ you!"

Gabi glared at her and grabbed her arm. "Whatever you _think_ you saw, you_ didn't_! Now come on, you're going to be late." She grabbed her bag and keys.

"No!" Eva shrieked, her voice panic ridden. Her whole body was trembling. "No, Daddy! Please, help! Don't let her take me, she's a witch!"

"Eva Carson, don't make up lies! I don't what's gotten into you, but you will not shout while Gabi is driving!" Daniel yelled, making Eva shut up instantly. Daniel had never yelled at her before.

Gabi wasn't sure whether to be happy or angry. On the one hand, Daniel didn't believe Eva, which got her out of trouble, and he yelled at Eva, which was always good. But yelling at Eva also meant Daniel considered her his kid. Were the step monster and the she-devil here to _stay_? No, it couldn't be! She let a small smirk grace her lips, said cheerfully, "Thank you Daddy!" and dragged Eva out of the house.

When Gabi got to school, she looked for Sage and Josh. Both were occupied. Sage was talking to Lana and Kelli, and Josh was making out with Bree. She heard Bree giggle as she pulled away and Gabi wondered why she'd never expected Bree and Josh to actually fall for each other.

Further along, she saw the rest of GRACE, leaning against a group of lockers. Ellie was chatting with Adam, Caty was reading a book, and judging by the flashcards in Rae's hands, she figured Rae and Alyssa were quizzing each other on something.

Gabi walked up to them, and gave Adam a 'Get out of here' smile, which he understood right away. "See you El," he muttered, walking away.

"Gabi!" Ellie complained.

Ignoring her protest, she opened her mouth to speak. Rae and Alyssa ignored her, but she knew once they heard what she had to say, they'd join the conversation. "Eva saw me use my powers today."

"What?" Caty cried.

"How?" Rae asked.

"Why were you using your powers at home?" Alyssa asked.

"I wasn't, it was an accident. Remember how Hay Lin said emotions can affect our powers? I was pretty angry this morning because my dad was forcing me to drive the she-devil to school, and remember how Cornelia said when I get my second power, it'll be hard to control my element? I think this is what she meant. A branch from the tree outside my room grew and entered my room and all the brown leaves turned green. I had to use my telekinesis to force the branch outside and Eva saw all of it. She thinks I'm a witch."

"GRACE, actually," Caty muttered making Gabi smile.

"That's what I thought too," she admitted. "But anyway, she told my dad, and he obviously didn't believe her, but Eva's terrified of me."

"Isn't that a good thing? She'll stop talking to you if she's scared," Ellie pointed out.

"She's a little girl. Who knows who she could spread this to?" Rae pointed out. "She'll tell her entire second grade class, they'll all tell their parents…this could turn into a whole big thing."

"How?" Ellie asked. "All the parents are going to think their kids are crazy."

"Not if every second grader thinks Gabi is a witch," Alyssa replied.

"Did she say anything to you as you drove her?" Rae asked.

"Not until the end. I stopped at the circle-"

"What circle?" Rae asked.

"It's not really a circle, it's just what we call the place where all the mothers drop off their children at the elementary school," Alyssa explained.

"-and she gave me this really cold glare before she got out of the car and said, "I know what I saw. I know you're a witch and I'm gonna prove it.""

"Great," Alyssa moaned sarcastically.

"Hi Brian!" Caty exclaimed as the boy walked by their group.

"Hey Caty," Brian said smiling.

"Uh…" Caty didn't seem to know what to say next. "Nice weather we're having."

"It's raining."

"Oh…yeah. What an…astute observation!" Caty said.

"Thanks?" Brian said questioningly. Seeing Travis wave him over, he said, "See you in class."

Caty went completely red as Brian walked away.

"What was _that_?" Ellie asked as the other girls stared at her, trying not to laugh.

"So I don't know how to talk to guys. Leave me alone," Caty muttered.

"I thought you hated Brian," Alyssa said.

"I do."

"So you're flirting with him?" Gabi asked. "Because you hate him?"

"Well when you say it like that, it doesn't make sense!" Caty snapped.

"How else is she supposed to say it?" Rae asked.

Caty opened and closed her mouth, not sure what to say.

"You look like a fish," Ellie giggled.

Caty gave her a playful glare, and rolled her eyes good naturedly.

Gabi frowned. How come when Ellie said something like that, everyone just smiled, and when Gabi said something like that, everyone got mad at her and yelled?

"I just need him to like me, okay?" Caty finally said.

"Why?" Ellie asked.

"Because…I just do!"

Rae and Alyssa gave her weird looks before turning back to go Gabi.

"What are we going to do about Eva?" Alyssa asked.

"What are we supposed to do? As much as I'd love to lock up the she-devil in a tower with no doors, I don't think that'll really fly with my father," Gabi replied sarcastically.

"She's the Heart of Earth, right? Will that affect her finding out?" Rae asked.

"It shouldn't. The Regents took her power, so she doesn't have any at the moment," Caty pointed out.

"Okay, Classless-a, you have a little sibling, right? How do you get him to not spill your secrets?" Gabi asked.

"John doesn't spill my secrets," Alyssa said. "If I tell him something is a secret and he can't tell Mom or Dad, he won't."

"This isn't exactly the same thing," Rae said. "Even if you told Eva it's a secret and she can't tell your dad, and even if she listens to you, she's still going to wonder what's going on."

"Maybe Hay Lin has a solution or something. Like a potion that'll make her forget," Ellie suggested.

"Or maybe Sage can make something," Rae added.

"I guess that'll have to do," Gabi sighed.

At that moment, Lili walked by the group. "Hey Gabs," she said.

Gabi smiled and joined Lili as they walked to their first class together.

"Is Bree still super glued to Josh?" Lili asked. "Because you usually walk to class with her."

"I don't think Bree even realizes there are other people in the world besides Josh anymore. I told them to pretend to go out so Bree could get Dalton. I never realized they'd end up liking each other."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Lili asked. "At least she's happy."

"But Sage isn't," Gabi said. "I thought even though the relationship was fake, Sage would get jealous enough to ask Josh out."

"Sage likes Josh? I thought she was into James?"

James was in every class with Sage and they'd become good friends. Since James was hot, he sat at the cheerleader/jock table at lunch, so they spent every moment together except after school when he helped out with the Halloween Dance.

"When I asked her if she liked James, she said, "Ew, that's gross!" And she never says things like that. Anyway, I think James is into Classless-a."

"I can't see why," Lili said, wrinkling her nose. "Hey, so…Caty's pretty much stopped talking to me. I think she hates everyone in the family now. But since you're kind of hanging out with her…do you know if she's gotten Snort Master to like her?"

"I think he just thinks she's a freak," Gabi said. "She keeps embarrassing herself. Today, her attempt at flirting led to 'Nice weather we're having.'"

"It's raining."

"Which he pointed out."

"Ouch," Lili said, a laugh in her voice.

"Why is Queen Nerd trying to get Dorkzilla to like her if she's hates him so much?"

So Lili told her all about the internship.

"Wow. Not bad. I had no idea Encylopediork had such an evil streak."

"It was actually her friend that came up with the idea, but I guess she has somewhat of an evil streak to go along with it," Lili agreed. "Too bad she's failing miserably.

The two girls laughed and entered the classroom.

It was the end of the day when Gabi witnessed Caty flirting with Brian a second time. The girls had lockers near each other.

"So…newspaper is cancelled today," Gabi said.

"Yeah, I know," Caty said.

"I know Classless-a and New Girl are still staying in the art studio."

"And Ellie has drama today."

"Do you want to head to The Silver Dragon early? Sage and Josh will be there."

"Yeah, okay," Caty agreed. They turned around, ready to head out when Brian walked by.

"Hi Brian!" Caty cried.

Gabi cringed at her enthusiasm.

"Hey Caty," Brian said slowly. Caty offering a greeting willingly twice in a day must've seemed really strange to him.

"New shirt?"

"I've had this shirt for three years."

"Oh. Well it's nice."

Gabi resisted the urge to laugh. Brian was wearing the ugliest shirt she'd ever seen, and the awful yellow color made it look even worse.

"The last time I wore this shirt, you told me I looked like a moldy lemon."

Now Gabi had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at both the old insult, and the look on Caty's face.

Caty's cheeks went red, and deciding she commented enough on the ugly shirt, moved on. "Um, well, I also love your shoes."

All three of them turned their eyes on Brian's shoes and Caty's cheeks went redder as she realized the shoes that she once really did like, were now dirty and muddy because they'd been outside on the soccer field for gym.

"Are you…making fun of me?"

"No, not at all!" Caty cried, trying to salvage the situation. "I just, uh…I liked them before?" Why did that come out sounding like a question?

"Okay."

"I, uh…um, I…"

"Okay, we're leaving," Gabi said, unable to watch this any longer. "Let's go." She grabbed Caty's arm and dragged her along. "See you Dorkzilla!"

Brian didn't even look bothered by the nickname, but it wasn't in the 'I don't care what you say' kind of way Alyssa ignored her, which Gabi kind of admired, though she'd never admit it. Brian wasn't bothered because he accepted the nickname, which was pretty pathetic.

"Thanks," Caty said as the pair got outside. "I don't know why I always make such a fool myself."

"Me either," Gabi said. "Especially considering you don't actually like him. But I guess it's because you have a lot riding on him."

"What do you mean?"

"Lili told me why you need Brian to like you."

Caty's mouth dropped open and she stared at Gabi in shock.

"Was it supposed to be a secret?"

"_Yes!"_ Caty cried. "I should've known better than to trust Lili."

"I don't think she _knew_ it was a secret. You should've told her if you wanted her to keep her mouth shut. She's the biggest gossip in my group. But anyway, you and Dorkzilla are both huge nerds, but you're definitely cooler than him. And you're pretty. You just don't know how to use it. And clearly you don't know how to flirt. But we can fix all that, if you really want to get Brian to fall for you."

"I do!" Caty said. "But I've only ever had one boyfriend and we only lasted for three weeks."

"Why? Who was it?"

"Tony DeLuca."

"You dated Tony?" Gabi asked, impressed. Tony was smart, but wasn't in the nerd group. He played lacrosse, so he was a jock. But she did remember that Tony and Caty used to be friends.

"Yeah, in seventh grade. He liked me for a long time, and we would've been good together because we both cared a lot about our grades and our sports and our after school clubs, but he broke up with me because he said I cared more about beating Brian at everything than being with him. I used so much energy and time trying to outdo Brian that I didn't spent much time with Tony."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Wow, you really need help. Come on, we're going to my house."

"Why?"

"Do you want my help or not?"

Caty sighed. She had a bad feeling about this, but when she really thought about it, who better to help her than the girl that scored the most sought after boy in school? They may be broken up now, but he did stop playing girls for her. Gabi could be just the person to help her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"And I thought Alyssa's house was big," Caty said, looking awed.

"She has one of the smallest houses on the street," Gabi replied. "Mine is the biggest house without a guest house."

"I just wish my house had three bedrooms!"

"It doesn't?"

"No. There's a master bedroom for my parents, and then my room, but when my parents learned they were having a baby, they moved me into my dad's study so they could convert my room into a nursery."

"Why didn't they just convert the study into a nursery?"

"Because the study is tiny. It's 8 by 8 and my parents think my sister will need a big open space. Meanwhile, they put a full size bed in my room because when my grandparents come over to help take care of Miss. Practically Has My Name, they'll be sleeping in my room and I'll be sleeping in the living room."

"Isn't the living room more of an open space?"

"It's _too _open."

"…what?"

"My parents don't know anything about how to raise a baby!" Caty cried.

"Didn't they raise you?"

"Please!" Caty scoffed.

Gabi thought about asking what that meant, but decided Caty wouldn't answer anyway. She just steered Caty to her room and sat her down in front of the vanity.

"Wow. Huge room."

"It's the second biggest," Gabi said proudly.

"Gabi, what are you doing home so early?" Luc asked, walking into her room.

"Newspaper got cancelled, but I still have work later on," Gabi said. Caty looked and Gabi questioningly. "Oh, sorry! Luc, this is Queen, I mean Caty, my…Caty."

Caty huffed and rolled her eyes. She shouldn't have expected Gabi to introduce her as her friend. Anyway, she didn't want to be friends with the biggest bitch in school.

"Caty, this is my brother Luc."

"Hi," Luc said. "Gabi, I need help with my homework. I need to know what emulate means."

"Uh…"

"It means to compete with," Caty said when Gabi looked confused.

"Oh thanks. What does diminutive mean?"

"Miniscule."

"What does-"

"Luc, it's not nice to bother our guests," Gabi said patiently.

"I don't mind," Caty said. "What's the word?"

"Contradictory."

"Differing."

"Thanks Caty. Nice to meet you."

"You too," Caty said as Luc left. She turned to Gabi. "He's sweet."

Gabi smiled. "Yeah, I know. I love him to death." She paused. Why did she tell Queen Nerd that? She just shrugged and said, "Let's get to work."

Half an hour later, Gabi spun Caty around. "There. What do you think?"

Caty's mouth dropped open. Gabi straightened her hair, so her once wild and frizzy red mane as soft and silky. Instead of mixing together two eyeshadows, she used a bright blue liquid eyeliner on her eyelid and didn't overdo the mascara. She used a peach colored lip gloss that felt light and put on a little peach blush. Caty wouldn't even be able to tell if they hadn't covered up her freckles.

"Wow," she breathed.

"Is it okay? I remember the last time you got made over, by Lili, and looking like you went for a swim in a pool of makeup might be what she's into, but it's not correct. The trick is to make it look like you're barely wearing makeup. Obviously, the eyeliner is obvious, but it makes your eyes look bigger and bluer. And the mascara is waterproof. Clear lip gloss is weird, you need some color. And Lili overdid the pink blush. Blush is supposed to blend with your skin, so I covered the freckles, but it's not too much. I can put some more on if you want your cheeks to looks rosy, but honestly, it's easier if you just pinch them."

Caty jumped up and gave Gabi a hug. "Thank you! It's perfect!" she said. "You made me beautiful!"

"No," Gabi said sternly when Caty let go. "Makeup is used to _enhance_ beauty, not make it. You're naturally pretty, you just never enhanced it, so no one knew."

Caty smiled. "And this only takes half an hour? Because Lili got me up two hours early the day she, Nina, and Misha made me over, and she didn't even straighten my hair."

"I honestly don't see why it's so difficult to get ready in just a few minutes," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. "I don't take as long as other girls. Everyone obsesses so much. If you're calm and keep a clear head, you can look amazing in just a few minutes. Do I need to teach you how to do everything?"

Caty nodded, so Gabi wiped off all the makeup and re-did it to teach Caty. Then she gave her all the products she used.

"My step mother got me the same products in better brands so I don't need those," Gabi promised. "Do you have a flat iron or do I need mine? I just got a new one."

"No, my mom has one. Teach me that too?"

"Of course!"

After Gabi taught Caty how to straighten her hair, they talked wardrobe.

"I'll come over early tmorrow to help you decide on an outfit."

"I don't have a lot of cute clothes," Caty admitted. "The outfit I wore the day Lili made me up was hers."

"No problem." Gabi took out two huge garbage bags from her closet. "In here are all the outfits Bree left at my house over the past year. She sleeps over every Friday and spends most of Sunday here, and then she's here sporadically the rest of year. Over the summer, I sorted my clothes and put all her clothes in these bags. When I brought it up to Bree, she said she got a new wardrobe and didn't want these clothes anymore. They're all dry cleaned and they've only been worn once or twice. You're the same size as her, so you can have them."

"Wow, really?"

"Of course. What else was I going to do with them? I'm taller and skinner than her, I couldn't wear them."

Caty gave her a huge smile. They still had a while before they had to head over to Hay Lin's. So the pair talked.

Caty never thought she'd be sitting in Gabi Shay's bedroom, listening to a story about how her mother died or how all her father's ex-girlfriends were all gold digging sluts, and she had no reason to believe her step mother should be any different. Or how her father worked impossible hours, so Gabi's older brother took care of her while she took care of Luc. How she cared for Luc more than anyone in the world, but hated her new sister so much that she cringed every time someone called Eva her step sister.

Caty also never thought she'd be sitting in Gabi Shay's bedroom, telling Gabi her own story about how she was adopted, and her parents always looked at her like she was God's gift to them and the world, and now she was worried her unborn sister was going to take her place because she'd look and sound and act like them. She'd share their DNA and blood. She would be a true Lewis. And she'd have Caty's name.

Caty saw how genuine Gabi was, and how kind. She'd never met anyone who cared for another person as much as Gabi cared for Luc. And Gabi realized the reason Caty was always so serious and neurotic was because she was trying to earn a place among a family that wasn't really hers. And when her parents had conceived a baby all their own, the need for that place grew.

"So you think this'll really work on Brian?" Caty asked, tying her hair up as she always did before training, as the pair walked to Hay Lin's.

"He'll eat his nerdy little heart out," Gabi promised. "And not just him. You'll have guys _flocking_ around you. You could get a real boyfriend out of this."

"First, get Brian to fall in love with me," Caty said. "I don't want a real boyfriend messing with this situation until _after_ I get the internship."

"At least you're in control of the relationship you want."

"You mean you and Jake?"

Gabi shook her head. "No. I miss Jake, a lot, and I loved him, but that was it. Loved, past tense. I've been in love with him for so long that when I finally got him, I never gave myself enough time to really think and if I had, I would've realized that being with Jake wasn't what I wanted anymore. At first, definitely, but then I met another guy. I think I might've liked him from the beginning, but I didn't realize at first, and it took Jake breaking up with me to finally understand."

"So…who is it?" Caty asked.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone," Gabi said seriously.

"Of course."

Gabi took a deep breath. "Josh."

Caty's eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets. "You mean the guy that your new friend Sage likes and your best friend is currently fake dating?"

"Actually, it's more complicated than that. I think somewhere along the way, Bree and Josh started to date for real."

"What?"

"Well, they do seem totally into each other. Bree doesn't blush or get all giggly around Dalton anymore, but she's like that with Josh. And he's totally her type."

"Well you might want to get Bree out of that situation. She may actually like him, but Josh likes Rae."

"But Rae likes Jake."

"Yeah. But I think she may like Josh too. Like…okay, if Josh asks her to the dance before Jake does, then she'll say yes to Josh. She's not the kind of girl who'll wait around for a specific guy to ask her."

"Because that's pathetic," Gabi said. "But I would've waited for Jake to ask me if I was still into him. And I'd wait for Josh to ask me."

"You really do like him."

"Yeah. But he doesn't like me. I mean, even if he's not into Bree or Sage or Rae, I'd be his last choice."

"He just needs to get to know you. I know he lives here, but he spends all his time with Alyssa and Rae, the girl you bullied for most of her life and the girl you blackmailed, then humiliated."

"I didn't do the newspaper!"

"He doesn't know that. The only ally of yours he hangs out with is Bree and if Bree actually is falling for him, I doubt she spends her time talking you up, while Alyssa and Rae definitely spend their time talking you down. I do eat lunch with them, I've heard the stuff they say, and until today, I agreed with it. But now I know the real you. He needs a chance to know the real you and then he'll like you."

"This is the real me. A straight up bitch."

"You've been through a lot. A new mother, new sister…it couldn't have been easy."

"Caty, you're also getting a new sister, you have to bend to your cousin's will so that she won't complain to your mother about your treatment of her, you've been teased for longer than Classless-a thanks to me, and you may be arrogant, but you're not a bitch."

"First of all, I think this whole Brian plan not only earns me membership into The Real Bitches of Sheffield Club, but also makes me a contender for the Bitch of the Century award."

Gabi laughed. Who knew Queen Nerd was funny?

"And second, you've been doing better. You may still call Alyssa's names, but it doesn't have the malicious edge it used to. It's just a habit now. And you were ready to drop the blackmail before the newspaper went out. And I'm sure Josh has seen how you go out of your way to help both Bree and Jake, and you're nice to Sage. You, who has been mean to everyone else since he knew you, are nice to his best friend. That's gotta count for something."

"And, there is this one secret he told me that I promised not to blackmail _him_ with."

"What is it?"

"Can't tell you."

Caty just smirked at Gabi.

_'Tell me Josh's secret.'_

_ 'Tell me Josh's secret.'_

_ 'Tell me Josh's secret!'_

Gabi got a familiar dazed look on her face and blurted out what Josh told her about growing up with Alyssa.

Caty's mouth dropped open.

"Hey!" Gabi exclaimed, glaring. "That's not fair!"

"Says the girl who started an Earthquake to trip Lana up during Varsity tryouts."

"Lana is evil. I'm not."

"Debatable."

"You're not just in the running for Bitch of the Century. You're in the lead."

Caty laughed. "So…about Brian. Looking amazing won't be enough. I still can't carry a proper conversation with the guy."

"Leave that to me. I have a plan," Gabi smirked.

"Why do I have a really bad feeling that I'm going to hate this plan?" Caty moaned.

"Probably because you will."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you liked that guys. So I'm going to make you guys a promise (and I know you'll see this, it's obvious several of you actually read my author's notes. Here it is: I promise the next chapter will cover getting the old guardians back together and it will concern the other characters more than Gabi.**


	16. AN: Character Descriptions

**A/N: Hey guys! This is an author's note, but the next chapter is a real chapter. A lot of my reviewers and followers have been PM-ing me, and asking me how the characters look, so I thought I'd give you this list. It describes the appearances of each of the important characters, and gives you a real life look alike and an animation look alike for each character to help you better imagine them. I also tell you whether their appearance resembles their real life look alike or animated look alike better.**

**I initially wanted to post this before Chapter 13, but I wanted to put James on here, since he will be important later on, and he wasn't introduced yet, so I waited.**

**If you don't really care how they look, you don't have to read this, but I did work hard on this (although it was fun too).**

Rachel "Rae" Louise Dylan

Guardian of Quintessance

Age 16

Appearance: Short and skinny (5'1", underweight), short black hair, dark brown eyes, Caucasian

Real life look alike: Sara Waisglass (Degrassi: The Next Generation), with Kat Grahman's hair (The Vampire Diaries, specifically season 5)

Animation look alike: Princess Melody (The Little Mermaid 2) with Mulan's hair (post-hair cut) and brown eyes

Closer to: Real life look alike

Caitlin "Caty" Lewis

Guardian of Water

Age 16

Appearance: Average height and weight, red frizzy (wildly curly) hair, and blue-green eyes, usually look bright blue, Caucasian

Real life look alike: Molly Quinn (Castle, Avalon High) with hairstyle of Alex Kingston (Doctor Who, Arrow)

Animation look alike: Dead ringer for Princess Merida (Brave)

Closer to: Animated look alike

Alyssa Joy Ashcroft

Guardian of Fire

Age 16

Appearance: Short, but taller than Rae (5'3") average weight, black curly hair, dark blue eyes, African American

Real life look alike: Maisie Richardson-Sellers (The Originals)

Animation look alike: Taranee Cook (W.I.T.C.H.), except taller, and her hair is curly

Closer to: Animated look alike

Elena/Gabrielle "Gabi" Rose Shay

Guardian of Earth

Age 17 (only one who can drive; too late for the cut off, so she lost a year of school)

Appearance: Average height, but taller than the other girls (5'7"), thin, short brown hair, kaleidoscope eyes (change color from brown to green to blue), Caucasian

Real life look alike: Jessica Stroup (90210, specifically season 2) except with brown hair and eyes change color

Animation look alike: Belle (Beauty and the Beast) with shorter hair

Closer to: Real life look alike

Elizabeth "Ellie" Kramer

Guardian of Air

Age 16

Appearance: Average height, healthy weight, long brown hair, brown eyes, Caucasian

Real life look alike: Jennifer Stone (Wizards of Waverly Place, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars)

Animation look alike: Wendy (Peter Pan)

Closer to: Real life look alike

Sage

Princess of Meridian

Age 17

Appearance: Tall and thin, long honey blond hair, blue eyes, Caucasian

Real life look alike: Nina Dobrev (The Vampie Diaries, Degrassi: The Next Generation) except with hair like Shanae Grimes (Degrassi: The Next Generation, 90210)

Animation look alike: Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket)

Closer to: Real life look alike

Josh Hart

Rebel Army Second-in-command

Age 17

Appearance: Tall and muscular, mop of wavy brown hair, forest green eyes, Caucasian

Real life look alike: Colton Haynes (Teen Wolf, Arrow)

Animation look alike: Spitting image of Caleb (W.I.T.C.H.)

Closer to: Animated look alike

Chris Lyndon

Regent of Earth

Age 16

Appearance: Average height and weight, jet black hair, blue eyes, half Caucasian, half Asian

Real life look alike: Robbie Amell (Life With Derek, The Flash)

Animation look alike: Spitting image of Eric Lyndon (W.I.T.C.H.)

Closer to: Animated look alike

James Mason

Human, eventual G.R.A.C.E. ally

Age 16

Appearance: Tall, lean, brown hair, cadet blue eyes, Caucasian

Real life look alike: Grant Gustin (The Flash, Glee)

Animation look alike: Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh)

Closer to: Real life look alike, described as a Grant Gustin look alike

**A/N: These are all the important characters I can think of. I know Cara is often with the group, training, but she's not mentioned a lot, so I didn't see any point in including her. If you want to know what she looks like though, or any of the characters I missed, just review or PM me and I'll figure it out.**


	17. Visions of the Present

**A/N: Hey guys! Thank you guys so much for the incredible support I got on the double update! I'm sorry it took so long to get this out, but it turns out four programming classes over the course of a full semester is a lot easier to deal with than one programming class and three non-programming classes over the summer. The summer semester has me working hard. So I published two chapters. As promised, this chapter deals with characters other than Gabi, and it talks about the girls finally getting started on their 'reunite the old guardians' project. The next chapter really covers the project and covers the Halloween Dance. I hope another double update will make up for the long wait you had to endure for this chapter. Enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Again, the shout-outs are split up between the two chapters!**

**Shay: I really like Josh and Alyssa, but to be quite honest, I don't think it'll develop into a romance. I always had a clear idea of who I wanted to put her with and even though that's not developing quite like I hoped, it'll still happen the way I planned it. As for Josh and Alyssa, they're better off as friends. I love their friendship and don't want to mess with it. Yes, I always thought Josh would be a positive influence on Gabi, whether they end up together or not. Yes, Grant Gustin is my celebrity crush! I described all the characters in the author's note, but if there are any characters I didn't describe that you want to know about, just ask. The timeline for Rae and Jake is soon-ish. It just wouldn't be realistic for Jake to get with Rae right after his break up because despite everything, he really did love Gabi. Besides, she didn't write the paper so it really wasn't fair. I'm glad you like the reasoning. That was one of my favorite things about Gabi. As of now, only Bree and Jake know that story (and obviously Michael and Luc). Eventually she'll probably tell Josh. Her dad doesn't know yet, but the reason for that will be revealed eventually. You will see Caty and Gabi's friendship develop in the next chapter and the one after that. Hope you like these two chapters, and hope two chapters make up for the wait.**

**SilvenArrow: Haha, I agree. But Sienna doesn't really disapprove. She's just young, so she doesn't fully understand. Remember, she's only 27 and she had to drop out of school because she had Eva when she was 20. I'm glad you said that because I like them as best friends too, and don't want to make them a couple. I've got my own plans for each of them. Grant Gustin is my new celebrity crush (I have a lot of celebrity crushes, but Grant is my new number one; my old number one was Matt Bomer). Keep in mind the foreshadowing you saw as you keep reading. And yes, you will see Gabi being Caty's new "Brian coach" in this chapter. Hope you like it!**

**WaterAmulet: I love how everyone's established their favorite couple in this story. Most people are rooting for Gabi and Josh, but you've always liked Jake and Rae, which is my favorite too. You're gonna see how everything turns out with Taranee in these two chapters. It's a twist I've been planning since the beginning of the story. I don't know about humor, but Caty's second power will definitely get her into a lot of trouble eventually. Yes, it's even frustrating to me how little Daniel seems to support Gabi, and I'm the one who wrote that into the plot! And Eva isn't mentioned much for a while, but will come back in a big way! This chapter will cover Caty and Brian, and the next chapter has a little bit of them as well. Hopefully, the wait was worth it! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Caty walked into the basement, everyone stared at her. Alyssa sucked in a breath, Rae stared in shock, Cara and Ellie seemed delighted, and Josh and Chris immediately went red, making Sage giggle.

"Caty, you look beautiful!" Ellie squealed happily.

"Why thank you," Gabi joked as she followed Caty downstairs.

"Thank _you_?" Josh asked, his tone dubious.

"I gave her a makeover!" Gabi said, sounding ready to throw a tantrum.

"Why?" Rae asked wearily.

"So that Brian will fall in love with her, just like she wants!"

"All the makeovers in the world won't help if she can't hold an intelligent conversation with him," Alyssa pointed out.

"Then let's hope it's not raining tomorrow," Rae said, making Ellie, Alyssa, and even Gabi giggle.

"I hate you all!" Caty declared.

"Don't worry, I have a plan for that too. I'm going to be telling her what to say," Gabi explained.

"How? Thorough an ear piece like in the movies?" Alyssa asked, genuinely curious.

"Better. But I'll need your help Classless-a. I'm going to tell her what to say telepathically so I need you-"

"To be around because I'm the telepath. I get it. I'll do it if Caty explains why she needs Brian to fall for her."

Caty took a deep breath and spilled the story that only Gabi and Ellie knew so far.

After she was done, everyone was looking at her in shock.

"What?" she asked, self-conscious.

"It's just…I didn't realize you were that…_mean_," Cara said.

"I'm not mean! I'm just getting him back for being a jerk to me for fourteen years of my life. From ages 3 to 17, all he's done is made me miserable."

"I thought you had an academic rivalry," Alyssa said.

"That's not the whole story. When I was five, he put glue in my hair because he said the red color was ugly and the white looked better. I was really excited to grow my hair long and I had to cut almost all of it off! When I was seven, he told the teacher I cheated off him on our math test, even though I didn't. He sat next to me and pretended to make the same mistakes I did so he could get me in trouble. I almost got suspended but my old teachers stood up for me."

"I remember that," Alyssa said.

"Wait, didn't he _get_ a bee to sting you the day of the spelling bee in fifth grade so you would be forced to go home? And then he won?" Ellie asked.

"Yes!"

"And there was that time in sixth grade when he tripped you on the stairs," Gabi recalled. "He was hoping you'd break your leg so that…so that what?"

"So that I wouldn't be able to try out for soccer," Caty said. "Because we're pretty even in grades and activities, but he doesn't play any sports and I do. Luckily, Tony was there to sort of cushion my fall."

"And didn't he bake you brownies with nuts in them in eighth grade?" Alyssa asked. "Because you were allergic to nuts and he wanted you to get sick so you couldn't take the IB placement test?"

"Yeah! And that did happen, but luckily, because I was an exemplary student, they let me make up the test and I got in with everyone else."

"Wait, was it Dorkzilla who accidentally destroyed your history project last year?" Gabi asked.

"That was no accident! And Miss. Cartier already gave me an extension, so when I didn't have anything to turn in, she docked me two letter grades! That was my first C ever!"

"And Brian made anti-Caty posters during the election last year, right?" Alyssa asked.

Caty nodded. "You had to be a Student Council member for at least two years to run for president and he was only a member for one, so he figured if he couldn't run for president, he'd do his best to make sure I didn't get it either."

Chris and Cara were nodding, remembering all the events the other girls were talking about. Josh shook his head at the stuff that people fought over on Earth…who cared if one person played a sport and the other didn't. Sage looked shocked that someone could actually be so mean.

"Wow," Rae said. "If he really did all that, then he deserves this. It's not like he really _wants_ the internship anyway."

"Exactly!" Caty cried, relieved.

"Okay. I'm in," Alyssa said. "But we can't tell Hay Lin. She'll just give us one of those 'you can't use your powers for fun' speeches."

"Of course," Caty and Gabi said in unison, wearing matching evil smirks.

'And that,' Rae thought, 'is the scariest thing I've ever seen.'

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you sure about this?" Caty asked for the hundredth time that day.

Gabi sighed and rolled her eyes. "For the last time Caty, yes!"

Caty looked at Alyssa with a look that screamed _help_, but Alyssa just giggled and shook her head. As much as she hated to admit it, she was pretty sure Gabi's plan would work.

As promised, Gabi went over to Caty's house that morning and sorted through the garbage bags she gave Caty the day before, looking for the perfect outfit. She decided to pair together a sleeveless yellow top with short denim shorts. Caty looked at Gabi as if she were insane, reminding her it was mid-October, and freezing. Gabi replied by saying she wouldn't really be outside-her parents could drive her to school, and it was warm inside the building.

"Beauty is pain," she'd said.

"But what if Brian doesn't like it. Or what if he laughs at me?"

"Just because the Drama Freak did-"

"I trust Ellie more than you. Her social status is on my level," Caty said.

When she'd walked into school, Ellie took one look at her and laughed. "What _happened_ to you?" she'd asked.

"I think you look great," Alyssa piped up. "If that helps."

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't have been so incredulous this morning," Caty fretted.

Alyssa grimaced, remembering that morning. When Gabi and Caty walked up to her, the first thing she'd said was, "God Caty, what are you _wearing_?"

"It'll be fine. Just go," Gabi said as the trio reached the Debate Team classroom. Alyssa and Gabi pressed themselves against the back wall as Caty headed to her friends.

"Um…wow," Nina said when she saw her.

"Caty, you look great!" Misha said. "Did Lili decide to go more modest today?"

"Why didn't she tell us she was making you over? We would've helped," Nina said.

"And where'd you get the outfit? It fits better than the other one. You and Lili aren't the same size."

"And she straightened you hair? How much earlier did you have to get up for that?"

"Slow down," Caty said. "Lili didn't tell you because Lili didn't do this. Gabi did."

"Gabi…_Shay_?" Misha asked.

Caty nodded.

"Um, why are you talking to that bitch?"

"Did you forget what she did to Rae two days ago?"

"Not to mention all the insults and humiliation she unleashed on us," Misha added.

"I know, but you know how we've been hanging out every afternoon?"

"Because you're in some volunteer tutor thing?" Misha asked.

Caty nodded. She'd told her friends she and the rest of Team G.R.A.C.E. were tutoring each other in different subjects. She actually wished this was true, because she used to look at people with tutors as a sign of low intelligence, but then Rae, who was in higher level math class than her, needed a tutor. She realized maybe having a tutor wasn't the worst thing in the world and realized she needed a pre-calc tutor. Maybe Jake would be willing to do it?

"I didn't particularly _like_ Gabi, but I figured she'd be the best person to help me and we did become…not friends exactly, but…allies I guess? Anyway, look at me. I did all this myself. Gabi taught me how to straighten my hair and put on makeup in half an hour, plus she gave me a bunch of clothes Breanna Kramer left at her house and doesn't want anymore. We're the same size. And Misha, you're editor too, and have read enough of Gabi's articles to realize she didn't write it. The writing wasn't good enough to be hers. She says it's Lana."

"I was Lana's peer editor in English last year. It did seem like her," Nina said slowly.

"Speaking of editor," Misha said, not commenting on the Gabi/Lana debate, "did you hear about Traci?"

"What about her?" Caty asked. Traci was the captain of the Varsity cheerleading team, and the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.

"People are saying she was in on the "Poor Little Rich Girl" article, and teachers say whether she was involved or not, she still let the article sneak past her, so they removed her as editor-in-chief. Normally the job would go to another senior. Becca and Chloe are her assistants, but instead, is offering it to us."

"Us?"

"As the faculty advisor, she gets to choose the next editor-in-chief, and she chose you. But she said it's fine if you want to give it to me. And you were worried about how you wouldn't get offered this job til after the internship applications were handed in, but now you get to add to the application that you were offered the editor-in-chief position as a junior!"

Caty smiled. "You're right. That's amazing. And think about what this means for you. Editor-in-chief two years in a row? Columbia will eat that up!"

"Well, I was thinking about it and…I don't _need_ it for two years."

"What?"

Misha smiled at her. "I'm gonna let you take it. _Being_ editor-in-chief as a junior will look much more impressive on the application than being _offered_ the position. You know, in case this Brian thing doesn't work out."

"Or," Caty said, "we can be _co_-editors-in-chief. That way we'll both reap the benefits."

"Really?" Misha asked, her face lighting up.

"Of course!"

"Thank you!" Misha cried gratefully, giving her a hug. "Now, go make Brian eat his heart out!"

Caty laughed, then looked back at Alyssa and Gabi. They both smiled at her. She took a deep breath and made her way over to Brian.

"Good morning Brian," she said cheerfully.

Brian turned around to face her. The minute he saw her, his eyes bulged out of his sockets, his mouth dropped open, and his face went a little red.

"Brian?" Caty asked innocently, trying not to smile in triumph.

'Thank you Gabi,' she thought.

"_You're welcome," _she heard in her head.

Nick nudged Brian and he jumped, then said, "H-hi Caty. Um, wow, you look…wow."

Caty opened her mouth to reply, then realized she had no idea what to say besides thanks. But 'thanks' wasn't a conversation starter.

"_Tell him he doesn't look so bad himself," _Gabi said. "_He _is_ wearing a suit after all."_

"Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself," Caty replied.

Brian laughed nervously.

"_Now tell him you like this tie."_

"I like your tie. Bit fancy though, isn't it?"

"I'm, uh, my brother's rehearsal dinner is today and I have to head there right after Model U.N. today. He's getting married this weekend."

"_Now grab his tie,"_ Gabi said. "_like they do in the movies. And say he'll be the handsomest guy there and that his brother will get jealous."_

"Well, you're sure to be the handsomest guy there," Caty told him, grabbing his tie and mimicking Gabi's tone of voice. "You're going to make your brother really jealous."

"Oh, uh, you think?" Brian asked.

"_Most definitely,"_ Gabi said, her voice seductive. "_Then run your fingers up to his neck."_

"_Gabi, I can't!"_

"_Yes you can. It's working so well. Don't chicken out on me now!"_

Caty let go of Brian's tie and mimicked Gabi's tone as she said. "Most definitely." She ran her fingers up to his neck.

"_I'm almost jealous of your date."_

"I'm almost jealous of your date," Caty said. "_Wait, what date?"_

"_Wait for it," _Gabi replied.

"Oh, well, I don't have a date."

"_Then who will accompany you to the wedding? It'd be a shame to go alone."_

Caty repeated that then realized what she was saying. "_Gabi, are you trying to get me invited to this wedding? Because I don't want to go!"_

"_Trust me," _Gabi replied.

"Unfortunately, my brother didn't give me a plus one. We don't get along well," Brian said.

"Why not?" Caty asked.

"_No, wrong! I didn't tell you to say that!" _Gabi cried.

"_Is that bad?"_

"_Yes!"_

"_No,"_ Alyssa argued. "_It's good if you're curious. It'll let him know you're interested."_

"_She's not actually interested. She's just trying to make him _think_ she is,"_ Gabi replied.

"_It'll serve that purpose as well."_

"_As if you know anything about boys. You haven't had a single boyfriend in your life. Even Caty has had one."_

"_Well at least I know how not to drive my boyfriend away," _Alyssa shot back_._

"_Guys, you're giving me a head ache," _Caty snapped.

"Well, when my parents got divorced, my mom got custody of my brother and my dad got custody of me," Brian replied, bringing her back to the real world.

Divorced?

"You're parents are divorced?" she asked. "But I thought you said your family is really close."

"We are. My step mom joined our family a year after my mom moved out and, then my half sister was born. We're all really close."

"Oh, you have a sister?"

"Yeah. Brianna. She's eight."

"Doesn't it bother you that she practically has your name?" Caty asked.

"No. Should it?"

"_Don't say a world!" _Gabi warned. "_Tell him, no, it shouldn't. Then tell him it's too bad he'll be lonely at the wedding."_

Caty put her seductive voice back on and said, "No, not at all. Anyway, I was just thinking that it's too bad you'll be lonely at that wedding."

"Yeah, it is," Brian said, seemingly in a daze thanks to Caty's tone.

"_Tell him you'd just _love_ to keep him company. And say it's too bad you don't hang out more."_

"_What if he thinks I'm lying?"_

"_Why would he think that?"_

"_Because we hate each other's guts!"_

"_He doesn't hate you _anymore_. He definitely has a crush on you, or else he would've teased you relentlessly after your horrible attempts at flirting. He'll probably think since his feelings have changed, maybe yours have too."_

"I would've _loved_ to keep your company," Caty sighed. "It's just such a drag that we don't get to hang out more."

"Yeah, it is," Brian said again, this time thoughtful.

"_Now tell him you'll see him later and walk away. Do it abruptly, like you don't care at all."_

"Well anyway," Caty said breezily, "I just wanted to say hi. See you around Brian."

Before Brian could say another word, she turned and walked over to where Misha and Nina were standing, gaping at her.

"_Nice. See you later,"_ Gabi approved as she and Alyssa slipped out of the classroom.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Eww, you're all sweaty!" Rae cried a week later, as Jake came over to her after basketball tryouts and tried to put his arm around her.

"You're such a girl," he replied, shaking his head, causing beads of sweat to fall on his best friend.

"Ew, Jake! I hate you!" Rae cried.

"You're just not a good sport."

"And you're a terrible best friend!"

"Ah, so in the past week, I _did_ become your best friend."

"Not if you keep getting sweat on me," Rae replied.

Jake laughed. He liked having Rae as a best friend (although he hoped she'd soon be more). Jake had lots of friends, but he'd realized he didn't have a _best_ friend last week when Alyssa asked him who his best friend was. Josh was the closest thing he had to a best friend (they spent a LOT of time with each other since he was always with Gabi and Bree or Alyssa and Rae, just like Jake), and even though he wasn't jealous of Josh anymore, they still had a weird relationship, so he made an effort to get to know every detail about Rae like Alyssa did, and he told her every detail about himself, declaring them best friends. Now they were practically attached at the hip, the way Rae and Alyssa used to be. Alyssa was now usually with Josh or James, but the two girls still spent their afternoon and nights together.

"You can't honestly be telling me you don't get sweaty when you play tennis out in the hot sun. It's a spring sport!"

"It's different when it's my own sweat," Rae retorted.

Jake just laughed again, then took a deep breath, telling himself it was now or never. "Rae, I was wondering. Do you want to go to-"

"Hey Rae!" Josh cried, running over to them. He was all sweaty too, but somehow, he made it look cuter. Rae had a sneaking suspicion his amazing green eyes or his sexy mop of brown hair or his adorable expression had something to do with that.

"Hi Josh," she said, smiling brightly. "I didn't know you played basketball." She didn't realize they had basketball in Meridian.

"I don't, but I'm apparently amazing at it," Josh replied, making Rae laugh.

Josh huffed and rolled his eyes. Not only had Josh interrupted his moment with Rae, but his arrogance made Rae laugh while when Jake had an arrogant moment, she hit him. And honestly, the kid had looked like he'd never seen a basketball in his life, didn't know any of the rules, and managed to outplay even the seniors trying out for the Varsity team.

"Anyway Rae, you look really cute today. I honestly can't wait to see what you wear to the dance."

Rae blushed hard. "Thanks," she whispered. She'd never gotten a compliment like that before. "I'm gonna go meet Lyssa at the other gym. I think they're still decorating."

"Are we still meeting outside the studio?" Josh asked.

"Yup. But you should probably hit the showers first." She looked at Jake. "I'll call you tonight, okay?"

Jake smiled at her and nodded. The minute she was out of sight, his smile disappeared, and he gave Josh a glare.

"What's your problem?" Josh asked.

"You!" Jake cried. "I thought we were friends."

"Are we not friends?"

"Apparently not. You know I like Rae, but you're still flirting with her."

"Everyone from here to Eldantia knows you like Rae," Josh laughed.

"El-what?" Jake asked.

"Uh, never mind. Anyway, I'm not flirting with her. All I'm doing is sending her subliminal messages to let her know I'm interested."

"That's flirting!" Jake cried, wondering why Josh always acted so weird.

"Oh. Well then yeah, I guess I'm flirting with her."

Jake was willing to do anything to wipe that grin off Josh's face. "I'm asking her to the dance Friday," he said coldly.

"No you're not!" Josh laughed.

"What do you mean I'm _not_?" Jake asked slowly.

"I mean you're way too scared."

"_Sca_-no I'm not!" Jake spluttered.

"Yes you are," Josh scoffed. "Because it's Rae. If you were trying to ask Bree or Lana or anyone else, it'd be easy, but you're scared to ask Rae because she may actually say no. She's not interested in your money or popularity like other girls are. Like Gabi was."

Jake glared at the boy. "I'm only going to say this once. Gabi and I may have broken up, but she did not just date me for my money or popularity. She's not as shallow as people think. She has a good heart, so don't you _ever_ say anything like that again."

Josh had to admit for the first time, he found Jake intimidating. But he remained calm and taunted, "For someone who supposedly likes _Rae_, you sure are protective of _Gabi_."

"Because before she was my girlfriend, Gabi was one of my _best_ friends. I still care about her. And now? Well, now Rae is my best friend."

"I can tell you from experience, you'll never go out with your best friend."

"What are you even doing here? Won't Bree throw a fit if you're not around her?"

"We broke up. Well, we were never really dating, so I guess _break up_ isn't the right term…Earth relationships are so confusing!"

"Earth relationships?" Jake repeated. "What do you mean by that?"

"Uh…nothing! Nothing at all."

"O-kay," Jake said, rolling his eyes. Then a cocky smile began to play on his lips. "What makes you think Rae will say no?"

"Because between the blackmail and the newspaper, you've caused her more trouble than you're worth. So if she does say no, don't take it personally. And don't worry…she won't be going alone."

Then he left, leaving Jake to stare dumbly after him, wondering how on Earth he got one upped by the weirdest guy in school.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"That's not true. There's no way," James declared.

"I swear," Alyssa promised.

"But I've never even heard of this guy."

"But he's real and your twin," Alyssa insisted.

"What's his name again?"

"Grant Gustin."

"What kind of stupid name is that?"

"It's a gorgeous name for a gorgeous man," Alyssa replied.

"So if I look exactly like this gorgeously named gorgeous man, then that must mean you think I'm gorgeous too, right?" James teased.

Alyssa blushed. "Less gorgeous since you insulted Grant Gustin's name."

"But gorgeous just the same?" James teased.

"You do think highly of yourself, don't you Mr. Mason?" Alyssa giggled.

"Well, you do wonders for my self-esteem Miss. Ashcroft," James replied, making Alyssa laugh.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," Rae said as she walked towards them.

"Not at all," James assured her, flashing her a smile that almost made her melt. Rae could see why Alyssa liked this guy so much.

"Are you ready?" Rae asked.

Alyssa nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Mason," she teased.

"Til then Miss. Ashcroft," James smiled.

"You guys seem friendly," Rae teased and the pair walked over to where Ellie and Josh were.

"He's just so amazing," Alyssa said dreamily. "And funny and polite and sweet and painfully gorgeous, which I know you can tell. You almost turned into a _puddle_ when he smiled at you. Jake getting boring?"

Rae sighed. "I just keep thinking he's going to ask me to the dance, but he never does."

"What century do you think we're living in?" Alyssa sked. "If you want to go with him, you should ask him!"

Rae shook her head. "No, I _want_ him to ask me. I shouldn't have to do the asking because he's being a wimp about asking me."

Alyssa laughed.

"So, how are you and James doing?" Ellie asked as the girls reached her. Josh looked up sharply.

"Perfectly," Alyssa replied. "I told him all about me and he's really open as long as I ask him questions. He'll answer everything and he's really flirty with me but barely takes notice of anyone else. He seems to like Sage though."

"Not the way he likes you," Ellie teased, making Alyssa blush.

"You sure got here fast," Rae said to Josh. "I thought you needed a shower?"

"I forgot," Josh admitted sheepishly. "I was talking to Jake."

"Are you guys okay?" Rae asked.

"Yup. Fine. But I mentioned Meridian things a few times. He probably thinks I'm really weird."

"Only because you are," Alyssa teased, making Josh grin.

Rae looked between to two of them and grinned to herself. James was hot and maybe Alyssa did like him, but she might like Josh too. She always got happy and jumpy whenever someone mentioned him, she could talk to him like no one else, they seemed to know everything about each other, and Josh got protective and jealous every time she mentioned James. They'd be a cute couple. Maybe she should even play matchmaker for them…

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So are you sure about this James guy?" Josh asked as Team G.R.A.C.E. walked to The Silver Dragon.

"Are you sure you didn't take a shower?" Alyssa replied. "Because you actually smell really good."

"Thanks," Josh replied.

Rae, who was walking by herself behind them, quickened her pace to catch up to Caty so she could tell her how comfortable Josh and Alyssa were with each other. Alyssa normally wouldn't be so bold as to tell someone they smell good and Josh normally wouldn't take a compliment like that without either blushing or giving someone a weird look. They really would be a good couple.

"So, James?" Josh repeated.

"Why do you keep pressing the issue?" Alyssa asked. "You still haven't met him because you skipped Dance Committee."

"Because of basketball tryouts."

"I didn't even know you played basketball."

"I don't, but I'm really good at it."

Alyssa laughed. "Arrogant much? You and Jake must be two peas in a pod."

"You have no idea," Josh muttered.

Alyssa didn't ask him to expand. Instead she said, "What _about_ James? How could you have a problem with someone you haven't met?"

"I've met him…sort of," Josh defended.

"Yeah, but you don't know him well enough to feed Chris information about him, yet you're still doing that, and now he's on my case too."

"Ever think we're just trying to protect you?"

"From _what_? James is harmless!"

"You don't know that. I mean, you said yourself he's only open if you ask him questions, and how do you know he's not lying?"

"Why would he lie?"

"To get you to drop your guard."

"That would be counterproductive. I don't have my guard up in the first place."

"You should! You're a Guardian of the Veil now. Anyone could be an enemy!"

"Oh, you mean like you?" Alyssa teased.

"Absolutely. Trust no one, not even me," Josh joked.

"I can guarantee you James isn't an enemy," Alyssa said.

"I believe you," Josh said. "He's way too normal. He's definitely a normal Earth kid."

"So what's your problem with him then?"

"I'm good at reading people and I can tell there's something off about him. And he's too perfect. He must be hiding something."

"Or you're jealous you're not that hot," Alyssa replied, giggling.

Josh rolled his eyes and huffed. "_You're_ the one who developed the theory that people who seem too perfect are hiding something."

"That's before I met James. Besides, I'm pretty sure Jake disproved that theory."

"I _wish_ I could find some deep dark secret of his," Josh muttered.

"So you can ask Rae to the dance?"

"I can _ask_ her no problem. It's the answer I'm worried about," Josh said. "I spent ten minutes telling Saunders that Rae is the kind of girl who would say no, to psyche him out."

"And you ended up psyching yourself out?" Alyssa asked with a laugh.

"Sort of," he admitted, embarrassed. "But it worked on Saunders too, so it's half a win."

"You do realize you just admitted to me you like Rae, right?"

"You already knew," Josh replied, shrugging. "You're her best friend. Tell me, do you think she'd say yes?"

"I think she's waiting for Jake to ask her," Alyssa replied.

"But she's not the kind of girl to wait around for a guy, right? So if I ask her before Jake, she'll say yes, right?"

"I think she's willing to wait for Jake, and even if she wasn't, she wouldn't go with you. She doesn't like you. So she may say yes to going with you as friends, but that won't be what you want. And if you go to the dance with a girl as friends, you're forever friend zoned."

"Which means…?"

"Rae would never be your girlfriend."

Jake sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Alyssa smiled. He really was hot! Hotter than James probably, but he lost out in the charm department. James was oozing charm. She frowned. She liked James' charm, but he could be playing her. Charm was good for playing people. No guy had really liked her as much as James seemed to, and she knew she was sort of pretty, but not pretty enough that someone who looked like James would normally take notice of her. But she didn't have a body like the cheerleaders, so he couldn't be after her just for a fun night. So then, what did he want?

"Who do you prefer with Rae?" Josh asked. "Me or Jake? You're her best friend, you must have a preference."

"I prefer Rae with whoever treats her well and makes her happiest," Alyssa said dutifully.

"But really-"

"Really," Alyssa interrupted. "That's all I want for her."

"So who do you think will treat her well and make her happiest?"

"How do I know? I'm not her," Alyssa teased. Josh glared at her and she backtracked. "Okay, right now it seems like Jake's in the lead. He's sweeter than you are and she likes him. But he could mess up. At least you're consistent. I wouldn't give up just yet, okay?"

Josh nodded, not at all satisfied.

"Can you really read people well?" Alyssa asked.

"Watch," Josh replied. He grabbed her hand and dragged her toward Ellie, who was walking with Cara. As they passed Rae and Caty, they heard them giggle.

"Hey, Ellie, why don't you like Rae?" Josh asked casually.

Ellie went red and looked shocked. "How do you know that? I mean I don't. I don't not like her… I mean I…what?"

Alyssa laughed. "Wow, you _can_ read people. I never would've known otherwise." She looked at Ellie. "So why _don't_ you like Rae?"

Ellie just shook her head, embarrassed.

Alyssa frowned, but then focused on Josh again.

"So…James?"

"Hiding something. He's bad news. Don't talk to him anymore Lyssa. Just…stay away from him."

Alyssa sighed. "Alright."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie sighed as she got ready for bed Thursday night. All she wanted was for someone-besides Adam-to ask her to the dance, and no one had. Adam's offer didn't count. He'd been asking her out for years. She did feel bad he didn't just move on. She saw Jade give her a disapproving look when Ellie said no after Adam asked her that morning. Jade and Adam were at odds with each other a lot, but they were also pretty protective of each other. They'd been friends since they were two, and although he wasn't as close to Jade as he was to Ellie, and Jade wasn't as close to Adam as she was to Milly, the two of them saw each other as brother and sister.

All of the popular guys got a million asks. Jake, easily the nicest and most approachable of the hottest guys in school, was asked by 27 girls, all of whom he turned down, probably in favor of Rae. And even thought Ellie thought James was much hotter than Jake, she couldn't help but feel jealous. She still liked Jake Saunders.

Chris, who was probably the most reserved of the hot guys got asked 23 times. Not bad at all. Chris had said no to all them as well, in favor of Alyssa. Not that anyone else had the slightest inkling he wanted to ask Alyssa, especially when it seemed so likely that she was going with either James or Josh. But Ellie knew. When he told her and Adam off for "dropping" Alyssa, they both realized how he felt about her and they could both see his feelings just got stronger.

Ever since Josh started Sheffield, he surpassed Dalton Drew as the third hottest guy in school (in fact, he surpassed Chris as well, but he didn't get as many offers because people said he was weird and not very approachable). Josh got 19 offers. He too declined them all. Ellie couldn't tell if he really liked Rae and wanted to ask her or go with Alyssa as friends, or if it was Alyssa he liked, but he was holding out for one of them.

James got 34 offers, but half of them were from Ellie herself (he wasn't Alyssa's guy _yet_, so she told herself he was fair game), so really he only got asked by 18 different girls. James gave a lot of girls a 'maybe' (except Ellie who he said no to, repeatedly-she liked to think it was because he knew going out with one of Alyssa's friends would ruin his chances with Alyssa, not because he actually didn't like Ellie).

Even Dalton, who was currently taken, got his fair share of offers-14 to be exact. It would've been more, but there weren't a lot of girls willing to ask out Lana Oller's boyfriend, even if everyone knew they didn't really like each other because Lana liked Chris and Dalton liked Bree and no one understood why they were still dating each other, especially since Bree and Josh were broken up and Dalton could ask her out now.

So that left Ellie without a date. Between Rae waiting for Jake to ask her, Alyssa hoping to ask James, Caty trying to get Brian to ask her, and Gabi being able to get any guy she wanted, it looked like Ellie was going to be the only member of GRACE flying solo. She considered saying yes to Adam, and specify they'd go as friends, but that would bring out Jade's protective side, so she decided the four of them could go as a group like they always did when none of them had dates.

She heard Jason come in downstairs. She felt bad because she left her mother passed out on the couch for him to deal with, but she didn't have the patience of the strength anymore. Jason would understand. He always did. Ellie crawled under the covers and drifted off pretty quickly. Looking back, she should've expected the dream. It'd been far too long since she'd had one anyway.

_She couldn't see where she was. She couldn't see much of anything at all really. But she could hear. She heard two voices, both male. One sounded really familiar, but she couldn't place it. The other one was cold as ice. It made her want to crawl into a hole and die._

_ "Well, how are they coming along?" the ice cold voice asked._

_ "Very well," the boy answered._

_ "Very well as in they seem like the girls of legend or very well as in they will be easy to defeat."_

_ "Extremely easy. They just got their second powers, and it seemed to make the powers they already have even worse. They've almost killed each other more in the past week than they have in the rest of their month and a half of training."_

_ The man laughed, a scary sound. "Good. You know the plan?"_

_ "Yes. Separate them. Divide and conquer."_

_ "And how is that going?"_

_ "It will be easy as well."_

_ "Perfect. And they all trust you?"_

_ "Yes," the boy replied, but he seemed to be lying. If Ellie had one super power before the whole guardian thing, it was being able to tell when someone was lying._

_ "And when do you plan to attack?"_

_ "There is a dance at the school on the Earth holiday known as Halloween. It's in one week and four days. I think that's the perfect time. They'll be preoccupied with costumes and dates. We can easily divide and conquer."_

_ "Good, good," the man mused. "What else do you have for me?"_

_ The boy must've handed the man something because he said, "What is this?"_

_ "That's the book that holds The Thousand Year Prophecy. I managed to take it from the old air guardian's house."_

_ The boy stole something from Hay Lin?_

_ "If we can uncover it before they do, we have the upper hand."_

_ "This book is blank," the man said._

_ "Er, yeah," the boy replied uncomfortably. "The words only appear with the Heart."_

_ "And do you have the Heart?"_

_ "No…but any Heart will work, including the Heart of-"_

_ "Meridian," the man said._

_ "Yes."_

_ "Alright. Go back now and forge deeper relationships with the guardians. We must vanquish them."_

_ "Yes sir," the boy said._

Ellie jolted awake, breathing hard. What the _hell_ was that? Someone was spying on them, getting close to them? The man must've been Kasson. Who was the boy?

It was someone in their school who got close to all of them and had access to Hay Lin's house. He also had to have seen their practices or else he wouldn't know how their powers were coming along. So it would have to be Josh or Chris and considering Chris was _Hay Lin's_ son…

Josh.

It was Josh! He did seem sort of rigid and unapproachable. She couldn't for the life of her understand how someone as sweet as Sage could get that boy to open up. But she had and they became best friends. Maybe he wasn't always that way. After all, he was Caleb and Cornelia's son. Maybe he wasn't always a traitor and spy. Maybe it was recent.

He'd gotten really close to Alyssa and Rae, which also made sense. Rae was the Keeper. As a spy, she was the one he needed to get close to. And it was pretty obvious that if someone wanted to be friends with Rae, they had to be nice to Alyssa too. And sure it seemed that Josh and Alyssa were closer than Josh and Rae, but Josh was trying to ask Rae to the dance. He was trying to go the dance, the place he was going to "divide and conquer" with the Keeper. If he destroys the Heart, or kills Rae, the guardians are done.

Ellie had to tell the others. But she couldn't tell Rae or Alyssa. They were too close to Josh to believe her.

'Poor Alyssa,' Ellie thought. 'She'll be heartbroken.'

Ellie really wanted to repair their friendship. She and Alyssa were friends as far back as she could remember. She hadn't _meant_ to leave her. She tried to get her into acting. She tried to tell her it was okay that she was scared. Ellie was too scared to audition too. But Ellie wasn't really shy, she was just insecure. Alyssa was too shy to even _look_ at a stage, let alone perform on one. That already put a bit of a rift between them. But they probably could've repaired that if they didn't get into that terrible fight.

The only people she could tell were Caty and Gabi. Caty and Josh hadn't really become friends in their own right, and since the newspaper, Josh had refused to speak a word to Gabi (unless he absolutely needed to at work-which also didn't happen often since he was scheduling his shifts around her). He only returned to her house for bed. Otherwise, he hung around with Alyssa, Rae, Chris, and sometimes even Jake.

Ellie groaned internally as she thought about the prospect. She and Caty had become friends, but she had a feeling Caty thought they were closer than they were. Her superiority complex still bothered Ellie. Yes, Caty was smarter than almost everyone else and it was impressive that she balanced school with guardian training _and_ her millions of activities, but why did she have to act all high and mighty? Ellie already felt stupid compared to anyone else. Caty made her feel even dumber without even trying. The two of them were good when they were talking about movies they both liked or the latest school scandals or GRACE, but once the conversation turned more personal, Caty's holier than thou attitude shone through.

And Gabi…well, she was just a bitch. Ellie couldn't for the life of her figure out how Gabi and Caty became friends (or allies, as Caty put it), but they did. They seemed to balance each other perfectly, and Caty was the only member of GRACE who didn't try to glare Gabi into oblivion every time they saw her.

Still, she had no other choice. Going through the members of Team GRACE, she knew Caty and Gabi were the only ones who would believe her, and if she wanted to put a stop to Josh, she needed all the help she could get.

'The Meridianites, or whatever people there call themselves, better appreciate this,' she thought as she went back to sleep, resolving to talk to Caty and Gabi the next morning.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Alyssa was sitting in the library when James found her. It was lunch time, and she didn't feel hungry at all (especially after taking a look at the burnt bacon and frozen pancakes that were still hard as rocks the school was serving as their "breakfast for lunch" special), so she decided to catch up on some reading. Between working harder than ever in art class, and trying to stay ahead in school while managing her newest extracurricular "save another world" activity, she hadn't has much time to read for pleasure. She sat with Josh, Jake, Rae, Caty, and the others at lunch as usual, but they were way too loud for her to concentrate, so she'd excused herself and went to the library.

James sat down right next to her on the table she'd chosen for herself and gave her what she assumed was his usual, charming, dazzling smile. She wouldn't know for sure considering she was trying her hardest not to look at him.

"What are you reading?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious. That was one of the many things Alyssa liked about James. No matter what he was talking about or what he was asking about, he always sounded genuine and interested.

'No Alyssa, bad!' she told herself. She turned a page in her book, letting James know she was ignoring him and he should go away.

"Is it good?" he asked.

Alyssa glared at the page. Why could she never give off the 'go away' vibe? Why is it every time she tired, people got the 'Go ahead and talk to me, I'm listening' vibe?

James frowned. What was going on? Was she angry at him? He wracked his brain, but couldn't come up with anything he'd done that would've upset her. She laughed before bidding him good bye the day before, and they both said good night last night before they stopped texting (or that morning, since yesterday, like every day, they stayed up texting til 3 in the morning). So it wasn't like he didn't respond to her or anything.

"Did I do something wrong?" James asked, sounding concerned. "Because if I did, I wish you'd just tell me what it was instead of ignoring me. I don't know why girls do this."

Alyssa bit her lip _hard_, so she wouldn't laugh at that.

"You are _not_ giving me the silent treatment. I _thought_ you were original than that," James protested, smirking.

"I _am_ original, and don't you ever forget it," Alyssa bit out.

"Well you sure aren't persistent," James replied.

"I _thought_ you _wanted_ me to talk to you."

"I do!"

Alyssa said nothing.

"Don't do it again! Come on Alyssa, just tell me what's wrong. What did I do?"

"Nothing. To me. Josh told me to stay away from you."

"So…?"

"So you obviously did something to piss _him_ off."

James grew angry hearing this. Who the hell did Josh think he was, telling Alyssa who she could and couldn't talk to?

"I don't even know him."

"Well yeah, I know, but…Josh said he doesn't trust you."

"He doesn't know me well enough to pass judgment," Josh said, his voice hard.

Alyssa winced, remembering how James said he had been judged and bullied most of his life, and it wasn't until he started tenth grade that people stopped teasing him. That summer, he'd changed and turned into the gorgeous Grant Gustin look alike sitting next to her.

"He's not your keeper Alyssa. He can't tell you who to hang out with."

"But he says you're bad news and I trust him."

"How does he know that?"

"He says he knows people."

"And if he says he knows Einstein's Theory of Relativity was wrong, would you believe that too?"

"The Theory of Relativity is a _theory_ so technically, it could be wrong, by the very definition of a scientific theory."

James was quiet for a moment, not expecting that answer at all. 'This girl is _way_ out of my league,' he thought. He had no idea how he could've attracted the attention of a cute girl who was both creative and a genius. His last girlfriend was a cheerleader and a total Prom Queen who made him carry all her stuff and wait on her hand and foot. When a bunch of cheerleaders hit on him his first day at Sheffield, he was worried those were the only girls he attracted. He lucked out meeting Alyssa.

'I guess I have Ellie to thank for that,' he thought. 'And I have this Josh kid to thank if I lose her.'

"I just don't get why you're listening to him. You trust him? Well you trust me too. I know you do because you wouldn't have told me your whole life story if you didn't."

Alyssa didn't say anything, but she did turn to look at him, biting her lip uncertainly.

"I know you're shy and passive, but you have to stand up for yourself and make your own decisions."

"I _do_ make my own decisions!"

"Really? Because you basically told me this decision to stop talking to me is Josh's. Is that how it's going to be Alyssa? Josh tells you to jump and you do it?"

James was growing angrier and angrier. He really liked this girl. Why couldn't she understand Josh was manipulating her? Even though he didn't know Alyssa for very long, and didn't know Josh very well, he always questioned their friendship. Ellie seemed sweet, albeit a bit naïve, and Rae was tough and loyal. They were good friends for Alyssa. All Josh did was tell her what to do. Alyssa had complained to him before that Josh was always on her case. Why was she suddenly listening to him?

"No! That's not how it is."

"Really? Because that's how it seems!" James sighed and his tone softened as he continued. "You should learn to stick up for yourself Alyssa. Josh won't always be around. Neither will Ellie or Rae."

Alyssa looked upset at the mention of Rae not being around forever, and James felt bad for upsetting her, but he had to tell her what he thought. Alyssa was awesome. She just needed to learn to be bolder and more confident. She always seemed that way to him, but whenever she was with anyone else, it was a different story.

She let Josh makes her decisions, based her attitude towards people based on what Rae thought, and let Ellie do all the talking when the two of them were together. He could tell Josh, Rae, and her friend Chris, saw her as someone to protect, someone weak. He was tired of that. It was scary honestly, that he cared so much after such little time; then again, he and Alyssa talked as much as they could. She had even developed a habit of texting in class just so they could keep up with each other.

"How do you know?" Alyssa asked.

He sighed again. "No one stays forever Lyssa." He got up and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

"Well Miss. Ashcroft, if I recall correctly, you're not supposed to be talking to me."

Alyssa grinned at him. "I'm afraid you're wrong Mr. Mason. I'm supposed to be making my own decisions."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie was digging around in her locker at the end of the day Friday when Caty and Rae went over to her. Ellie still wasn't completely comfortable around Rae, but resolved to try her best. There was no way she could repair her friendship with Alyssa if she wasn't nice to Rae. They were sort of a package deal. Of course, that realization just made Ellie more jealous, but she tried not to think about it.

Caty peered inside Ellie's locker. "You'll never find anything if you keep everything such a mess," she said matter-of-factly. "I can organize it for you."

"No thanks. I _like_ it like this," Ellie replied, rolling her eyes. Holier than thou through and through.

"What are you looking for anyway?" Rae asked.

"I need my psychology textbook. We never use it usually, but now my teacher assigned us homework from the book."

"Is that it?" Rae asked, pointing to a large textbook.

Ellie pulled it out and a bunch of loose papers spilled all over the floor. Ellie ignored them to look at the textbook. "American History? I forgot I took that class!" she exclaimed.

Rae and Caty exchanged, 'Wait, what?' looks.

"Um…how do you forget you're taking a certain class?" Caty asked.

"What do you in American History?" Rae inquired.

"Hmmm, is that the class I do my nails in? Or maybe that's the class I catch up on my sleep in. Or maybe that's the one I make the grocery list in."

Caty and Rae just shook their heads at the air guardian.

"Found it!" Ellie cried, stuffing a red textbook into her backpack. She put the American History book and all the papers back in her locker. "So, art studio?"

"We have AcDec today," Caty said.

"Then I guess I'll go hang out with Alyssa at the art studio."

"Don't you have drama today? Beside, Alyssa's in Dance Committee. You're the one who signed her up for it remember?" Rae reminded.

"Oh. Yeah." Ellie's face fell. She understood she'd kind of abandoned Alyssa and Rae was Alyssa's new best friend, but Ellie was Alyssa's friend first. She was confident she could win back her favor and be Alyssa's _best_ best friend again, but not if she couldn't spend any time alone with her.

"Hi Caty," Brian said as he walked by them.

"H-hi Brian," Caty squeaked. '_Alyssa!'_ she screamed in her head. Every time Brian talked to her since the day Gabi helped her, she had Alyssa keep tabs on her mind so that she could telepathically connect Caty to Gabi. Needless to say Alyssa had to practice with her new powers a lot.

"We have AcDec. Want to walk together?" he asked, pulling nervously at the collar of his polo shirt.

Caty nodded wordlessly. "_Alyssa!" _she yelled again.

"_Ow! Caty, you're giving me a head ache. What?"_

"_I need Gabi now!"_

Alyssa sighed in her head, but in a couple of seconds, Caty heard Gabi's voice.

"_What's up?"_

"_Brian and I are walking to AcDec together and I don't know what to say!"_

"_Okay, let's see…what haven't we covered yet? Oh, ask him if he's excited for the dance next week!"_

"So, are you excited for the Halloween Dance?"

"Mildly. What about you?"

"_Ask him what costume he's wearing."_

"Yeah, I always liked the Halloween Dance. What are you going as?"

"Spiderman," Brian replied.

Caty resisted the urge to laugh.

"_And you wonder _why_ I call him Dorkzilla?" _Gabi said with a laugh.

"_Oh trust me, I _never_ questioned that," _Caty replied.

"What about you?" Brian asked.

"_Tell him you can't say."_

"I can't say."

"_It's a surprise."_

"It's a surprise."

"_But it's going to be _sexy!"

"But it's going to be _sexy_!" Caty repeated, then went bright red when she realized what she said. She heard Rae, who was walking a few feet behind them, chuckle quietly.

"Um…" Caty looked down at her shoes, trying to think of something to lessen her embarrassment.

Brian was bright red too. "I don't doubt it," he said quietly, making Caty look up.

"_What does _that_ mean?"_

"_That's got to be a good sign,"_ Alyssa chimed in.

"_It is,"_ Gabi said. _"Nice job Classless-a."_

Caty could practically see Alyssa rolling her eyes. Everyone knew Gabi was jealous Alyssa was the only girl that had caught James' genuine interest.

"So," Brian went on, "remember when you said it's too bad we can't hang out more?"

"Yeah…" Caty said slowly.

"Well I was thinking, we should rectify that situation."

"How?" Caty asked wearily. Did she really want to spend time with Brian?

"_Yes, you do," _Gabi insisted. _"I mean, of course you don't actually _want_ to, but you need to. Remember, Tony broke up with you because you didn't spend any time with him. Boys don't like clingy girls, but they crave attention."_

"_Besides," _Alyssa piped up, _"he many have a crush on you now, but he won't for long if you don't spend any time together. And spending time together is the perfect way to make him fall harder for you. That's what you wanted, right?"_

"_Classless-a's right," _Gabi said, _"and that's something I never thought say when the topic is boys."_

Caty snickered to herself, knowing Alyssa was probably scowling. She wondered if James noticed Alyssa seemed to be scowling at nothing.

"Let's go to the dance together. And we can grab dinner after."

Caty looked at him.

"_Say 'the dance?' Using exactly my tone," _Gabi advised_._

Gabi's tone was thoughtful, so Caty mimicked it. "The dance?"

"Um, yeah, you know…maybe…if you want?"

It was kind of cute how he started off so confident, then started to second guess himself.

"_Tell him sure, and give him a smile," _Gabi said.

"Sure," Caty said, flashing him what she could only hope was a bright smile.

Brian's face lit up, so she assumed she succeeded.

"Great. So should I pick you up or…?"

"Can you drive?"

"No, my mom would take us….oh. Point taken. We'll meet here."

"Sounds like a plan."

Brian smiled as they reached the AcDec room. He went to join Will, Travis, and Nick while Caty joined Misha and Nina. Rae came over and joined them.

"_He really is cute, isn't he?" _

"_Try HOT!" _Gabi replied. _"If only he decided to play sports instead of become friends with books, he'd be Hotzilla instead of Dorkzilla."_

"_Wow, you're cleverness with nicknames never ceases to amaze me,"_ Alyssa said dryly.

"_I think Classless-a Klutzcroft is pure genius,"_ Gabi retorted.

Maybe not genius, but Caty definitely thought they were a bit clever.

"_I heard that Caty!"_

"_Damn telepathy!"_

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie wasn't really sure why she didn't have a single moment alone with Caty and Gabi til now, but she was glad she got it.

It was the end of guardian training. Hay Lin had gone upstairs to start work again. Alyssa had taken that opportunity to tell Team GRACE about a project she wanted to work on. She wanted to get W.I.T.C.H. and the band the girls' boyfriends were in, the insanely popular Wreck 55, back together.

Gabi thought the plan was crazy and didn't support it at all. Josh backed her up (which was weird considering he practically pretended Gabi didn't exist most of the time), and said his mother would never go for it.

However, Chris and Cara backed Alyssa up, saying Hay Lin definitely would. She wasn't really fighting with the rest, but couldn't manage a friendship with them once they fell out of touch with each other. And they were pretty sure most of the other guardians would be okay seeing Hay Lin.

Caty pointed out if that was true, then why hadn't Taranee reached out? Alyssa admitted her mother was stubborn, but was confident together, they could do this. Rae and Sage were already on board; Alyssa had already talked to them. Now Chris and Cara were on her side too.

Ellie wasn't sure how she felt. The five of them clearly didn't want to see each other or else they would've reached out. Then again, she and Adam had talked about how they missed Alyssa, but neither of them had reached out to her and she hadn't reached out to them either. It was hard to rekindle a friendship, but the W.I.T.C.H. women had to miss each other. They were as close as Ellie, Adam, and Alyssa were, but for longer. If she and Adam missed Alyssa, W.I.T.C.H. _had_ to miss each other. It was nice to think they could get old friends back together, and it would be nice to meet the other members of Wreck. Plus she wanted to repair her friendship with Alyssa, so she agreed to it as well.

Caty shrugged noncommittally. She didn't really care either way, but it sounded like a research project, something both she and Alyssa found really interesting and fun. So she was in.

That only left Gabi and Josh. Neither seemed too into the idea, but then Caty said Gabi's name. The two had a conversation just using their eyes, which is something Ellie had seen Rae and Alyssa do a lot. Finally Gabi sighed and agreed to help. That just left Josh. He said no way no how. Alyssa said it would help his image. No one understood what that meant except Josh himself, who went a little red, then finally agreed to help as well.

They made plans to meet the next day. Josh, Chris, and Cara had work, and Sage had made plans with Jade and Milly, but GRACE was free and decided to meet at The Silver Dragon basement to start, then go to someone's house to hide what they were doing from Hay Lin.

Chris, Cara, and Josh all went upstairs to start their shifts. Alyssa, Rae, and Sage went with them. Chris and Alyssa were talking about their latest art project, Sage and Josh were laughing at some private joke or the other (at school, it was easy to forget they knew each other already because they don't hang out together a lot, but after school, it was impossible to forget they were best friends), and Rae and Cara were talking about possible ways to improve Rae's flying skills. It was kind of ridiculous how long it was taking her to learn to fly.

That left Ellie in the basement with Caty and Gabi.

"Guys," Ellie said before they could leave. "I had another dream. Like, you know, those dreams that are actually visions."

"What? When?" Caty asked.

"Monday night."

"Mon-! And you're telling us _now_?" Caty cried incredulously.

"It's a sensitive topic!" Ellie cried. "I wanted to tell you guys, but I couldn't tell the whole team. Josh, Sage, Chris and Cara couldn't be here. And…neither could Alyssa or Rae."

Caty gave the air guardian her best 'WTF' look.

"Just hear me out," Ellie begged.

"Okay Drama Queen, my interest is piqued," Gabi said. "What happened?"

Ellie explained her dream. "So someone is a traitor, and I know who it is. He's closest to Alyssa and Rae. Obviously he'd need to be close to Rae because she's the Keeper, and no one can get close to Rae without also being nice to Alyssa. It's like a rule Rae has. Plus, Alyssa is a really important guardian because she was related to an old guardian. And who do we know who is closest to Alyssa and Rae? Josh!"

Gabi and Caty stared at her for a minute before they burst out laughing.

Ellie pouted and glared at them. "What? It's not funny! Stop it!"

"_Trust_ me," Gabi said earnestly. "Josh is not a spy."

"How do you know that?" Ellie challenged. "Why else would he want to get close to Alyssa?"

"Because they grew up together," Caty said.

"You weren't supposed to _tell_ her that," Gabi said. "For someone who knows everything, you sure don't know what the word 'secret' means!"

Ellie stared at the two in shock. "Wait…what?!"

Gabi, grudgingly, explained to Ellie everything Josh told her.

Meanwhile, Caty went over Ellie's dream in her head. "Ellie, remind me again, what did the boy say about the Halloween dance? How far away did he say it was?"

"One week and four days…why?"

"Because the dance was one week and four days away on Monday. Your dream wasn't a vision of what _will_ happen. Not like your other dreams. This dream was a vision of what was _already_ happening. You must've been having your dream at the same time that boy was talking to Kasson! Do you know what that means?"

"That the Drama Queen has freakier powers than we thought?" Gabi snorted.

Caty rolled her eyes at the Earth guardian's Gabi-esque response. For someone who was trying not to be a bitch all the time, she was really taking baby steps. "No. It _means_ we're going to be attacked on Halloween at the dance. If it was a vision of the future, we couldn't be sure of anything, but since it's was a vision of the present, the attack will definitely happen. It was supposed to be a surprise attack, but now that Ellie had this dream, we know and we can be prepared. And now that we've established that Josh isn't the traitor, we need to tell Rae and Alyssa."

"And the rest of Team GRACE," Ellie said.

Caty nodded.

"Then let's tell them now," Gabi said. "I start my shift in an hour and I'm working til close."

"Why do you work so late every day?" Ellie asked.

"She's trying to avoid her step mom and step sister," Caty said.

"Again…secret," Gabi said. "And anyway, that's not the only reason. I've been taking other people's shifts last week and this whole week and I'll do it til Thursday next week. That way there will be no way Hay Lin won't be able to find me a cover for Friday. I can't work and get ready for the dance. And I've taken a lot of Stella's shifts, and I'm taking a bunch of Anna's shifts too so she'll work for Josh that day."

"Shouldn't Josh be working Anna's shifts?" Caty asked as Ellie telepathically told Alyssa she and the rest of the team needed to come back downstairs.

"Yeah, but I told him I'd do it so he wouldn't have to work extra just to take off for the dance. Maybe, once I remind of this, he'll ask me to the dance."

"Or maybe, you could be a woman of the 21st century, and ask _him_ to the dance," Ellie replied, mimicking Gabi's thoughtful tone.

Gabi opened her mouth to respond, but Caty cut across her.

"She's right. Josh is mad at you, even though now even Rae believes Lana was behind the paper. He's not going to ask you. So you need to ask _him_," Caty said.

"Easy for you to say Encylopediork," Gabi said, putting a light hearted tone behind the old nickname as she had for everyone lately (like Dorkzilla, Drama Freak…Classless-a and Klutzcroft didn't have the same taunting tone, and even New Girl lacked the usual venom). "Your guy asked you to the dance because you hinted you wanted to hang out with him."

"But he already had a crush on me," Caty reminded. "Josh doesn't have a crush on you. You need to make him see you, the real you. The one that I came to like."

"How can I do that if he won't even talk to me?"

"Are you or are you not friends with a genius?" was Caty's reply.

All three girls laughed as Alyssa, Rae, Sage, Josh, and the Lyndons came downstairs, the latter three demanding they make this quick because they needed to get back to work. Hay Lin followed soon after. Ellie thought their teacher should know about the attack too.

After explaining everything to them, Hay Lin decided to step up the guardian training, starting the next day. Then Sage made plans to sleepover with Ellie again so Rae and Alyssa could have their own sleepover, and they all left. But even though they were going to get stronger and prepare for this attack, Ellie couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go very wrong.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it. This chapter is a little longer than most, but I couldn't end it before this because it would've been awkward. The next chapter has more about the old guardians, which I know everyone is excited about, as well stuff about the Halloween dance, so I hope you guys like it!**


	18. Welcome to Team GRACE

**A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy guys!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**And here are the rest of the shouts-outs!**

**Emily: It's your own fault for waiting so long! But omg, yes, I love the way you reviewed, I wish everyone would do it that way! You should do it that way every time! You'll see in this chapter what happens with Taranee and Alyssa. Haha, that was just meant to be a little humor. I actually like Bree's character. She may not be too bright, but she's loyal to a fault and the greatest best friend. Lol, yes, I did think of you when I wrote about the "stare at James" thing. I also think of you with her because she's bold and doesn't hold back when she speaks, just like you. Of course I mentioned The Breakfast Club, I immediately thought of that when Alyssa listed their labels. As I should be! Lol, and you're my favorite person too! I knew you'd like that. I hoped it would be humorous. Hope you like these two chapters. I know you love my double updates.**

**Misa: I'll leave that up to you to figure out. I adore Grant Gustin, he is my celebrity crush! I wouldn't worry too much about James, as you'll see in this chapter. We can sort of agree they're both bitches, haha! Yes, I finally got to the break up. Hopefully there'll be a "make up" in Gabi and Josh's future. Thank you, it's one of my favorite chapters too, for so many reasons. Sienna and Gabi's conversation is one of the reasons. Hold on to that thought about Sienna, you'll need it. Eva won't be mentioned for a little while, but makes a big comeback. That's what I thought about Gabi and Caty too! Hope these chapters were up to your expectations!**

**Taylor: Yes, everyone knows by now Gabi didn't write the article. And as usual, I can't tell you about which couples are going to be a reality, but stay tuned! Thank you! I liked the way I executed it too. I love that whole chapter actually, it's one of my favorites. Alyssa seems to be using her powers a lot, which is interesting and ironic based on what happens in this chapter. Hope you like it!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"You think your mom is mad about the couch?" Rae asked uneasily the next morning.

Last night, while Rae was having an argument with her tablet about how she shouldn't be watching so much Netflix when she had an English essay to write (yes, that actually happened), her anger set of her quintessence. A bolt of lightning struck the loveseat. Alyssa and Rae were sitting on the sofa and shrieked as the lightning caused a fire. Taranee was in the kitchen and shrieked as well, grabbing the fire extinguisher. But before she could use it, Alyssa put out the fire herself.

Rae had apologized profusely, and Taranee had told her it was fine, but she should watch her emotions as she argued with electronic objects until she could control her powers.

"Since when is talking to electronic objects such a normality that you can give me advice about it?" Rae had moaned.

Taranee cracked a half smile and said Will had arguments with them too. Most of the time it was with her cell phone and calculator. Things calmed down when she replaced her old flip phone with a smart phone when she turned fifteen.

Rae laughed at that, apologized again, and she and Alyssa headed upstairs for the night because Rae felt so awkward.

"I think she understands. She was a guardian herself," Alyssa said.

Rae nodded. As the two tried to get rid of their sleepiness (Rae and Alyssa had gone to sleep at five, after talking to their heart's content and texting Jake and James respectively, and though they wanted to sleep til noon, with their English essay, history projects, and biology lab reports looming over their heads, they set their alarms for nine), they talked about the dance. Rae complained how Jake hadn't yet asked her, Alyssa said she and James had made plans to meet at the dance and hang out and dance with each other so that they could technically go together, but not actually call it a date to appease Josh and Chris. Then they talked about Brian and Caty.

"I still can't believe Gabi helped Caty," Rae said as she and Alyssa made their way downstairs.

"Me either."

"You think she actually wants to be friends with some of us?"

"Maybe she's just trying to impress Josh," Alyssa giggled.

"I can't believe she and Jake _just_ broke up and she's already to going after Josh."

"To be fair," Alyssa said, "I'm pretty sure she liked Josh before she and Jake broke up. In a week or so, she probably would've broken up with Jake herself. She wouldn't want the reputation of a cheater."

"Well I'm glad he broke up with her. She needed to be knocked down a few pegs," Rae declared. They both laughed, but shut up immediately when they saw the terrifying glare on Mrs. Ashcroft's face.

"Morning Mom," Alyssa said slowly.

Taranee didn't let up on the glare. "Sit down girls," she said.

The pair did as they were told, not wanting to upset the angry woman any further.

Taranee went over to a cabinet in the kitchen she never let Alyssa open. Alyssa had looked inside once, but it was filled with a bunch of herbs and weird looking items, so Alyssa figured her mom had a weird collection of strange things that she was embarrassed about. As Taranee took out a necklace that looked exactly like The Heart of Kandrakar, Alyssa suddenly realized there may be more to the items that she thought. The necklace's chain was made of brown twine and the stone looked exactly like the heart, but instead of glowing pink, it was clear.

"What's that?" she asked.

"This is Amulet of the Aurameres," Taranee said.

"The Aurameres?" Rae repeated. "Like those weird spheres that give the guardians their power?"

"Yes. The aurameres can be stolen or absorbed, but as long as the Amulet remains in one piece, the guardians' powers aren't compromised."

"Mom, considering I'm not a guardian, maybe this is a conversation just for you and Rae," Alyssa said.

"Sit down Alyssa Joy," Taranee demanded as Alyssa rose. She immediately sat back down.

"Rae, give me the Heart please."

Rae was never very trusting, but she figured there was no harm in giving the Heart to a previous guardian, so she handed it over.

Taranee held the Heart up and murmured a few words. All the girls heard was "Oracle," "aurameres", and "relinquish."

"Mom?" Alyssa asked, but Taranee didn't answer her.

In the next second, everyone in the room began to glow. It started with Taranee. She had a dim orange glow around her. Then Alyssa began to glow orange as well, but her glow was brighter and more apparent.

"Whoa!" Rae cried, jumping back. With a start she realized she was glowing as well, just as brightly as Alyssa, but her glow was pink. "What's going on?"

In the next second, Alyssa's bright glow seemed to be leaving her. It circled the Heart once, then put itself inside the Amulet. The Amulet, that was once clear, was now glowing the same way the Heart did, but orange instead of pink.

Rae and Taranee still had their glows around them, but Alyssa didn't any more. Taranee put the Amulet around her neck. She and Rae finally stopped glowing, and she gave Rae the Heart.

"What was that?" Alyssa asked.

"I am very disappointed in you," Taranee said, ignoring the question. "Last week, when you put out that fire that accidentally started on your curtains, I was already suspicious. I understand accidentally setting something on fire, but putting it out on your own? Pretty difficult without training. But I let it go."

Rae and Alyssa tried to avoid each other's eyes to diminish Taranee's suspicions.

"Then I heard you that night talking about the electricity and hearing thoughts inside your head. Even that I was willing to let go because just like you can't control when something catches on fire, you can't control reading minds. And I was happy to see you and Ellie were becoming friends again."

Now Rae and Alyssa couldn't avoid exchanging looks.

"But last night was the final straw. Putting out your own fire is one thing. Putting out a fire Rae accidentally caused with her quintessence? That definitely requires training. You've been training with Hay Lin every day, haven't you?"

"Uh…"

"Alyssa Joy Ashcroft, don't even _try_ lie to me!"

"Well you already know the answer, don't you?" Alyssa snapped. "Tell me what you just did to me. What was all that with the glows and why did I stop glowing?"

"When the guardians turn 18," Taranee said, "each of them is entrusted with duties of Meridian and Kandrakar. As the most responsible and sensible one of the group, the Oracle entrusted me with magical objects, like the Amulet of the Aurameres. With the Heart, I was able to bring out the magical auras we all have inside of us. Those were the glows. Rae's was pink because her magical aura is that of the Keeper of the Heart, and yours was orange because your magical aura is that of the Guardian of Fire. Mine was also orange, but it didn't glow quite as brightly, because I'm an _ex_-guardian. You lost your glow because with the Amulet, I was able to take away your powers and store them in the amulet. You can't use them any longer."

"_WHAT?!_" Alyssa cried in shock. "But Mom-!"

"No buts Alyssa. I can't believe you lied to me. You never disobeyed or defied me before, even if you didn't like my decision. You always did as you were told and I always trusted you. Now you broke my trust. Why now?"

"Because I have a _duty_ now," Alyssa said, her voice steely. "Being a guardian is my duty. Without me, without any _one of us_, the guardians fail."

"Then so be it," Taranee said.

"You don't mean that."

"I do. You know nothing of how many people I would sacrifice just to save my own daughter."

"How is sending my friends to their death _saving_ me?" Alyssa asked. "Please Mom, don't do this. Give me my powers back."

"No. You will never be a guardian again. I will keep your powers forever. I won't release them until a new fire guardian is picked."

"But Mom-"

"Go to guardian training today, at 3, like you do every Saturday and tell Hay Lin what's going on. It shouldn't take long. I expect you back here by 4. After that, you are grounded."

"Mo-_ther_!" Alyssa protested.

"Not another word," Taranee said firmly, walking upstairs.

"What do we do now?" Alyssa moaned.

"Call everyone," Rae said in her serious, leader voice, "and start guardian training early. Reversing this is going to take a lot more than an hour."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you sure your powers are _gone_?" Caty asked.

"I haven't been able to light anything on fire and create a flame since this morning," Alyssa said.

"Read my mind," Ellie suggested.

Alyssa concentrated and to her surprise, she heard Ellie's thoughts in her mind. She gave Ellie a 'WTF' look.

"You thought _Josh_ was the traitor you dreamed of?"

"It made sense at the time!" Ellie squealed, making Gabi shake her head and laugh.

Caty and Rae stared at Alyssa, open mouthed. "You read her mind," Rae said that.

"You're right…I guess I can still do that."

"Why don't you transform us? Let's see if Lyssa can still go into guardian form," Caty suggested.

Rae nodded, put the Heart around her neck and yelled, "Guardians, unite!"

Rae started to feel a familiar surge of power. The girls all described feeling that sensation when they transformed, but Rae didn't feel it until she was able to use her powers of quintessence. She still wasn't used to it, nor was she used to saying 'quintessence' instead of 'the Heart' and stating her power last instead of first.

"Water!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

Everyone looked at Alyssa, disappointed. She did not state her power, and she was still in human form. She may still be able to read minds, but besides that, she lost all traces of ever being a guardian.

At that moment, Sage, Josh, and the Lyndons came downstairs, carrying drinks for themselves, and everyone else. Even Eric was present today.

Josh looked at the girls in guardian form as he handed Rae her coke, then looked at Alyssa in human form. "You really did lose your powers."

"Well of course. She just told us her mother used the Amulet of Aurameres," Sage said.

"I just never thought she'd do that," Josh said. "She never seemed like that kind of person."

"You're acting like you _know_ my mother," Alyssa said. "Saying hello and good bye to her for a few weeks doesn't count as you knowing each other."

Gabi, Caty, and Ellie secretly exchanged looks.

"I told you I'm good at reading people," Josh lied smoothly.

"Clearly not as good as you thought," Alyssa replied.

"So what do we do now?" Cara broke in. When Alyssa and Rae had first explained the situation, Cara and Chris seemed to be at a loss. They explained the situation to Hay Lin and Eric, but not even Hay Lin knew exactly what to do. She remembered the Oracle explaining what the Amulet did, but since Taranee was the one responsible for magical items, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Irma didn't paid attention. As the leader, Will tried her best, but by the time the Oracle was telling Taranee about the Amulet, he'd already droned on for an hour about different herbs and not even Will paid attention after that.

Luckily, Sage brought along some of her mother's books that she'd kept at Josh's house, and one of them explained certain magical items. The book didn't have all the information on the Amulet, but said enough that it refreshed Sage's memory of the item.

"We have to get the Amulet from Mrs. Ashcroft," Sage said. "And then give it to the Oracle."

Everyone looked at her questioningly.

"Even though Mrs. Ashcroft can use the Amulet to take away Alyssa's powers," Josh said, feeling weird calling Taranee Mrs. Ashcroft since he used to call her Taranee when he and Alyssa knew each other before, "only the Oracle can restore them. And he needs the Amulet to do so."

"Well, what did she do with the Amulet?" Caty asked.

"She's wearing it," Rae said. "As a necklace."

"Can't you take it off her when she's sleeping?" Gabi asked.

"She's a really light sleeper. I could drop a pin on the basement floor and she'd wake up from her closed bedroom two floors up," Alyssa sighed.

"Well what if Gabi takes it?" Caty asked. "She can use her telekinesis. And she can even do it while your mother is awake. What can she do against someone with powers? As an ex-guardian, she doesn't have any powers. And as long as we don't let her get her hands on the Heart again, she can't take your powers away again!"

Alyssa smiled, approving of this idea, even though in the back of her mind, she knew this may break her mother's heart.

"That won't work," Sage spoke up timidly. "In order for the Oracle to restore your powers, Mrs. Ashcroft needs to give up the Amulet willingly. If you take it by force, it'll be worthless."

Everyone groaned at this.

"Don't worry guys, we'll think of something," Hay Lin promised. "I'll give Taranee a call in a couple of hours and see if I can convince her to reconsider."

"Didn't you promise her you'll keep Alyssa off the team if she helped get Josh and Sage scheduled with Chris and Ellie? I think you're the _last_ person she'd want to hear from," Rae pointed out.

"She's right," Eric said. "I was pretty good friends with Taranee. She used to tutor me and I was friends with her brother. She and her brother were really close, so we hung out by default. Maybe I could give her a call."

"That might work," Hay Lin agreed. "You're the best." She gave Eric a kiss on the cheek that made all the girls (except Cara) coo "Aww!"

"What if that doesn't work?" Cara asked.

"I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there," Eric said, unable to think of anything else to say. "How is Taranee's brother anyway Alyssa? I haven't spoken to Peter in years!"

"Uncle Peter is dead," Alyssa said slowly, wondering why they didn't know that. "He died before I was born."

Hay Lin and Eric looked at each other, then at Alyssa, shocked.

"Wh-how?" Hay Lin managed.

Alyssa shrugged. "Mom tells me stories about him all the time, but she won't tell me how he died, and Dad knows, but he won't say anything either."

Hay Lin and Eric looked absolutely flabbergasted.

_"Well, this is awkward," _Ellie said in the other girls' heads. She was the only one who knew about Alysa's late uncle. Alyssa had told her and Adam when they were young.

In a few moments, Hay Lin and Eric directed the conversation back over to Alyssa's lack of powers.

"Hopefully Eric's phone call will work, and Taranee will give you the Amulet.

'You don't know my mother if you think that's happening,' Alyssa thought, but didn't say anything. Hay Lin looked worried enough, so Alyssa figured Hay Lin _did_ know how much of a long shot this was, and was just trying to stay optimistic.

"So…what do we do in the mean time?" Rae wondered.

"Josh can teach me to fight," Alyssa said shrugging.

"When is he supposed to do that?" Rae asked. "In case you forgot, you're _grounded_."

"Well, I can teach her," Chris offered. "I don't necessarily need to be at training every day. Or any day really. So I can come over after school, and we can tell your mother we're working on homework and train."

Alyssa smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like fun! My mom knows you and I have classes together and she knows you're in all the art programs I'm in. If we act natural for a few days, she won't be too suspicious."

"What about today?" Caty asked. "Your mother said you had to be home by 4."

Alyssa looked at the clock. "It's only 11 now. What if we start guardian training early today?"

The others agreed. Team GRACE trained until one o' clock. Rae worked on her aim, Gabi worked on getting more comfortable in the air, Caty tried to see if she could make ice on her own, and Chris taught both Alyssa and Ellie-who learned from Hay Lin that is was good idea for the air guardian to be able to punch and kick- some basic martial arts moves. It was slow going at first because Chris and Ellie got in a fight every few minutes, but it got better when Josh decided to take over Ellie's training.

At 1, the group had lunch and then the group migrated to the basement. Hay Lin and Eric stayed upstairs to continue working, reminding Josh and Gabi their shifts started in half an hour. It was one of the first shifts Gabi and Josh had together in a while. Since the newspaper, Josh had been scheduling his shifts around Gabi's so they'd never work together for more than an hour. He still wasn't speaking to her unless he had to give her a drink order or something. Luckily, his anger at Gabi didn't carry over to Luc, and because he was mad at Gabi, Josh actually had more time to spend with Luc.

"Alright, Chris, Cara, did you get what I asked for?" Alyssa asked.

The siblings nodded and presented Alyssa with dairies, sketchbooks, scrapbooks, photo albums, and old files of their mother's from her guardian days. They would hopefully be helpful with the search for the other guardians.

Gabi said she'd take care of them and the five girls made a plan to meet up later and left. That afternoon, Rae, Gabi, Caty, and Ellie went to Alyssa's house. When Taranee opened the door, she told them sternly that Alyssa was grounded.

"We know that, but we still have that history project to work on," Rae said. The girls had told Taranee about the project last night. "Most of us are in APUSH, so we thought we'd work together."

"And I need Lyssa to tutor me," Ellie added when Taranee, knowing Ellie most likely wasn't in APUSH, looked at her.

"We're required to work in a group," Caty said, which was the truth. "And Gabi, Rae, Alyssa, and I are a group."

That part wasn't true. Rae and Alyssa were working with Jake and Josh, Caty was in a group with Nina, Misha, and Caty's ex Tony, who was still a really good friend of Caty's, and Gabi was working Lana, Chris, and Chris's friend Max. But Taranee didn't know that.

"Okay, go ahead upstairs, but you guys better be working," she sighed. She wasn't sure if she could trust the guardians, but she also didn't want to be responsible for her daughter getting a bad grade.

The girls all started up the stairs. Ellie was struggling because she had in her hands everything the Lyndons had stolen from Hay Lin.

"Little help guys?" she begged.

"Gabi, you have telekinesis! Help her!" Caty said.

"She's air, she can use it like telekinesis."

"Don't be lazy!" Rae snapped. "You have actual telekinesis, just do it."

"Oh fine," Gabi said, groaning exaggeratedly. She telekinetically took the pile from Ellie, but since the pile was now blocking her vision, she tripped over Caty's foot and the pile almost landed on the floor. Luckily, Ellie saved it.

"See? Like telekinesis," Gabi said.

"_You're_ the one who said you'd keep all that in the first place. It's your responsibility," Rae insisted.

"What do you know New Girl?"

"I know how to compose a proper insult you brainless baton twirler," Rae bit back.

"We do _not_ twirl batons!"

"Because pom poms are so much better!"

"They're way more sophisticated than batons."

"Batons are a lot harder to twirl than pom poms are to shake!"

"Okay!" Caty broke in. "I know you guys both hate each other, but stop fighting! Gabi, take the stuff from Ellie again and let's go."

Rae and Gabi huffed, but Gabi did as she was told and the girls headed upstairs. Taranee shook her head. If those were the guardians, she could only imagine how much trouble they'd get into. They had no sense of friendship! It was definitely a good thing Taranee didn't let Alyssa be part of a train wreck like that!

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I can't find a single Will Vandom," Alyssa complained an hour later, staring at her laptop screen. She was sitting on her bed. Caty, Ellie, and Gabi were leaning on the footboard, looking at the photo albums, scrapbooks, journals, and papers that were strewn all over Alyssa's room. Rae was looking at her own laptop, leaning on Alyssa's night stand. "I tried Wilma and Wilhelmina Vandom too."

"It'd be easier if we knew who she married," Caty said. "She probably changed her last name."

"Well either she didn't marry Matt or she's a really private person because I could find any trace of a Will, Wilma, or Wilhelmina Olsen either."

"Try William Collins," Gabi suggested. "He's Will's younger brother. He was born when she was 17."

Alyssa typed that into white pages and got two results. The first one was of a 56 year old man. The second one was an eight-year-old boy. Neither was right. She typed William Vandom into the regular google search bar and got a facebook page of a 27-year-old man. He looked a lot like Will-he had her eyes, face shape, and facial features. He had brown hair the matched the color Will's step father, Dean Collins had (Hay Lin had a lot pictures and captioned them all). Will got her red hair from her father and Alyssa figured William didn't have red hair because they didn't have the same father. Quickly doing the math, if William was born when Will was 17, then he would be 27 now. This must be the guy.

She clicked on the facebook page and to her delight, saw William had no privacy settings. She clicked through his pictures. Most of them were of him, his wife, and their one-year-old son. Then there were some of him and a bunch of other guys, probably his friends. There were a few of him with a raven haired woman, a brown haired man, and red haired woman. Probably his mother, father, and sister! Putting her cursor over the raven haired woman, she saw she was right. She was tagged as Susan Vandom. The man was tagged as Dean Collins. But the red haired woman, who looked like an older version of Will, wasn't tagged. This was a pattern. William had a bunch of family pictures, and Susan and Dean were tagged, but Will wasn't.

"Maybe she doesn't have a facebook," Caty suggested when Alyssa explained this.

"You know, she probably has a career. What if she has a LinkedIn?" Rae suggested.

"Does anyone have an account?" Alyssa asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

"One of us should make one," Ellie said,

"Who?" Caty asked.

"I was thinking you," Alyssa said.

"It makes sense. You have a million activities and skills, a killer GPA, and you know exactly what you want to do with your life and who you need to connect to get there," Rae said.

"But…Alyssa has a better GPA than me."

"But you're more career focused," Alyssa replied, giving Caty her laptop. Then she got off her bed and sat down next to Rae.

Caty sighed, but made a LinkedIn profile while Rae and Alyssa used Rae's laptop to see if they could find any information on Irma and Gabi and Ellie discussed a plan to get the guardians together in one place.

"Okay, I can't find an Irma Lair. Who do you think she married?"

"She went out with Martin Tubbs for a little while. He played keyboard for Wreck," Ellie said, consulting the Wreck 55 section of the scrapbooks.

"She also went out with some guy named Stephen. But her latest boyfriend to date was Joel Stevens," Gabi said. "He was Wreck's drummer when the guys were in middle school, and became their drummer again after Caleb quit, just before the band made the demo that helped them reach the big time."

Then she started muttering angrily under her breath as she did every time the band was brought up. Rae, Alyssa, and Ellie giggled quietly. Gabi hadn't realized until today that Nigel Ashcroft was Alyssa's father (maybe because Alyssa never mentioned it, maybe because she looked nothing like her father, or, most likely because Gabi had called the African American Classless-a Klutzcroft for so long, she forgot what her actual last name was), but she became insanely jealous when she found out this afternoon.

Alyssa typed in Irma Stevens in the google search bar since that seemed to work so well with William and found a facebook page.

Rae clicked on the page and the two girls looked through it. Irma had privacy settings, but they clicked on her profile picture anyway. It was a cute picture of Irma smiling, cheek pressed against a blond man with glasses who was tagged as Joel Stevens. They clicked on her cover picture next. Irma was smiling, standing behind two younger looking people. One was a blond haired, blue eyed woman and the other was a man that brown hair and blue eyes that matched Irma's. The caption on the picture said 'The Baby Lair's 12th anniversary. So happy for them!'

Rae and Alyssa looked at each other. Baby Lair's?

Rae moved her cursor over the two people. The man was tagged as Christopher Lair. The woman was tagged as Lillian Hale-Lair.

"Aww," Ellie said suddenly, looking at a picture. "It looks like Cornelia's little sister and Irma's little brother got married."

"Yeah, I just saw a picture of the two of them with Irma," Rae piped up.

"That's funny considering Cornelia and Irma kind of had a rocky relationship," Caty commented.

"How is it possible for Irma and Cornelia not stay in touch if their siblings are married?" Alyssa wondered.

"Cornelia didn't even mention it when we visited her. Do you think she knows?" Rae asked.

"She has to _know_," Gabi said. "Lillian is _her_ sister."

"I'm not saying we'll be friends forever guys," Alyssa said. "I mean, some of us aren't even friends _now_. But if my brother married, say, Eva-"

"Ew! Your poor brother!" Gabi interrupted.

"-I'd still keep in touch with Gabi."

"Just the fact that we're guardians should keep us together," Caty pointed out.

"It didn't keep W.I.T.C.H. together," Rae replied.

Caty frowned, nodding her head in agreement.

Five minutes later, Caty said she'd searched LinkedIn and found no Will, Wilma, or Wilhelmina with the last name Vandom or Olsen.

"Dean Collins is on there though."

"You think Will changed her last name to Collins?" Ellie asked.

Caty and Alyssa both searched Will, Wilma, and Wilhelmina Collins, but still nothing.

"Okay, maybe we should give up on Will for now," Rae suggested. "I found an Instagram for Irma and it looks like she has a daughter who works at Down the Rabbit Hole. I just got hired there and I start Monday. Maybe I can meet her."

"That would be amazing!" Alyssa cried.

"What's Down the Rabbit Hole?" Ellie asked at the same time.

"The new book store. It just opened a week ago."

"You mean the place that's been abandoned since our _parents_ were kids?" Gabi asked.

Caty nodded. "But last year whoever owns it now bought the space."

"You know, Hay Lin has a lot of pictures of W.I.T.C.H. and Elyon standing in front of the bookstore," Gabi said.

"Maybe it had some significance to them," Alyssa suggested.

"It does. According to one of the diary entries I read, Lord Cedric, that creepy Snake Guy that served Phobos, posed as the human owner of that bookstore to lure Elyon to Meridian," Ellie said.

"So who is this second Snake Guy you keep dreaming about?" Caty wondered.

Ellie shrugged.

"Wait, you said this guy shot webs out of his mouth, right?" Rae asked.

Ellie nodded.

"Well, I remember reading a journal entry on this girl Miranda who could turn into a spider thing and she could shoot webs."

"Oh, this!" Caty cried, grabbing one of the sketch books and showing Rae a picture that was entitled 'Miranda's True Form.'

"Wow that's creepier than I thought," Alyssa shuddered. "Now I'm even more terrified of spiders!"

"Well I was just thinking," Rae said, "I read that Miranda and Cedric were dating so maybe…"

"The new monster Ellie is dreaming about is the spawn of Cedric and Miranda?" Caty asked.

Rae nodded and Alyssa shuddered again.

"What does spawn mean?" Ellie asked.

"Child," Caty replied.

"Well why didn't you just say child?"

"Because spawn has a negative connotation, which was required."

"What does connotation mean?"

"Wow your vocabulary is diminutive," Caty sighed.

"What does-"

"Ellie!" Caty complained.

"Fine, I'll ask Gabi! Gabi what does diminutive mean?"

"How should I know?"

Rae and Alyssa giggled.

A few minutes later, Ellie headed downstairs for a snack. She grabbed a soda from the fridge and a bag of chips when Taranee walked into the kitchen.

"Hi Mrs. Ashcroft," Ellie said, feeling a little nervous around the once sweet woman who took away Alyssa's powers.

"Hello Ellie," Taranee replied, giving the air guardian a warm smile.

The two made small talk for a few minutes before Ellie asked, "Mrs. Ashcroft, what does diminutive mean?"

Taranee laughed. "It's means little or tiny."

"What about connotation?"

"Implication or suggestion. Is Alyssa still using a big vocabulary?"

"It was Caty this time and no one would tell me what the words mean. Gabi doesn't know either, but she doesn't care. I thought this whole guardian thing…" Ellie stopped, realizing mentioning the guardians in front of Taranee may not be the smartest thing, but then decided she had to see her thought through. "I thought it would bring Alyssa and I back together, but she only wants to hang out with Rae and Caty. It makes sense, they're both smart like her."

"You're smart too Ellie," Taranee said, trying not to show her anger at the mention of the guardians.

"Not like them. And at least Alyssa and Rae are nice about it. Caty's so high up on her horse, even a giraffe would have to look up to see her."

Taranee laughed and said, "Everyone has their talents. Maybe academics aren't your strength, but when you sing, it's pure magic."

Ellie blushed, but immediately felt better. "Thanks," she said, exiting the kitchen. At the last minute, she turned around. "Oh, and Mrs. Ashcrfot?"

"Yes?"

"I don't know what Alyssa told you about what happened between us, but whatever she said, it's my fault we're not friends anymore, and there wasn't a single day when I didn't regret it."

Then she fled upstairs before Taranee could respond.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I think it's a little strange you're stalking me to work," Rae declared on Monday.

Chris had gone over to Alyssa's house as he promised and taught Alyssa to fight while the other girls practiced at The Silver Dragon. Taranee had taken John to his karate class as soon as Chris left, so Alyssa had snuck out and met the girls at The Silver Dragon to walk her to work and hopefully meet Irma's daughter. Ellie had decided to tag along.

"We're not stalking," Alyssa said. "We're being supportive friends. And following our only lead."

After Ellie had come back upstairs, the girls spent a couple more hours poring over all the materials and the internet, making copies or taking pictures of anything they thought was important. They hadn't found anything else however. Alyssa gave Chris everything back that afternoon.

"She may not even be working today."

"They just opened. I think everyone will be working every day in the beginning," Alyssa replied.

"Do we know anything about this girl? Her name or anything?"

"I think her nametag in the Instagram picture said Elaine," Rae said. "She looks a lot like Irma. Same blue green eyes, same wavy hair, same facial features. Her hair color is blond, though, like her father's."

Rae, Alyssa, and Ellie were passing an alley when the Heart vibrated in Rae's pocket.

"Hold on," she said, ducking into the alley. As she thought, she saw a portal.

From the other side of the alley, the girls saw the figure of a boy. As he got closer, they recognized him.

"James!" Alyssa exclaimed.

"Hey Lyssa," he said. He looked at the portal and his eyes widened. "Uh…what's that?"

"Um…" Alyssa looked at Rae and Ellie helplessly, but neither offered an answer.

Before anyone could say anything more, the portal began to make a noise and the Heart began to vibrate more violently. Hay Lin said this meant someone-or something-was coming out of the portal.

Ellie screamed and the other girls jumped in fight as they saw what came out of the portals: Snake Dude!

"That's him," Ellie whimpered unnecessarily.

Alyssa kept her eyes on James, who visibly stiffened. His jaw dropped open and his eyes were filled with terror.

"Guys, we need to protect him," she said.

"And ourselves," Rae muttered, taking out the Heart. They weren't supposed to show humans their powers, especially now that they knew if there was something that made people forget what they saw, Taranee was the one who had it, but she didn't see what choice they had.

Once Snake Dude caught sight of the Heart, he grinned sadistically. "Guardianssssssss," he hissed in delight.

"Guardians, unite!" Rae yelled.

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

Once Rae said her power, she realized how outmatched they really were. There were only two of them, and even in Ellie's dream, Rae was no match for Snake Dude, and that dream must've been way in the future. How were she and Ellie supposed to hold their own right now?

"Give me the Heart," Snake Dude insisted.

Rae looked at Alyssa, trying to communicate with her eyes that they needed a telepathic link.

"_Can you both hear me?"_ Alyssa asked in their heads.

"_Didn't Big Scaly and Ugly get the memo that the attack was supposed to go down on Halloween_?" Ellie asked in lieu of a response.

"_Guess he's out of the loop,"_ Rae replied. "_Alyssa, we'll distract him. You get James-and yourself- to safety."_

Alyssa nodded.

"You want the Heart?" Rae asked Snake Dude. "Come and get it!"

Snake Dude lunged. Rae shot a bolt of electricity at him. Thanks to some really good luck, it hit Snake Dude's eye, making him scream in pain.

Alyssa ran forward, making sure his other eye didn't catch sight of her and grabbed James' arm.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!"

"But…what is that? And why are Ellie and Rae flying?"

"I'd hardly call what Rae is doing flying," Alyssa retorted, grimacing as Rae hit her shoulder on a wall while trying to fly above Snake Dude. Snake Dude laughed.

"You're pitiful Keeper," he said.

"And you're ugly. But we won't hold that against you," Rae replied, launching another bolt of lightning at him.

Alyssa held back a giggle. Anyone could see Rae was terrified, but she still managed to be her sarcastic self.

She focused on James as Ellie sent a tornado at Snake Dude. "Come on, let's _go_!" she insisted.

James nodded and followed Alyssa into an adjoining alley. She peeked back to see how her friends were doing.

"What's going on?" James asked.

'How do I explain this to him?' Alyssa wondered. "I'll have to tell you later. Right now, you need to get out here."

"And what about you?"

"I have to stay."

"So you can do what, get killed?" James asked. "Look, Alyssa, I have no idea what's going on. In fact, there is a very good chance that I'm dreaming right now. But if I'm not…Rae and Ellie started to glow and changed clothes and sprouted wings. But you? You stayed the same."

"I used to be able to change," Alyssa said.

"But you can't anymore. What can you do here besides get in the way?"

Alyssa glared at him, but then realized he was right. There was nothing she could do. Even her second power, which she managed to keep, wouldn't help them here. Once she set up a mental link, Rae and Ellie could use it until they changed back to humans. She had no powers. Now she knew how Rae felt.

But she could still contact the others. Between Rae's painful power and Ellie's swift movements, they were doing okay, but it wouldn't last.

_"Caty, Gabi, can either of you hear me?"_

_ "Lyssa? What's going on?" _Caty replied.

_"Oh thank God! Caty, we're in trouble. The Snake Dude Ellie dreamt of, the one we thought could be Cedric's kid, is here. He came out of the portal and I don't think Ellie and Rae can hold him off on their own."_

_ "Where are you guys?"_

_ "Remember the alley behind the closed down Best Buy? The one our science groups went to in fifth grade to study the moss?"_

_ "That was Travis's stupid idea," _Caty sighed. _"I'm on my way. Keep trying to get in touch with Gabi."_

"Alyssa?" James asked.

"Remember that day during dance committee when it looked like I was glaring at no one?"

"Yeah…"

"That's because I have telepathy," Alyssa explained, seeing no harm in telling him. He already saw Snake Dude and the girls' guardian forms. "I can communicate with others telepathically. Well, not everyone, just the other two girls who can transform like Rae and Ellie can."

"Wait, there are others?"

Alyssa nodded, wondering whether or not to tell him who the other guardians are. She finally decided that she'd tell him if Caty and Gabi showed up.

"Two others like I said. I just contacted one. I need to contact the other."

"You could use your cell phone you know," James pointed out.

"I don't have her number," Alyssa admitted. She could've used her phone to contact Caty, but Caty and Alyssa were almost always listening for each other. It was easier for them since both their second powers centered around clairvoyance. And she didn't have Gabi's number.

_"Gabi, come _on!_ What are you doing? We need you!"_

_ "Well of course,"_ came Gabi's voice, and Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief. _"Brian already asked Caty to the dance. What else could she possibly need help with?"_

_ "Avoiding death," _Alyssa replied as she saw Caty running over to them. She let Gabi search her mind.

"_Shit," _was Gabi's response. _"But we're literally two minutes away. Be there soon!"_

"Gabi's on her way," Alyssa said when Caty got over to them

"Good. Um…" she looked at James.

Alyssa quickly told her what James had seen. By the time she was done, Gabi had arrived too, with Josh and Sage. So that's who 'we' was.

"I got this," Sage said, very Earth-like. She started to head toward the battle, but Josh held her back.

"Sage, that thing probably knows who you are," Josh said.

"So?"

"_So_, as the only member of the Martin/Brown royal family that wasn't captured, you need to stay hidden. No one can know what you are. Whoever Big, Green, and Slimy is, he's working for Kasson, and if he sees you, that's it. You need to trust the rest of us to take care of it."

"I can defeat that thing in two seconds flat with my magic," Sage complained. "And once I do, we don't have to let him go back to Meridian."

"Someone will come for him," Josh insisted.

"He's right," Alyssa agreed. "Look, the four guardians and Josh together may have a chance of defeating him, but probably not. What we need to do is get him back through the portal, then close it before he can cross over again. If he gets defeated, Kasson will definitely know there are more powerful forces here than just the guardians."

"I'm not standing back while my friends are in danger," Sage replied, her voice steely.

"Oh yes you are," Caty said.

_'You will stay here and not join the battle.'_

_ 'You will stay here and not join the battle.'_

_ 'You will stay here and not join the battle.'_

__"I'll stay here and not join the battle," Sage said. For a moment, everyone was confused. Then Sage glared at Caty and said, "Hey!" Everyone but James understood.

Josh drew his sword and charged towards Snake Dude. He slashed every which way. Rae took that opportunity to change the other girls.

"Guardians…uh, Caty and Gabi…unite!"

"Water!"

"Earth!"

"More guardianssss," Snake Dude hissed, throwing Josh back with his tail.

Ellie looked confused for a second. When Snake Dude threw Gabi away with his tail in her dream, she went so far, she was probably dead. So why now did Snake Dude throw Josh so lightly that he was able to get back up again? And how was it possible she and Rae were able to keep Snake Dude busy for so long? Was he going easy on them?

Snake Dude reached one large, ugly hand toward Caty and the other toward Rae.

Caty squealed, flew back, and blasted water from a nearby puddle at his face. Rae shot some lightning at his hand at the same time. But she was tired and it was a small bolt.

Snake Dude grinned sadistically. "Ticklesssss," he commented.

_"I'm getting _really_ tired of that hissing,"_ Ellie said in the other girls' heads.

_"I'm getting really tired of my power being useless," Caty replied._

All the girls expected a 'Learn to create ice and maybe it won't be' from Gabi, but she said nothing. They all turned to her and saw she was frozen in fear and shock.

"Shit," Alyssa muttered. She had just realized this was Gabi's first battle and even though there were a couple hundred monsters when the girls had their first battle, this guy was more powerful that all of those monsters, and he looked a lot scarier.

"Gabi, not the time to freeze!" Rae warned as Josh tried to stab Snake Dude.

"Little help guys!" he grunted.

Ellie shot a few air blasts Snake Dude's way while Rae kept trying to get through to Gabi.

"Gabi, snap out of it!" Caty yelled finally. Gabi did, immediately.

"Good job," she said finally.

"Good…wait, did I make you do that? Like, with my mind control?"

"Were you not going for that?"

"No."

Gabi sighed. "It's really scary hanging around you guys," she said.

"I can attest to that!" Ellie giggled.

Rae shot a lightning bolt at Snake Dude while Caty said, "Ellie, when did you learn the word attest?"

"Why are you treating me like I'm five?" Ellie whined.

"You might as well be," Gabi replied. She looked at Caty. "So…what exactly do we do?"

"You mean in this battle? Whatever you can do," Caty replied. She tried to get water from the air to drench Snake Dude and it worked. It hit him so hard, he even got hurt.

"Rae, use your lightning. Water conducts electricity!" Caty cried.

Rae nodded and shot her hand up to the sky. "Caty, Ellie, I need your help."

The girls nodded. They realized together, they could create storms, which helped all three of them with their powers.

While they worked their magic, Gabi kept Snake Dude busy. She started by creating as Eartquake. Snake Dude lost balance, but so did Josh, Alyssa, James, and Sage.

"Sorry!" Gabi cried. She started hitting him with boulders, which worked for a while til Snake Dude started catching them and crushing them.

Gabi squealed, then realized she wasn't out of tricks yet. She closed her eyes and sensed vines below ground. She opened her eyes again, raised the vines and turned Snake Dude into a vine wrapped mummy. Then, gathering all her strength, she squeezed her hand, squeezing the vines tighter and tighter around Snake Dude.

At first, Snake Dude was crying out these weird, high pitched shrieks of pain. But then Gabi began feeling weaker and losing stamina, and Snake Dude broke out of her vines.

"How's that storm coming along?" Gabi asked as she grew a cactus in front of her. She got no response.

"Great," she muttered to herself. She grew the cactus larger and struck Snake Dude with the thorns. He cried out in pain again. Josh took the opportunity to jump on his tail and stab his sword in. Snake Dude was in more pain.

He reached behind him, grabbed Josh in one hand, and the sword in the other.

"Josh!" Gabi screamed, her voice panic ridden.

Snake Dude tossed Josh aside as if he were nothing. Gabi saved him using her telekinesis. Snake Dude broke Josh's sword.

Using her telekinesis, Gabi lowered Josh to the ground, and telekinetically unholstered Sage's dagger and made it float towards Josh. He grabbed it.

Gabi looked at Snake Dude, wondering what she could do next when it suddenly got dark. Looking up, Gabi saw gray clouds fill the sky. She heard thunder, and it started to rain.

A lightning bolt struck, followed another clap of thunder. Rae harnessed the power of the lightning and struck the now drenched Snake Dude. He fell to the ground, his body smoking. Rain was still falling. Caty nodded to Ellie, and she blew on Snake Dude, freezing him.

The girls began to cheer. It looked like they actually won. They all flew down to the ground. Caty, Gabi, and Ellie landed gracefully, but Rae fell.

"Damnit!"

"I wonder if Will was this bad at flying or if you're a special case," Caty mused out loud, helping Rae up. The storm died down. The rain let up, the thunder stopped, and the dark clouds were floating away.

"Guys, that was amazing!" Alyssa cried as she, Sage, and James joined them.

"Okay, there's an even bigger chance I'm dreaming now," James said. "Although my dreams are usually not this imaginative."

"What are we doing about him?" Josh asked.

"Him?" James repeated.

"That was kind of rude Josh," Alyssa said. "Anyway, I thought we'd just tell him everything."

"Everything? That's a terrible idea," Josh declared.

"Why?"

"Because he's human!"

"Are the rest of you not human?" James asked.

"Of course we are," Gabi announced. "Josh is just being petty."

Josh glared at her, but it was tamer than the glares he'd been giving her lately. Maybe he wasn't mad at her anymore? She _did_ save his life after all.

"We can just make him some drink that will make him forget everything."

"That stuff exists?" Alyssa asked.

"Of course it does, but your mother has the herb we need. Otherwise, I would've made it for Eva already," Josh said.

"How do you know my mother has it?"

"Because she has all the magical items and herbs."

"Well, why can't we just steal some?"

"I have no idea how it looks. And we can't risk getting caught. She already took your powers. Imagine what else she could do."

"Wait, what?" James asked.

"Well what if you guys ask my mom? You don't have to tell her that I was part of this," Alyssa suggested.

"Does she even know how to use these herbs?" Rae asked.

"Yeah, she's done it before," Josh answered immediately before realizing what he just said. He exchanged panicked looks with Sage. So Sage knew about Josh and Alyssa's previous friendship. Made sense.

"How do you know _that_?" Alyssa asked suspiciously.

Josh gave Gabi a 'Do something!' look. She wasn't sure why he couldn't just _tell_ Alyssa, and anyway, she had no idea what _she_ could do, so she looked at Caty for help.

Caty's eyes widened, and she looked at Ellie who looked back at Gabi. Josh glared at Gabi, angry again, as he realized she'd told Caty and Ellie his secret. Gabi went red and wished for some sort of distraction.

They heard a roar and saw Snake Dude was getting up.

'I _really_ need to be careful what I wish for,' Gabi thought.

Snake Dude looked right at them. Immediately, Alyssa and Josh blocked Sage from view. Snake Dude roared again.

Ellie shook her head. That roar lacked the ferocity his roars in her dream held. He was definitely going easy on them. But maybe now he'd rethink that?

Rae had lightning sizzling around her hands, ready to attack. Gabi raised large, long vines all around Snake Dude.

Snake Dude ripped through the vines and went through the portal. Everyone's mouths dropped open.

"Did he just…leave?" Caty asked incredulously.

"But he could've won if he fought at full strength," Alyssa said in wonder. "So why wouldn't he stay?"

So Alyssa noticed he wasn't giving the fight his all too.

"Yeah, why'd he leave?" Gabi asked.

"Who cares?" Josh broke in. "Close the portal before anything else can come through!"

"Oh, right!" Rae raised up the Heart, closed the portal, and changed them back.

"So now what?" Caty asked.

"We better tell Hay Lin," Sage said.

The others nodded.

"I have to go to work," Rae said. "But I don't actually have a shift. It's just orientation. It'll only take an hour. I'll meet you guys later, okay?"

Alyssa nodded. "I'll probably be home by then. Still grounded. But yeah, I think everyone else will still be in the basement?" She looked at everyone questioningly. They all nodded.

"Okay, see ya!" Rae headed to the bookstore.

"Alright, let's go," Josh said.

"Are we bringing James with us?" Ellie asked.

"We probably should," Caty said.

"What do you say? Up for an explanation?" Alyssa asked.

James nodded. "Please," he said.

The group started off. "So what's the basement?" James asked. "Is that like a secret club or a hangout?"

"You're really dense, aren't you?" Josh asked rudely, hardly believing that the person he hated most was going to be the Earth human that found out about GRACE. He knew it was only a matter of time before _someone_ figured it out. Between Rae starting a storm in the school when she and Gabi were fighting to Alyssa, Caty, and Gabi having telepathic conversations in the middle of the street, these girls weren't that careful. But he thought the person to find out would be Jake. Not someone he particularly liked, after finding out Jake was in the "lead" for Rae's affections, but someone he could at least trust. James on the other hand wasn't someone he trusted at all. Alyssa on the other hand…

"Shut up Josh!" she snapped. She looked at James and smiled. "Actually, the basement in an actual basement."

"Oh. Of what?" James asked.

"The Silver Dragon," Gabi replied.

James stopped for a minute, confused, before following the group. "The _Chinese_ restaurant?"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next day, Alyssa felt really nervous to finish up preparing the gym for the dance. The day before, the group had taken James to The Silver Dragon and explained to him the whole story. Sage decided she trusted him, and everyone fell in line with her. Hay Lin wasn't too happy (neither were Josh or Chris), but they couldn't really do anything about it.

James was really freaked out at first, trying to wake himself up from what he was sure was a dream, but after a while, he seemed to get into it. He calmed down, accepted everything was real, and even helped them figure out that Snake Dude wasn't really attacking them, but _testing_ them, to see how their powers were coming along, so Kasson's forces wouldn't be outmatched for the Halloween attack.

But now Alyssa was worried. Would having a night to sleep on all this freak him out again? Would he not want to talk to Alyssa anymore? What if he exposed GRACE somehow? Would that be her fault then?

She helped Ellie and Josh decorate that afternoon, telling them her fears.

"Just go _talk_ to him Lyssa. If he wanted to tell our secret, he would've done it yesterday when he found out," Ellie insisted.

"You don't know that," Josh disagreed.

"You just don't like him," Ellie replied, rolling her eyes. "I think it was impressive that he saw a mad scary snake creature and saw us transform, and didn't run away. And, after I said Snake Dude didn't seem to be trying in our battle, _he_ was the one who said he might've been testing us."

"I know, I know," Alyssa said. "But what if he does keep our secret, but he never wants to talk to or see me again?"

"I don't see the problem with that," Josh replied.

Ellie and Alyssa both threw rolls of tape at him. Jake scowled at them, then ran to grab more streamers.

"I think the only reason he'd ever stop speaking to you is because you're making him blow up balloons all by himself," Ellie said.

"Ellie, you should be the one blowing up balloons. You'd do so well," Alyssa joked.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Aren't you guys going to the dance together?"

"No. We decided we'd just meet at the dance and dance with each other and hang out."

"So you're going to the dance together…separately?"

"Yeah. Because Josh doesn't want me talking to him, and even though I told him I wouldn't stop, James didn't want him to get angry with me so he decided not to ask me to the dance."

"That was sweet of him. He likes you."

"That was before he found out."

"If he really didn't want to see you again, he'd at least tell you that you guys aren't on for your pseudo-date," Ellie pointed out.

"Pseudo-date? Impressive word Ells."

Ellie gave her an annoyed look. "Why does every one think I don't have a good vocabulary? So I may not be good at history or math or whatever science class it is I'm taking…but I am good at English."

"The reason no one knows that is because you don't even know what science class you're taking," Alyssa replied, rolling her eyes.

Rae walked in at that moment, with Chris.

"You ready?" they asked the girls in unison.

Both girls nodded.

"Rae, has Jake asked you to the dance yet?" Alyssa asked.

Rae rolled her eyes. "No. At this point, I've lost hope. The dance is in three days."

"Hey Josh, did you hear Rae still doesn't have a date for the dance?" Alyssa said pointedly as Josh returned with the streamers.

"That's too bad," he muttered.

"Who are you going with?" Alyssa prompted, hoping to get Josh to ask Rae. If she really thought Jake wasn't going to ask her, she may say yes to Josh.

Josh shifted uncomfortably, cleared his throat, and said, "Come on, we only have a few minutes to get these streamers up."

Alyssa frowned, then realized why he was acting so strange. "You have a date, don't you? Who is it?"

Josh glared at her, then sighed, and said, "Gabi."

For a minute, everyone just stared at him. Then Rae and Alyssa collapsed into giggles.

Chris just shook his head. "I had no idea your goal for the dance was to die."

The girls laughed harder.

"Gabi Shay?" Alyssa asked. "How did she manage that?"

"What possessed you to say yes?" Rae asked between laughs.

"Guys, Gabi's trying to change," Ellie defended. She was actually there when Gabi asked Josh. "We should at least give her credit for that."

Alyssa and Rae gave her strange looks for standing up for Gabi.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Figures you would side with Gabi Shay. Neither of you have the decency to avoid passing judgement on good people and neither of you know how little you're worth in life."

Everyone gasped at this. Chris and Ellie always fought, but Chris had never said something like that before. He wasn't a mean guy. In fact, he tried to avoid saying nasty things about anyone, always keeping his negative opinions to himself, never engaging in gossip, and trying his best to be civil to people he hated.

"Chris, that was mean!" Alyssa cried. "You don't have to like Gabi. I don't. But you need to apologize to Ellie."

"Never going to happen," Chris replied, walking out of the gym.

"What the hell was that?" Rae wondered.

"Are you okay?" Alyssa asked Ellie.

She nodded. "I learned not to put too much merit on what Chris says, but that even surprised me."

"Should I go punch him?" Josh asked hopefully.

"Why does it sound like you _want_ to punch your best friend?" Alyssa asked wearily.

"First of all Lyss, _you're_ my best friend…besides Sage of course. Which is why I find it surprising that you haven't realized Chris and I have been at odds for weeks."

"But you guys always back each other up when you badmouth James."

"The fact that he's bad news is the one thing we agree on."

"He's _not_ bad news, you're wrong about him," Alyssa replied, rolling her eyes. "But why are you and Chris fighting?"

"Oh, there are a lot of things we're fighting about. Stuff I can't tell you."

"Stuff you can't tell Alyssa? Your best friend?" Rae repeated dubiously.

Josh didn't seem to have a reply for that, but was saved from answering when James walked up to them.

"Alyssa, can we talk?" he asked.

Alyssa nodded and walked to the other side of the gym with him. She let Ellie and Rae into her mind so they could hear the conversation and fill Josh in.

"Are you mad at me?" James asked.

Alyssa stared at him in shock. He thought she was _mad_ at him?

"What? No! Not at all!"

"Then why did work with Ellie and Josh instead of me? I mean, I get if you want to spend some time with your friends, although between school and guardian training, you're already with them a lot, but you wouldn't even _look_ at me."

"Yeah, I…I was nervous. I wasn't sure how you felt about the whole guardian thing," Alyssa admitted.

"Well, actually, I wanted to talk to about that. Clear something up for me. Josh and Cara taught Rae how to fight when Rae didn't have powers yet, right?"

"Um, yeah."

"And Chris is teaching you how to fight?"

"Yes."

"And Sage knows how to fight too, and sometimes teaches Ellie?

"Yeah…why?"

"Because I want to learn to fight too."

"What?"

"In case it hasn't been made clear yet, I care about you Alyssa. A lot."

Alyssa winced as Ellie and Rae squealed inside her head. James gave her a look of concern, but she motioned for him to go on.

"I was freaked out yesterday, but I understand this is a part of your life. So why shouldn't I be a part of it too? If I learn to fight, I can help you guys."

"James, you don't understand how dangerous this whole thing is. The guardians have a duty to protect any world that needs help, and without my powers, I can't help them. And without me-"

"Their power is diminished, I know," James said. "Which is all the more reason to let me help. You need more power on your side."

"Well I don't see how you can find someone to train you anyway," Alyssa said stubbornly. "Josh and Chris both hate you."

"Sage and Cara don't. If I recall correctly, Sage was the one who vouched for me yesterday. She's the closest friend I have here at Sheffield, besides you."

"But…you can't!" Alyssa said desperately. She was so happy, she was near tears, when he told her he cared about her and he understood the guardian thing was part of her life. But now she was near tears again, because she was worried about what could happen if she allowed James to be part of this.

_"It's not like we'll _let_ him get killed. We'll protect him,"_ Rae said in her mind. _"And we won't let him come on a mission or help us unless we're convinced he's ready."_

_ "And how cute would it be for your boyfriend to be on the team?"_ Ellie cooed.

_"_Not_ my boyfriend…yet…and _not_ the point Ells,"_ Alyssa replied.

"Are you having a telepathic conversation?" James asked.

_"See how much he knows? He could be a great asset!" _Ellie squealed.

_"Asset? Nice word for you Ellie," _Rae said.

_"God, I'm not stupid!" _ Ellie exploded, making Alyssa's head hurt. _"I really need to figure out what science I'm taking."_

Alyssa began to laugh as Rae asked, _"What?"_

James looked at her expectantly.

"Uh, yeah, I am."

"So what do you say about me joining the team?"

Alyssa sighed. "Okay, here's the deal. I'll let Sage train you if you abide my rules."

"What rules?"

"You stick with one of the members of Team GRACE during all times when we're being attacked, or even at guardian training. If we tell you to run, you run, and if we tell you to hide, you hide. You follow our every order to the letter. This includes the attack on Halloween at the dance. You will not go off on your own or try to fight an enemy until Sage deems you ready. Understood?"

"Yes, absolutely, I promise!" James said earnestly. "So is that yes to getting trained?"

Alyssa smiled. "Welcome to Team GRACE."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty was waiting for the rest of the team outside the art studio. She wasn't sure why they kept meeting here when most of the team was in the gym, but she didn't question it. Nina and Misha waited with her, so she didn't mind. The three of them were laughing their heads off when Gabi and Sage joined them.

"Hey Gabs. Hi Sage," Caty greeted.

Misha and Nina's eyes widened at Caty's use of a friendly nickname for Gabi, but neither said anything.

"Caty, why do you look like you're trying to walk on a balance beam?" Gabi asked.

The water guardian had her hands out, trying to keep her balance.

"These pumps are killing me. They hurt my feet and they're so hard to walk in."

"They're stilettos. What did you expect?" Gabi replied flippantly.

"Why do I need them?"

"Did you see the way Brian looked at you when you walked through the arch this morning?" was Gabi's response.

"For_get_ Brian. You know who's been taking an interest in you since you've been coming to school with you new look?" Nina asked. Without waiting for an answer, she said, "Tony DeLuca."

Caty went bright red. She hadn't told anyone except Nina, but she and Tony had remained friends after they broke up, she developed real feelings for him. But since their short lived relationship, Tony had four girlfriends, all of whom were cheerleaders, and Caty was too scared to ask for a second chance, convinced he wasn't into her "type" anymore. Sure he was in the top 10 in terms of class rank, but he was in the jock clique, so why would he want to date a nerdy girl like Caty when he could date a popular cheerleader?

"Isn't it kind of shallow for him to notice Caty because she has a new look?" Misha asked.

"Tony's not shallow!" Caty defended immediately.

"And that's not exactly what I mean," Nina added. "See, I've been noticing him staring at her, and Caty, haven't you noticed him being a little bit antsy around you lately?"

"Just for the first few days of my new look," Caty said.

"Well I finally confronted him today, and asked him what he thought of your new look. And he said you look really pretty, and it's great that you got a new look if you like it, but he hopes you didn't do it for someone else's happiness."

Caty smiled a little. Tony hadn't been to her house or really heard her complain about her family since they broke up. It was nice to know he still remembered one of Caty's biggest complaints about her mother was she always wanted Caty to be a little girlier and work a little harder on her appearance, while Caty always thought taking care of one's appearance was shallow and never wanted to work on something that would take time away from her school work and clubs. It was only recently, thanks to Gabi, that Caty realized the whole "dress for success" philosophy was true, and it didn't take long for her to take care of her appearance.

"And then," Nina went on, "I asked him if he liked this look better and he said he liked it fine, but he liked your old look better because it was more you. He said he doesn't care how you look as long as you're happy, because he thinks you're beautiful no matter what."

Caty's face looked like a tomato.

"Told you that you could get a real boyfriend," Gabi said. "And it sounds like Tony still likes you."

"We broke up the first time because I spent more time obsessing about Brian than hanging out with him," Caty said. "This new look is for Brian. Let me get the application in, then I can think about getting real boyfriend."

"Maybe you don't have to be Brian's girlfriend," Sage ventured. "Maybe just be nice to him and become friends and he'll still write you a good evaluation and you can get a real boyfriend, and you don't have to play him."

"This isn't _just_ for a good eval," Misha said. "It's also payback for him a being a horrible human being and a jerk who always tried to purposely hate Caty out of pure jealousy and insecurity. He deserves whatever he has coming."

Nina, Caty, and Gabi nodded, and Sage realized she'd never win this argument.

"So should we all get ready together for the dance?" Gabi asked, meaning GRACE.

Caty nodded, also thinking in terms of GRACE.

Misha and Nina got a different meaning from that. "Us?" Misha asked. "I don't think we'd really mesh well."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Well good thing I didn't mean you two. I meant Caty, Ellie, New Girl, Classless-a, and I. Oh, and you of course, Sage."

"Well Caty can't," Nina said. "She always gets ready with us."

"Well she won't be this time," Gabi replied.

Misha looked at Caty.

Caty blushed. "Sorry guys. I already agreed to get ready with them."

"You'd rather get ready with your tutor circle than your best friends?" Misha asked.

"It's not like that!" Caty cried. GRACE planned to get ready together, at Rae's house, to go over last minute strategies for the impending Halloween attack. She hadn't realized it would not sit well with her friends.

"Caty, you're going to the dance with Brian. You have to dance with him, and see if you can get his friends to dance with you to make him jealous," Misha said. "You're not going to be spending any time with us and you have to be home after because Lili's family is staying over. You need to get ready with us so we can spend time together."

"She sees you in school and all her activities. Why does she need to get ready with you?" Gabi asked rudely.

"We wouldn't expect you to understand since one of your "best friends" is also a girl you happen to hate," Misha shot back.

"Lana is my frenemy," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. "And besides, haven't you ever heard of 'keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer?'"

"This is high school. You need to chill," Nina said.

"For you it's just high school. For someone with as much power as me, it's a battleground."

Nina and Misha couldn't even formulate a response to that, and turned back to Caty.

"Caty, just cancel on your tutor circle. They're not your friends, we are."

"Aren't Classless-a and New Girl your friends too?" Gabi reminded.

"Invite them to get ready with us," Nina suggested. "We like Alyssa and Rae, it's fine."

Caty shook her head. She wanted to get to ready with Nina and Misha. They were right; if she didn't spend time with them before the dance, she would barely see them at all. But she needed to stick with GRACE, and she couldn't let Misha and Nina hang out with GRACE if they were going to talk about the guardians.

Caty never realized, but she really wanted to tell them about the guardians. Nina and Misha were her _best_ friends. She's known Misha for six years, and she'd been friends with Nina for even longer…fifteen years! They had no secrets until the beginning of this school year. Now she was hiding who she really was from them. Gabi had mentioned how she wanted to tell her brother, and Alyssa said she felt better now that James knew. Rae wished she could tell Jake, and Ellie wanted her brother to know as well, but Caty didn't want to tell anyone until now.

"I…I _can't_ guys. I'm sorry," Caty said, desperately hoping they'd understand. "I promised GRACE."

"Grace?" Nina repeated, confused.

"It's the name of our…_tutor_ circle," Gabi said, rolling her eyes at the fact that Caty used the excuse of 'tutor circle' to appease her friends, and used their lame acronym outside of Team GRACE's confinement. "It was not my idea to name us though, trust me."

"I think it's nice," Caty said. "It's our initials put together. Gabi, Rae, Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie. It spells GRACE."

"You've been friends with these people, for what two months, and you've come up with an acronym for yourselves?" Misha asked. "In case you've forgotten, _we're_ your _best_ friends."

"If you ask me, she's better off without you guys," Gabi said.

"Gabi!" Caty protested.

"No one asked you, did they?" Misha replied snidely.

"No one has to. I'm giving my opinion anyway," Gabi said, filling Caty with a sense of dread. "Here's how I see it. The only good thing about Sheffiled is their dances. We have the _best_ parties here. So much so that kids from _other_ schools try to sneak in. The Halloween Dance is the only good thing about Autumn, and we don't get another party like this until Christmas. We need to _enjoy_ it. How is Caty supposed to do that with a bunch of nerdy losers who stay huddled in a corner the whole time?"

"Gabi, enough!" Caty said.

"At least we're not slutting it up in the middle of the dance floor," Misha shot back.

"At least I can actually _dance_," Gabi replied. "I know the concept of _fun_ is foreign to you people, but-"

"_You people_?!" Misha cried, outraged. "As in us nerds? Let me tell you something Gabi Shay. We are the best and brightest the school has to offer and you're the one that damaged our name, our contributions, and our self-esteem. What gave you the right to judge and sort us anyway?"

"Um, hello, gorgeous face, rocking body, piles of money," Gabi said, making Caty groan. Where was the funny, slightly arrogant, but helpful Gabi she grew to like? Why was bitchy Gabi coming back?

Misha and Nina exchanged, 'Is she serious?' looks.

"I honestly can't find a single reason why Caty hangs out with you," Nina said.

"I can find several why she _shouldn't_ hang out with you," Gabi quipped. "She hangs out with me because I'm cool. But you guys? You're losers."

"Gabi, shut _up_!" Caty cried, making everyone look at her. "Nina and Misha are my best friends and they always will be. Just because I'm committed to GRACE doesn't mean I've replaced or abandoned my friends. These are the people that are important to me, the people I care about. I have more in common with Nina and Misha than I'll ever have with you. If you think they're losers, than you think I am too. And to us, it doesn't matter what you think. I think Nina and Misha are two of the coolest people I've ever met. I won't let you insult them. And I agree with them. I can't find a single reason why I hang out with you." From a bathroom nearby, all the girls head the sinks turn on full blast, and were vaguely aware of a girl shrieking in fright, but paid no real attention.

Caty stalked away, deciding to go to the gym and meet the others half way. Nina, Misha, Sage, and Gabi stared after her, shocked. Caty was not the type to have random outbursts. But Nina and Misha's shock soon melted away and they gave Gabi smug looks.

Gabi clenched her fist and nearly started to levitate in her state of anger. Luckily Sage noticed before she could actually start flying and nudged her. Gabi, who felt herself begin to levitate thanks to practicing levitations for the past few days, managed to stop herself.

"Come on. We have…our tutor circle," she muttered, walking toward the doors, deciding she'd rather wait outside.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So, what did you think? I wrote two chapters so I could get everything in there. This was a pretty long chapter and the next one probably will be as well. Next chapter is the dance, and I'm actually relieved that in a few days, I will finally be done with the dance because the dance + the attack that's supposed to take place has been looming over my head for a while. Anyway, again, sorry for the long wait. It most likely won't happen again. Review please!**


	19. Pre-Battle Strategies

**A/N: Hello everyone! I am so inspired and happy that every single one of my reviewers remained faithful to the story and reviewed almost immediately after my postings, since I basically disappeared for two weeks. But, here I am with Chapter 18. Before you read, I'll apologize in advance. This chapter is extremely filler-ish. It was supposed to be the dance/attack chapter, but there were too many inciting actions that needed to happen, and by the time I finished writing about all that, it got too long. I considered writing the dance, and making this another double update, but if I did that, I'd disappear for a week or so at least. I barely worked on the chapter this weekend and this week is going to be too hectic, so I decided to put this up to hold you guys over. I hope you like it, despite the filler-ishness (yes, I am making up words now.**

**Two important notes. One: I am changing Irma's daughter Jenna's name from Jenna to Elaine. I've already replaced the previous chapter with the name changes. I put in Jenna because I couldn't think of anything else and didn't plan to change it, but this morning it hit me that Irma would never name her daughter Jenna, so I had to change it.**

**Two: I did my best to describe each girl's dress/costume for the dance in the chapter, but I also posted links in my profile to pictures of the costumes, so you can go look at that if you're interested.**

**Before the shout-outs, I would just to give a HUGE THANK YOU to starlightwritter777 for following this story and an EVEN HUGER THANK YOU to Miss Asia for both following and favoriting this story. It's always so inspiring to get new fans this far into the story. Hope you guys like what you'll see next.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**SilvenArrow: I do have commitment issues, with all my stories, not just the ones on fanfiction, but I promise you, I am not, nor will I ever, give up on this story. I plan to see this through til the end, for several reasons. I love Molly Quinn and Jessica Stoup too! I honestly think Molly's character Alexis on Castle kept the show interesting for a brief period of time in season 4 or 5 when it got a little boring. I knew you'd like the idea of Gabi coaching Caty. Guys are dumb, we all know it. And they're really not good at being straightforward. Don't worry about James, he'll be just fine. And no, James will not be the only one to know about G.R.A.C.E. eventually, others will find out too. Someone in Ellie's life will probably be next. The prophecy will come to light soon, in about two or three chapters. Josh has his reasons, but that won't be explained for a while. Anyway, he's not too mad at her anymore. Anyway, he's going to the dance with her. Joel is not an OC. You can see him in S is for Self and in the comic books. He's the blond drummer. Didn't have much of a role in the show, but in the comic books, he and Irma had a sweet friendship, the kind of boy/girl friendship several people, including my best guy friend and I had, where they kind of treat each other like boyfriend/girlfriend, but they're not actually together. And there'll be a lot of explaining with Martin later on. Originally, that was my plan for Irma, but reading the comics made me change my mind. A lot of your friendship questions will be addressed in the next chapter to stay tuned. Hope you like this one!**

**Shay: Brian **_**was**_** a jerk, wasn't he? I had to make him horrible in order to justify Caty's actions. As usual, I can't say anything about the couples, but I will tell you I didn't hint at anyone for Caty yet because it was too early in the story. As you know, Josh is now Gabi's date, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's over Rae. He's just smart enough to know she's more into Jake. I like that you caught there may be more to the Josh/Alyssa story. That will be revealed this chapter. I had planned for Taranee to take away Alyssa's powers since the beginning, so I'm glad I finally got to do it. It'll be a little while before you get to see more of Irma. I also developed a love of Alyssa and James as I wrote more about them. Hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: It's okay, I liked your rant. As I said before, Jake and Rae are my favorite couple too. And I don't mind if you blend chapters together, I do that too when I review a story after a double update. You'll get to hear about everyone's costumes in this chapter. Actually, GRACE is going to have a tough time keeping things a secret starting with the next chapter. Unfortunately, I could not write about the attack in this chapter. This chapter is mainly filler. And yes, Joel is the blond guy in Wreck 55 we saw in S is for Self. You're the only one who caught that. He has a more developed character in the comics, and I wasn't sure whether I was going to marry Irma off to him, Martin, of her comic book boyfriend Stephen, but I landed on Joel in the end, because that's the name of my best friend. I like James too, and I love him with Alyssa. I like writing about their relationship. I'm glad I decided he should get to find out. I think tutor circle is a great excuse. Too bad no one can stick to it. You'll see what I mean in this chapter. Hope you like it (although I have a feeling you might not).**

**Taylor: I'm so glad you liked it! I love how I actually made a successful triangle. You'll see what happens with Jake and Rae in this chapter. Yeah, I didn't make him shoot any webs. I thought about it, but then I realized if he was testing their powers, then he wouldn't shoot webs because then they wouldn't be able to fight hard enough for him to test them. As I keep saying, Taranee taking Alyssa's powers was a long time coming. It's a relief to finally have written that. Irma's daughter will come in later. It'll be a few chapters, at least two, before I can include her. I'm so glad James is so popular. I was worried no one would like a new character coming in and messing up the dynamic. Hope you like these chapters!**

**Emily: Actually, since I got Taylor's review for chapter 17 first, you're the fifth reviewer, lol. Maybe you should review this chapter when I post it tonight. The whole Gabi-Caty thing was lame, but it was the best I could come up with, and everyone else seemed to like it, so, yeah. And I never said Rae wasn't **_**pretty**_**. I just said she wasn't the prettiest person around, as in there are lots of girls prettier than her, but she's prettier than some other girls too. She's pretty enough that most guys would like what they see. He doesn't **_**want**_** to get rejected dummy! You know who he thinks he is lol. A battle we constantly have too. Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Poetry Response paper? I know, but Alyssa's with James right now. Maybe in the future though. You'll like this chapter if you like Alyssa and Chris together. We'll see who else will know. Someone close to Caty will start to figure it out in the next chapter, but someone close to Ellie will be the next person to actually find out. Her name is Elaine now, and not for another couple of chapters. Yes, there was a point, which you now know. Hope you like it…well, you already read it, so I know how you feel, but you know what I mean.**

**Misa: Yeah, I think Gabi is a much better coach. Jake is just nervous of rejection, because, as I explain in this chapter, Rae doesn't really express her feelings much, so Jake has no idea how she feels about him. I love James and Alyssa too, but I think you'll sympathize with Josh a little more after you read this chapter. There's a bit of twist I don't believe most people saw coming. To be completely honest, I didn't either. I just made it up on the spot as I wrote this chapter, although I'd been toying with the idea for a while, since I had Josh tell Gabi he and Alyssa grew up together. Unfortunately, the attack doesn't happen in this chapter like I wanted it to, but next chapter for sure! Yes, I was waiting to write about Taranee taking Alyssa's powers. The girls will meet Jenna sometime in the next three chapters, but her name is Elaine now. Jenna doesn't seem like a name Irma would choose for her child. Lol, like Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo. Although I guess Alyssa and James would mimic a boyfriend/girlfriend pair, like Robin and Batgirl. I hope you like this chapter! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So what are you doing on the day of the dance?" Jake asked randomly the next afternoon. Jake didn't have practice and Rae had nothing to do after school, so the pair decided to go to The Silver Dragon right after school, since that's where Rae was headed anyway. Jake really wasn't sure what all the girls did there, but finding out wasn't his main objective today.

Rae looked up at him. 'Yes, I'll go with you!' she wanted to scream, except he hadn't actually asked her yet.

"Going to the dance," she said instead, with a slightly mocking smile. "Why, what are you doing, robbing a bank?"

Jake laughed nervously. Usually he enjoyed Rae's sarcasm, but today he just wished she'd be a little more earnest.

Rae gave him a smile and leaned forward. Was this it? Was he finally going to ask her to the dance? It was Wednesday, so he was cutting it close, but it didn't matter as long as he asked her.

"Aha, no, I'm also going to the dance."

"Well color me surprised," Rae replied.

"I thought about robbing a bank, but I decided Halloween would be much too obvious a day to start my bank robbing career."

"Good thinking. You should start on a completely normal, ordinary day. Like, tomorrow."

Jake laughed. No, he lied. He didn't want Rae to be more earnest. Part of her charm, part of why he liked her so much, was because she was so sarcastic and funny all the time.

"What are you doing after the dance?" he asked, because 'Do you want to go with me' was too scary for him to say.

"Uh, Alyssa and I are coming back here for a late dinner."

"Oh, that's good. Dinner I mean. Because you know, you need to eat. Not just you specifically, but like everyone. You know because food provides the basic sustenance-"

"Do you want to join us?" Rae interrupted, just to shut him up. "After all, everyone needs to eat right? Since you know, food provides basic sustenance."

Jake grinned at her. "Have I ever told you how much I appreciate your sarcasm?"

"Is that a yes?"

"Absolutely."

Rae grinned back, her heart pounding so loud, she was surprised the customers didn't turn around, looking for the source of the sound. So it was an invitation to the dance, and it wasn't even a date, but it was something.

At that moment, Josh, Sage, and Gabi walked in. The Meridianites headed downstairs. Gabi, Caty, and Ellie went over to the booth Rae and Jake were in, Gabi and Caty glaring at each other the whole time. She had no idea what happened, but she had to admit, she was glad she was no longer the one in a constant struggle with Gabi. It was seriously exhausting.

Gabi completely avoided Jake's eyes as she said, "Come on New Girl, time to go."

Rae got up.

"Okay, seriously, what is it that you guys do down there?" Jake asked.

"What, the basement of a restaurant can't be interesting?" Rae teased.

Jake grinned but said, "Really though."

Caty, Gabi, and Ellie exchanged looks.

"Tutoring circle!" Caty cried.

"Cheerleading," Gabi said.

"Girl stuff," Ellie supplied.

"Right. Now I'm going to try this again, and maybe this time you guys can agree on what you do," Jake said.

"Really, it's a tutoring circle. We all teach each other," Caty said.

"I'm training them all in tumbling," Gabi insisted.

"You know, like periods, and waxing, and stuff," Ellie listed.

Jake looked at Rae.

Rae shrugged. "Figure it out and impress me. Until then, my lips are sealed."

"Though you don't want them to be," Ellie said suggestively, making Rae blush and everyone else give her 'WTF' looks.

"Let's just go," Rae sighed.

Jake bid farewell to all the girls, paying special attention to Gabi. He'd been trying to catch Gabi alone to apologize for accusing her of writing the article, and ask if they could still be friends, but she'd been carefully avoiding him. To make matters worse, Bree had taken to giving him a death glare _every single time_ she saw him, so she would be no help in his quest to talk to Gabi.

Rae and Alyssa were confused as to why he wouldn't just corner her and talk to her, but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. As for Josh, he didn't see the point in talking to her at all. Lately, that was the way it had been between the two teammates. Jake would complain about not being able to talk to Gabi, Josh would make some rude comment about her, and Jake would look ready to punch him out.

"I don't know why you won't just talk to him. He's been trying to apologize for days," Ellie said to Gabi as Jake left.

"Josh always makes all these rude comments and Jake wants to kill him. He still cares about you," Rae said.

"Why are you even telling me that?" Gabi asked. "Aren't you jealous?"

"Funnily enough, no."

"Whatever the case, I don't care. I'm not going to talk to him. But speaking of Josh…he's not still making rude comments, is he?"

"Uh no, not since last week," Rae admitted.

"Good. I'm going to try to win back his favor at the dance," Gabi said confidently.

"So did _you_ ask _him_?" Rae asked.

Gabi nodded.

"How'd you work up the courage? Josh wasn't exactly your biggest fan, but you still asked him. Meanwhile, I can't even ask my best friend to the dance."

"You want to ask Alyssa?" Ellie asked, confused.

All the girls gave her a 'WTF' look.

"No. I want to ask Jake. My _other_ best friend," Rae said slowly.

"Oh. Yeah. I knew that."

Gabi and Rae rolled their eyes at each other. Strangely enough, the two girls had become somewhat friendly with each other lately. Not friends…but friendly.

"Anyway, it's not _that_ hard. I'll admit asking Josh was a bit scarier because he could say no. But sometimes you have to just blurt it out," Gabi said. She gave Ellie and Caty a sideways look. "A word of advice though. Don't have these two in your head when you're asking someone out."

Rae giggled as Ellie said, "Hey!" indignantly.

"Ellie, Josh thought I was talking to myself when I asked him because you were in my head."

Ellie shrugged. "You'd think as part of Team GRACE, he'd understand the telephoning thing."

"Telepathy," Gabi corrected.

"Whatever. Anyway, Caty can you help me with my homework? I get so confused with that X chromosome, Y chromosome stuff. I'm not sure which one females have and which one males have. I never really pay attention in math."

"Math?" Caty repeated.

"You mean biology?" Rae asked.

"I take biology? Oh, actually, that makes a lot of sense," Ellie said slowly. Then her face lit up. "Wait til I tell Alyssa I know what science I take now!"

"Ellie, what do you _do_ during class?" Caty asked.

"Depends on the class," Ellie replied.

The girls all rolled their eyes again.

"What exactly are we waiting for? Let's get to training," Josh said.

"Not what. Who," Cara informed him. "Alyssa's friend James is coming, remember? Sage is training him."

"Oh. Yeah," Josh grumbled.

"Don't be pouty," Gabi teased. "He's strong. I think he'll make a good addition to the team."

"And it doesn't hurt that he easy on the eyes," Caty added, making all the girls-besides Sage- giggle.

Josh rolled his eyes just as James came downstairs and said hi to everyone, flashing them that irresistible grin that made every girl in the room-except Sage-melt.

"Alright, let's do this," Rae said when she recovered. She raised the Heart. "Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

"Ready to be part of Team GRACE James?" Ellie asked as the group walked outside.

James nodded. "More than you realize."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty forced the water out of the glass in front of her, concentrated really hard, then curled her hand into a fist. The water dropped and ended up hitting her. She let out a yell.

"What did that water ever do to you?" Sage teased in her light hearted, Sage-esque way, making Ellie laugh. It was Thursday afternoon. Jake had extra basketball practice after school, so he scheduled the Student Council meeting for early that morning, meaning Caty got to go leave right after school. Drama was also cancelled that day, and Ellie, feeling too lazy to go to dance committee, didn't stay. The others were still at school, but Sage, who hurt her ankle the day before, had gotten a pass to skip cheerleading.

Caty probably should've worked with her pre-calc tutor since there was a quiz tomorrow, but she felt she had a handle on the topic. Caty had asked Jake to tutor her, but between being on two varsity teams, student council president, taking all honors classes, being double honors in math, and tutoring Rae, he just didn't have time. So Ellie suggested Caty ask Adam. Adam wasn't part of Caty's clique, so there was no way any of her friends would find out she was getting tutored. Her friends probably wouldn't care, but Shelia Breslin would have a field day with the fact that Caty needed a tutor. But anyway, Caty had agreed to ask Adam, and he turned out to be a great tutor. He was serious and focused, really smart, and super patient, not that he need patience with a quick learner like Caty.

So instead of tutoring, she, Ellie, and Sage headed to The Silver Dragon, and were now in the basement with Hay Lin. While waiting for the others to arrive, Caty was trying to make ice, but so far it wasn't working.

"This is impossible!" Caty declared.

"You'll get there. Just keep at it," Sage encouraged.

"Does it ever getting tiring being you?" Caty asked. "I don't know if I can be so _nice _all the time. So many things make me mad!"

Sage laughed. "I've learned to let things slide. I had to, the way I grew up. I'm the oldest in my family and my little siblings always destroyed my stuff or messed up my school work. It was all accidental of course, so I had to learn to keep my cool."

"That sounds super annoying," Caty said. "I can only imagine what my sister will do to me."

Ellie rolled her eyes. Since Jason took care of her for most of her life, she knew the importance and value of having an older sibling. She tried to tell Caty that an older sibling is important, and she should be nice to her unborn sister, but she couldn't really stress those points to Caty without going into specifics, and one person knowing about all of that was enough.

"Oh but babies are so cute!" Hay Lin squealed in her childish way.

"And besides, you're going to be almost 17 years older than her," Sage pointed out. "You'll leave for college just a year and a half after she's born, and once you do, you'll miss her like crazy."

"Doubtful," Caty replied.

"No really," Sage insisted. "Your parents will be missing you and will be so excited to see you when you come home, but you'll only be interested in seeing your sister."

"My parents? Miss me? Ha! Not with Miss. Practically Has My Name around," Caty deadpanned.

"If the name thing bothers you so much, why don't you just tell your parents?" Ellie asked. "Ask them to name her something else, like Olivia or Krista or Leia."

"My parents have their heart set on Catherine. Or Cathleen, but most likely Catherine."

"You know," Hay Lin said, "Will had a problem with that too. She was delighted to have a little brother at first, but her parents named him William, and when people came to visit, they started calling him Will, and used her full name, Wilhelmina. She started to resent him after that."

"What happened?" Sage asked.

"She found out he had magic powers, and just like Cornelia did a few years before, she became the over protective older sister, ready to guard him with her life until he was old enough to control his powers."

"What powers?" Ellie asked.

"He could enlarge things, create floating bubbles, like force fields, conjure up animals, and even grow wings like the guardians and fly."

"Why did he have powers?" Caty asked. "If Lillian was already the Heart of Earth?"

"There's always a chance that a kid related to someone that has magical blood running in their veins, such as Will, to get magic powers. It usually happens with younger siblings. Now, Irma's brother Chris didn't have powers because he was already born by the time Irma found out about being a guardian, but since William was born _after_ Will found out, he out powers."

"Doesn't that mean Caty's sister could have powers too?" Sage asked.

Hay Lin nodded.

"Great. That's all I need," Caty said, rolling her eyes.

"I think it would be cool knowing someone with magic powers," Hay Lin said.

"Josh can attest to that," Sage agreed. "Although, actually _having_ the powers is a different story."

"What do you mean?" Ellie asked. "I would think that would be the coolest thing ever."

"It's cool sometimes," Sage relented. "But learning and perfecting magic is hard. It's like…okay, my mom was always so hard on me because I had a hard time with magic and she hated me for it."

"Hated?" Hay Lin repeated dubiously. "That doesn't sound like your mother."

"Well that's the way she was with me. My siblings were naturally gifted when it came to magic, so they had an easier time. She always liked them more."

"That _really_ doesn't sound like Elyon," Hay Lin frowned.

Sage looked at her, and for a minute, her expression was confused, as if she barely had an idea of who Hay Lin was talking about. Then her eyes widened and she said quickly, "Well you guys aren't really friends anymore, are you? So if she changed from when you guys were young, you wouldn't know. Trust me, it's my mom."

Hay Lin's frown deepened, but she nodded. "I wonder what made her change."

"I think it was expectation versus reality," Sage said, making everyone look at her for clarification. "I mean, she expected these all powerful kids well versed in the art of magic, and though she got that with my siblings, I'm her oldest, the one that's supposed to take over the throne, and I wasn't born powerful."

"No, something else changed her," Hay Lin disagreed. "She would've changed before you were born in order for her expectations to be all powerful children. Because the Elyon I knew could care less about power. She would love you just the same if you were born _without_ magic."

Sage smiled, but it was sad. "Then I wish that was the mother I grew up with."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae smiled as she saw Jake walk into the gym. Her new habit while Alyssa was at Dance Committee, Sage was at cheerleading, and Caty was at whatever activity she had that day, was to watch basketball practice. AcDec was cancelled that day, so she watched practice. Then she'd go to the other gym to hang out with Alyssa until she finished whatever she was in the middle of. Dance Committee was for two hours after school every day, three now that the dance was the next day, and usually Josh and Ellie would help for an hour with the decorating after basketball practice and drama, but now Alyssa only stayed for an hour so she could have more time to train with Chris.

Anyway, Rae had lingered longer than usual after basketball practice, dropping hints and trying to be flirty (which wasn't in her nature at all, so she wasn't sure if she pulled it off or just humiliated herself), hoping Jake would ask her to the dance. But he didn't. She wasn't sure if he liked her or not, since he hadn't asked her yet, but she intended to find out. Rae had told Jake she and Alyssa were going to grab a late dinner after the dance and invited him along. Then Alyssa had bailed, saying she and James were going out to dinner, so that left Rae with a sort of date after the dance. But she wanted a date _to_ the dance as well. She'd decided to take Alyssa's advice and ask him to the dance, so she texted him to meet her.

"Hey," she said smiling.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Well, there's something I wanted to ask you, and I had to do it in person."

"Okay." Jake looked at her expectantly.

Rae took a deep breath, then noticed Ellie and Josh were watching her. She rolled her eyes, grabbed Jake's arm, and dragged him to a more private part of the gym.

"As I was about to say," she started, but never got to finish when she saw Jake wave to someone behind her. Rae turned around and saw Lana Oller. Since when were they friends?

"Hi Jake," Lana purred as she approached them.

"Hey," Jake replied, giving her that famous smile he was known for. It was adorable and charming and reduced Rae to silly putty every time he turned it on her, which was almost every minute of every day.

Lana slipped her hand into Jake's.

"Uh, mind telling me why the bitch who exposed all my secrets to the school has your hand in a vice grip?" Rae bit out.

Jake looked surprised at Rae's sudden anger. "Oh, she didn't do it Rae."

"What?!"

It had only taken a few days for Rae and the others to realize it really wasn't Gabi who'd written the article, and she was telling the truth about it being Lana. So she'd told Jake, a little worried he'd go back to Gabi once he found out. He didn't. He wanted to apologize to Gabi for accusing her of writing the article, but he didn't think he needed to apologize for anything he said to her when he broke up with her. He still felt as if her judgements were unfair and disgusting, and he still knew he didn't love her like he used to.

"Lana told me it was Kelli that wrote the article and Lana had no idea."

"Lana had no idea her best friend, a non-staff writer, was publishing an article?"

"No. She thought Gabi would appreciate it, which obviously didn't work out," Jake said.

Rae raised her eyebrows. Was Jake really that naïve?

"Really Rae, I'm so sorry. I had no idea, and had I known, I would've stopped her," Lana said with fake sincerity. Unlike Gabi, Lana wasn't a very good actress. "I'm disgusted by all of this."

"Really? Then why are you still besties with Kelli?" Rae asked.

"Kelli's been my best friend since kindergarten. I was angry at her of course, but she made a mistake. She doesn't deserve to lose her friends for that."

"Wow, what a kindred spirit you are," Rae replied, rolling her eyes.

Jake, seeming to sense the friction, broke in and said, "So, Rae you wanted to talk?"

"Oh, I'll leave you two alone then," Lana said. "Anyway, we'll have plenty of time to talk at the dance."

"The dance?" Rae repeated, feeling sick.

"Yeah. Didn't Jake tell you? We're going together. He asked me last night," Lana said. Her smile was innocent, but her eyes were smug.

"Is that so?" Rae asked.

Lana nodded, then gave Jake a long kiss before walking away.

Jake gave Rae a shy smile and said, "So what did you want to ask me?"

"Why you are a sucky human being!" Rae spat before stalking out of the gym.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you sure all you need is $150?" Daniel asked as he took out some cash.

"Yup. It's not an expensive dress," Gabi promised. After working at The Silver Dragon for weeks, Gabi had three pay checks to show her dad. She put all of the first one towards alterations for the dress, and as Daniel had promised, he was paying the rest of the cost. Alterations for a piece like Gabi's mother's dress were more expensive than she had anticipated.

"Well, I'm just glad you learned the value of a dollar," Daniel said, giving Gabi the money she needed. He also handed her the wallet he'd taken. "I know there's some money in there too, but that'll be our little secret. And I've suspended all your credit cards, since I pay for those but your ATM card still works and everything in there is still yours."

Gabi smiled. "Thanks Daddy."

"Of course. Now, you've deposited your paychecks into your checking account, right?"

"No need. The Silver Dragon pays through direct deposits."

"Or pay cards," Josh said, holding up a card. Since he didn't live on Earth, he didn't have a checking account yet, but when Daniel found out, he helped him open one. Josh still had two weeks' worth of paychecks on the card, which he was going to take out of the ATM that day. The pair was headed to the mall (after guardian training), Gabi to get last minute alterations, and Josh to buy a costume.

Since Gabi's dress made her look like a princess, she was going to buy a delicate, un-childish tiara, and help Josh buy a crown and clothing fit for a prince so they'd look like a real couple. She knew Josh didn't view this as an actual date yet, but she planned to rectify that by the end of tomorrow night. She still couldn't believe she'd gotten him to agree to go with her.

**Flashback:**

**It was Monday evening. Guardian training was over, and Gabi and Josh were working their shift. It was one of the rare shifts that they had together. **

** Gabi sighed as she looked at him. She was making a virgin pina coloda for a table while Josh wiped down the bar stools and countertop. He was so cute!**

** Maybe she should just blurt it out. Get it over with. But…maybe he'd say no. No other boy would've ever said no to Gabi Shay, but Josh was not just any other boy.**

** But maybe he would say yes. Sure, he wasn't really talking to her, but he also wasn't glaring at her anymore. And she was trying hard to be nicer. Didn't that count for something? So he could say, yes…right?"**

** "**_**Right!" **_**a voice said in her head.**

_**"Ellie, what the hell?"**_** Gabi asked.**

_**"What, you can speak in our heads, but we can't speak in yours?"**_** Caty asked.**

** Gabi looked towards the booths and saw Ellie and Caty sitting in one, an empty plate of dumplings and check on the table. **

** Gabi gave Jamie the pina coloda as he passed by. **

_**"I just don't want witnesses when I fail,"**_** she sighed.**

_**"Who says you're gonna fail?" **_**Caty replied. **_**"You have me on your side, and I **_**never**_** fail."**_

_** "But I always fail!"**_** Ellie piped up cheerfully, clearly not realizing that was not helping.**

_**"Ellie, how is that supposed to make her feel better?"**_** Caty asked.**

_**"Because,"**_** Ellie started in a 'duh' voice before freezing up, realizing she had no answer for that.**

_**"How are you guys speaking in my mind without Alyssa?"**_** Gabi asked.**

** Caty gasped inside her head. **_**"Gabi, you just called her Alyssa without pausing or thinking about it or starting to call her Classless-a or Klutzcroft. You've made progress!"**_

__**Gabi realized she was right.**

_**"Anyway, we asked Alyssa to set up a mental link for the three of us before she left," **_**Caty went on. **_**"But it'll break as soon someone else enters the conversation, so you better ask Josh before Alyssa and Rae are caught in another life threatening situation."**_

_** "Not funny,"**_** Gabi growled, but sighed. It really was now or never.**

** "Hey, Josh?" she asked.**

** Josh looked up at her. "Yeah?" he asked wearily, and Gabi's nervousness shot up.**

_**"Oh!" **_**Caty gasped. **_**"Gabi, watch it! As Alyssa's powers get stronger, we have more than just a mental link. We have an emotional one too, and that means whatever you feel, we feel."**_

_** "Well then give me some of what you feel. You have ultra-confidence when you're debating. Give me that!"**_

_** "Good idea!" **_** Caty said. She concentrated, and in a few seconds, Gabi felt like nothing could tear her down.**

** She gave Josh her brightest smile. "I was thinking…I worked a lot of Stella's shifts in the last couple of weeks so she would cover you Friday for the dance."**

** "Oh yeah. Thanks for that," Josh said.**

** "Well I was thinking you could thank me properly by taking me to the dance," Gabi said, still giving him her smile.**

** Josh bit his lip and seemed to be thinking.**

** 'I wanted to ask Rae,' he thought. But she was waiting around for Jake to ask her and even if he didn't, she probably wouldn't say yes to Josh so as not to give Jake the wrong idea. He had no idea what she found so appealing about that guy, but as long as he was around, Josh didn't have much of a choice…at least, not unless Jake messed up, which didn't seem to be happening any time soon. **

**Besides, Gabi was a bitch, but she was hot, and he did actually **_**like**_** the real her-the person she was with Luc and Bree, the person she was with Jake, and the person she was being with Caty and Ellie as of late. What was the harm? He had no real reason to say no.**

** "Okay, sure. I'll go to the dance with you," he said.**

** "But it'll be really fun if-wait, did he say yes?" Gabi accidentally asked out loud.**

_**"He did!" **_**Ellie squealed.**

_**"Who failed?" **_**Caty asked smugly.**

_**"Uh, weren't you listening Caty? No one," **_**Ellie said in her best 'duh' voice.**

_**"She was being sarcastic Ellie. That went right over your head,"**_** Gabi giggled.**

_**"I knew that,"**_** Ellie insisted, even though it was clear she didn't.**

** Caty ignored her and said, **_**"You and Josh are going to be one those really good looking couples everyone wants to emulate."**_

_** "What does emulate mean?" **_** Ellie asked.**

_**"You vocabulary leaves something to be desired,"**_** Caty said. "**_**You were in honors lit last year. How did it become so dismal?"**_

_** "What does dismal mean?"**_

_** "Seriously?"**_

_** "Fine, I'll ask Gabi. Gabi, what does dismal mean?"**_

_** "**_**How should I know?**_**" **_**Gabi asked, once again out loud.**

_**"Well Caty won't tell me."**_

_** "Because I have better things to do with my time than expound loftier words to you,"**_** Caty replied.**

_**"What does-"**_

_** "Shut up Ellie!"**_

__**"Ow," Gabi complained.**

_**"I think Josh is wondering why you're talking to yourself," **_**Caty said.**

_**"Which means Gabi is the one who should shut up,"**_** Ellie said.**

** Gabi rolled her eyes, then looked at Josh, embarrassed. "Ignore me, I'm stupid."**

_**"But not as stupid as me!"**_** Ellie cried gleefully, as if that were a good thing.**

** "**_**Ellie, you are the most fatuous person I've ever met,"**_** Caty sighed.**

_**"What does-"**_

_** "Leave, both of you," **_**Gabi commanded before Ellie could finish.**

** Both girls giggled out loud, left some money on the table, and walked out the doors.**

**End Flashback**

But she had gotten him to agree, and that's all mattered in her opinion.

"Alright, we're all set. Ready for…work?" Gabi asked, almost saying guardian training in front of her father.

Josh nodded and the two left.

When they got to The Silver Dragon, everyone was already there. Caty was still practicing on how to make ice, Ellie was using her air powers while invisible, James and Sage was sparring, Cara and Rae were practicing archery, and even Alyssa was there, sparring with Chris.

When they saw Gabi and Josh, everyone stopped. James, Josh, Sage, Cara, and Chris sat in the corner of the room while Gabi joined the other guardians. The first thing Hay Lin said to them was that she had a lot of things to explain to them on Friday night.

"_This_ Friday night?" Rae asked.

Hay Lin nodded.

"What's Friday night?" Alyssa asked.

"Halloween," Caty said as if she were the only one who knew that.

"And the Halloween dance," Gabi reminded.

"_After_ the Halloween dance," Hay Lin said, "you're all coming back here for a sleepover."

"A sleepover with these losers?" Gabi said. "No thanks."

"Like we want to have a sleepover with the bitch of the century," Caty muttered, who hadn't gotten over the whole 'Gabi insulted my best friends' thing.

"I have plans with Breanna that night anyway," Gabi said. "I'm finally ungrounded and it's the first time I get to hang out with my friends outside of cheerleading practice."

"And I have a date that night," Rae added. "After the dance."

Gabi scowled, knowing Rae's date was Jake, but didn't say anything. It was irrational to feel jealous when she didn't like Jake anymore anyway.

"Same with me," Alyssa said.

"And I have plans with my friends," Ellie said.

"And I have plans with my family," Caty added. Then she scowled. "Although I'd do pretty much anything to get out of that. But I was planning on a date with Brian to be 'get out of Lilianne for free' pass. My mother would be delighted if I extended my date past the dance."

"Too bad," Hay Lin said. "You guys aren't getting along and whenever we fought, we had a sleepover."

"Who says we're not getting along?" Alyssa asked.

"You and Gabi aren't friends yet and neither are Ellie and Rae. Caty and Gabi were friends and now they're fighting. Besides, I need fill you in on essential information."

"You can't do it now?" Rae asked.

"No."

"I'm grounded," Alyssa reminded. "The only reason I'm here now is because Chris convinced my mom to let us study here and I'm only allowed to be here for a couple of hours."

"Aren't you going to the dance?" asked Ellie.

"I haven't gone to a Sheffiled dance since…well, ever. When I asked my mom if I could go for the first time ever, she practically pushed me out the door. She gave me money for a costume and everything. But I have to be home right after."

"Tell Taranee you're having a sleepover with Rae at her house," Hay Lin suggested.

"Again, I'm _grounded_. I can't sleepover at Rae's house. Rae isn't even allowed to come over for homework every day. I don't know why she allows Chris over."

"You can tell her you're working on the biology project," Chris said. "You're working together, right? Caty, you can use that too."

That was true. The girls had to work on a biology project in groups of five, and Caty, Misha, and Nina had invited Alyssa and Rae to be their fourth and fifth.

Caty nodded.

"Then it's settled. Sleep over Friday," Hay Lin said happily, clapping her hands together.

The girls all groaned but knew they couldn't get out of anything Hay Lin said in that 'I dare you to argue with me' tone.

"Okay, great! No practice Friday afternoon, but I'll see you all Friday night. And Gabi, Josh, I managed to find a cover for your Friday afternoon shift."

"Thanks," they said. Then Rae changed them and they started training.

After practice was over, James walked Alyssa home. Caty and Sage sat in a booth, talking. They'd become close and took a special interest in each other's lives since their conversation the previous day. Josh had a one hour shift to finish up before he and Gabi could head to the mall, so she and Ellie also sat down in a booth. Rae went up to the bar and sat in one of the stools, keeping Josh company. None of his tables were seated yet, and his side work was rolling silverware, which was easy to do while talking.

Rae sipped on a coke as she and Josh made conversation.

At one point, Josh looked up at her and said, "There's something specific you want to ask me."

"Yeah, there is. It's just…okay, you don't like James."

"No I don't."

"And you and Alyssa are really close."

"Yeah, we are."

Rae resisted the urge to snap at him and said, "Okay, do you like Alyssa or what?"

"Do I…no!"

"Really?"

'_Yes_! I like _you_!' Josh wanted to shout, but didn't say it. Instead he said, "I don't know why people keep thinking we're together. We're just friends."

"Oh, I know that."

"You do?"

"Yeah. But you don't."

"Huh?"

"You _like_ Alyssa. And that's fine, except she likes James and you're always acting all protective and jealous in front of him and soon he's gonna get the idea that you're never going to leave him alone and then he'll leave Alyssa alone. And then you're gonna wish you were never born because I will not let _you_ be the reason Alyssa's heart breaks."

"But I-"

"James is good for her. He's making her bolder and helping her to stand up for herself. And he really likes her too. How would you feel if there was someone else going after the person you liked?"

'The irony of this situation is torture,' Josh thought. Before Rae could go on, he said, "Look, I don't like Alyssa. She's practically my sister."

"You've only known her for a few weeks. How can she be like your sister already?"

"Because in reality, I've known her for almost eleven years."

"What?"

"We grew up together.

"Wait…_what?!"_ Rae repeated.

So Josh told her the story.

"Who else knows?"

"Everyone except Alyssa now."

"So why can't you just tell her?"

Josh told her how some people go insane if they were reminded of a memory they lost because of the herb.

"So you can't tell her."

"I won't," Rae promised. "But, what aren't telling me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You guys growing up together and being best friends is not the whole story. There's something else you're not telling me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well then, I don't see what's stopping me from asking Taranee to make something with that herb for Eva and using some of it on Alyssa."

"You wouldn't do that. You couldn't! You don't have a specific memory."

"Maybe not. But I'm going to guess Gabi does."

Josh paled.

"Just as I thought. You'd restore her memories yourself if there wasn't more to the story. So what are you keeping from me?"

Josh sighed. "Alright, but you have to promise not to go behind my back and use the herb to restore Alyssa's memories. Remembering this would break her heart."

Now Rae grew concerned. "Promise. What is it?"

Josh sighed again and said, "Alyssa's not just _like_ my sister. She _is_ my sister. By blood."

Rae stared at him for a few minutes. "But…Alyssa's mother is Taranee and yours is Cornelia."

"And my father is Caleb."

"And hers is Nigel."

"You sure?"

"Yes! She has his eyes."

"My great uncle had eyes identical to Alyssa's."

Rae thought about this for a minute before everything clicked in her brain. "Are you saying…Caleb…and Taranee...?"

"Yup. And when Mom found out, she ended her friendship with Taranee and Alyssa threatened to run away, so Taranee erased her memories."

Rae's mouth dropped open. "But…Mr. Ashcroft! Does he know?"

Josh shook his head. "Like you said, it looks like Alyssa has his eyes, and for the longest time, even Taranee thought Alyssa was his. Nigel's, I mean. I don't know how she realized she was actually Caleb's. But anyway, Mom and Dad fixed their relationship, thank God, and everything worked out for a while. I was eight when I found out, but I didn't fully understand til three years later, when Alyssa found out. And that's why our friendship ended too. Partly because our mothers were no longer friends and partly because Alyssa found out I knew and didn't tell her. But it's true. Alyssa's my little sister."

Rae looked at Josh. For a minute she didn't believe him. They didn't look related. They didn't even look alike.

But Josh did act like he was familiar was Alyssa.

And he was protective of her in a brotherly way.

He seemed to really want to get to know her.

And it always seemed like her knew Taranee, even though supposedly he hadn't met her before now. She always thought maybe Cornelia had told Josh about her, but if Taranee had an affair with Caleb, then Cornelia wouldn't talk about her.

Cornelia _did_ act like she didn't know Alyssa, or that Taranee had children, but maybe that was because she wanted to forget her husband's tryst.

Come to think about it, Caleb did look at Alyssa oddly when he first saw her, and his eyes shone with pride every time she hit her mark, while all he did was sigh in relief when Caty and Ellie had the same success.

So maybe it wasn't so strange.

Maybe it was true.

Josh and Alyssa are siblings.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Want something to drink?" Alyssa asked, still breathing hard.

"Yeah. Something with ice," Chris said, also panting.

Alyssa poured some orange soda in a glass and added three ice cubes before grabbing a chilled water for herself.

Chris smiled. "You remember orange soda is my favorite."

"Naturally. Fifth grade art."

Chris smiled again, remembering the project Alyssa was talking about. In fifth grade, the class had to replicate Andy Warhol's Campell's Soup project with whatever they wanted. Chris had chosen Fanta bottles. Alyssa had chosen books. Ellie and Adam were in art with them that year. That was the project they had done before Alyssa and Ellie had their falling out.

For a few minutes, both sipped their drinks, recovering from their training session. When they got their breath back, they started a conversation.

At first, they just talked about neutral topics, like school and GRACE. Then Alyssa steered the conversation to a topic she'd been dying to bring up, but couldn't find the right time to.

"You know," she said, "in fifth grade, you used to like Ellie and Adam."

"Yeah, I did," Chris agreed slowly, wondering why she was bringing this up.

"Well, I-indirectly-heard from Breanna Kramer that the reason you stopped being friends with them is because they stopped talking to me."

Chris went red and nodded. "Er, yeah. I mean, I just…Alyssa, you're awesome. I always thought so. And even though I didn't understand what happened between you and Ellie, I hated that she stopped being your friend. And then Adam took her side without even knowing what happened. He only said hi to you when Ellie wasn't around. And then he stopped talking to you altogether."

"That was when Gabi gave me my nicknames. He wanted to protect his reputation."

"What reputation?" Chris nearly exploded. "He's in drama. He and Ellie are about as low as you were."

"Are."

"Were," Chris corrected. "I guess you didn't notice you, but between hanging out with Gabi, becoming best friends with Josh, and practically going out with James, your popularity has risen…a lot."

"Really? You're right, I hadn't noticed."

"Because you don't care about that stuff. Another reason I like you so much. You earn everyone's respect and you're sweet to everyone. Yet Ellie and Adam just left you all alone."

"I wasn't completely alone. I had you," Alyssa reminded. "And besides, you're right, I am kind of mad at Adam. But no one knows what really happened with Ellie, and I forgive her for that. Especially since I know she's sorry."

Chris smiled, but then shook his head. "I should've been there for you more."

"You tried to get the other art kids to accept me, you asked me to sit at your lunch table, and you talked to me whenever you could. What else could you have done?"

"Actually been your friend. Talked to you all the time. Joined you for lunch when the others wouldn't let you join us."

"Chris, don't beat yourself up. My best friends left me, and I was such a loser, but you were still there for me, treating me like an actual human being. Everyone else pretty much deserted me and treated me like I was the Devil's Spawn or something."

"You deserved way more than you got. I don't know why Gabi chose you to humiliate."

"There was no rhyme or reason. Gabi is a bitch who picked on whoever was around. If I hadn't spilled milk on her that day, she might've never set her sights on me. But she had nothing to with what went down between Ellie and I. We definitely would've still gotten in the fight, but we might've fixed it because without Gabi's humiliation-"

"Adam would've stayed."

"Yeah."

"So you're angry at Adam. That's good. But why are you forgiving Ellie?"

"Because she didn't _drop_ me like everyone thinks."

"The fact that she could let a stupid fight get in the way of a friendship like yours is unforgivable."

"It wasn't a stupid fight. And I can't tell you why, but I'm glad we had that fight. Sure I wish it didn't end our friendship, but we needed to have that fight. And we need to get along because of GRACE. Besides, you're one to talk Chris. If what Ellie did is so unforgivable, what does that say about you?"

"Me?"

"Aren't you fighting with your best friend too?"

"That's different. Josh is doing something wrong so we're fighting. Actually, no, it's exactly the same. Ellie did something wrong too."

"Are you saying you'll never forgive Josh?"

"I don't know," Chris admitted. "We're fighting about a lot of things, and most of these things, I could just let go of, but our big issue…I don't know if I can ever forgive him for that."

"What's going on?"

"That's private. Josh and I may be on the outs, but the reason we're fighting is because of a secret _he_ has, and I still won't betray his trust by telling you before he wants me to."

Even though Alyssa was itching to know, she had to admit, that was decent of Chris. Chris was always a good guy. She just wished he showed that side to a couple of members of Team GRACE (yes, of course she was talking about Ellie and James).

As if he read her mind, Chris asked about James, as he always did when he and Alyssa were together.

"How's James?" he asked.

"Fine. I heard he's doing great with Sage."

"It's only been two days."

"He had a lot of martial arts training. Black belts in three different types. I think he'll be able to help in the Halloween battle."

"Well that's great, but you know that's not what I meant," Chris said sternly.

Alyssa sighed. "I know. But I get the lectures from Josh already. Do I have to get them from you too?"

"I don't want to lecture you Lyssa. I just want to make sure you're being careful."

"Careful of _what_? James is harmless. He's not trying to kill me!"

"How do you know?"

"Because not everyone is trying to murder me."

"How do you know?" Chris repeated.

"Because that's not the way the world works. And besides, even if he was trying to kill me, even with his martial arts training, do you think he'd have anything on me?"

"On a girl whose only power is telepathy and basic fighting training?" Chris asked dubiously.

"Oh yeah." Alyssa looked down. "It still seems unreal, you know? I forget all the time that I don't have my power over fire anymore."

"We'll get it back for you," Chris promised, reaching across the island to place his hand on hers. "One way or another."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"No offense New Girl, but I don't think 18th century girl is really a costume," Gabi said.

"Neither is pretty dress girl, but you're going as that," Rae replied.

"What exactly am I supposed to be, a stripper?" Caty shrieked, looking down at her outfit.

"Try total hottie. Brian won't know what hit him," Ellie assured her.

Caty wailed, uncomfortable with what Gabi had dressed her up in. To be completely honest, she hadn't been sure if Gabi would even help her since they were fighting, so she brought along her old witch costume from the previous year just in case. However, when she got to Rae's house, Gabi was there with her make up bag, spa kit, hair products, and what she called a costume.

The five girls plus Sage were in Rae's room. They'd gotten there early to discuss strategies for attack so they wouldn't have to deal with the topic while they were getting ready.

The boys (Josh, Chris, and thanks to his membership on the team, James) were also at Rae's house, in another guest room, getting ready.

"What's Josh going as?" Ellie asked.

"A man in a suit. Perfect for a girl in a dress," Alyssa said.

"Shut _up _Classless-a! _This_ is a special dress!" Gabi snapped.

Everyone exchanged looks.

_"That dress belonged to Gabi's mother,"_ Caty explained in the other girls' heads. _"Her mother went to her first Halloween Dance in that dress. Back then, it was a Halloween Ball, remember? So all the girls wore gowns like that."_

No one wanted to make fun of Gabi after that. Anyway, the dress was really pretty. It was a long, emerald green dress. It was sleeveless and the top part was covered in silver sequins in an intricate design that sparkled. The bottom part puffed out in layers, with silver sequins scattered around in clusters. She wore a pair of strappy emerald green two inch heels with them, and a delicate, crystal tiara. She had this gorgeous green necklace to go with her dress. It sparkled in the light. The chain was made of light green crystals from Holland, which Gabi's uncle had bought for her mother a long time ago. The pedant was gold with jade surrounding it and a green emerald shone in the middle. She also had on a bracelet made of tiny white, light blue, and dark blue sapphire beads, and a crystal piece in the middle, a ring with a white gold band, a white sapphire in the middle, and clusters of black diamonds around it. Her earrings matched her bracelet perfectly. They were long hanging earrings made of the white, light blue, and dark blue sapphires. She wore emerald eye liner or her eyelids, and pink lip gloss. She stayed outside in the cold for a few minutes to get her cheeks to be perfectly rosy to look like her mom did in the 80s when she was fourteen.

Rae's mother had designed her dress, deciding she wanted her daughter to be a little girlier. She made her a dress that looked like it was from the eighteenth century, but was pretty just the same. It was a dark pink with full sleeves and a cream border. There was a golden sash around the middle which tied into a bow on her left hip. The sleeves had a two inch white flare net. The dress was long, but the top did show off some cleavage. Silena put extensions in Rae's hair, so her black hair was longer and in bouncy, noblewoman curls. She wore rose pink flats and put a pink ribbon in her hair. She wore light pink eye-shadow and pink lip stick. She wore a necklace made of pink jade beads and a gold oval pendant, pink crystal studs, and a black beaded bracelet.

Gabi dressed Caty up in something that made her want to run and hide. She had on a maroon leather full sleeve top that exposed her cleavage and midriff, a black leather skirt that only went half way to her thighs. She had on black see though pantyhose, black boots, and a dark pink choker. She wore dark green eye-shadow, brown eye liner, a little mascara, and dark lipstick. Gabi put her hair in a bun and practically used a whole bottle of hairspray so it would stay in place, but Caty still felt as if she had to walk carefully so that the bun wouldn't undo itself, and she was starting to get a head ache from how tightly Gabi jammed the bobby pins in. She wore gold coral earring with two jade stones hanging from them.

Alyssa was being completely unoriginal, and dressed up as a cat. She wore a brown, black, and white top and pants, a head bands with cat ears, and drew whiskers on her face. She had on brown eyeliner, black mascara, some maroon lip stick. She wore black flats.

Ellie dressed up as an angel. She had on a shockingly white dress. It had spaghetti straps and was impossibly short, the flare skirt barely reaching her mid-thigh. The top showed off some cleavage. She had on sliver strappy pumps. She had a white headband in her brown hair that was attached to a fuzzy halo, and her angel wings were delicate, and the straps were invisible so they almost looked natural. She also had on long white gloves. With Gabi's help, she managed to put on black eye liner on her eye lid, black mascara, and red lipstick. She had on her mother's diamond earrings that she'd taken without permission. As if she'd notice anyway. Those earrings had been sitting on the bathroom counter for almost a year.

Sage had on a familiar looking dress. It was long and green. The sleeves and sides were a darker green while the front and back were sea green. It had a white border and white flares at the end of the sleeves. The top of the dress stretched up into the beginnings of a cape. Her hair was braids, held together by large gold rings. She had on a thin gold band around her head with a red jewel in the middle and a necklace with a twine chain and a green gem at the end. Sage explained she was wearing her mother's first princess dress, which was also the dress Elyon wore for her coronation. The crown and jewel were replicas of the crown and Heart of Meridian.

"Mom had these made because I was so fascinated with the real things when I was little," Sage explained. "And the crown grew as I did. I don't get the real ones til I'm queen next year, but the replicas will do for now. I'm kind of nervous about getting the crown and Heart anyway. The crown is so valuable and delicate. It's the same crown every queen of Meridian has ever worn and the Heart is so much power!"

GRACE exchanged tense looks. Sage was so sure she was going to be queen. So sure her family would be rescued. But today would be their true test. If they could make it alive, and as the winners, they knew they could become strong enough to beat Kasson, but if they lost this battle, even if they all came out alive, they were done. They knew they wouldn't be cut out to be guardians if they lost, especially since they were getting help from all the regents (Eric was one of the chaperones), two fighters (James didn't need to learn how to fight, so Sage trained him with a sword, which he was pretty good at), and a sorceress (Sage was going to disguise her appearance to help them fight).

"The Heart of Meridian is just a necklace," Alyssa said, trying to lighten the mood. "The power is your mother's, and it'll be yours once your queen. It's inside you. Your mother chose to keep it in a necklace. If you want, you can put the power back inside of you. But then you'll become the Heart of Meridian yourself."

"I know. Which is why I know Mom's idea of using the necklace is smart."

"Do I _have_ to wear this?" Caty suddenly burst out.

"Yes!" Gabi insisted.

There was knock on the door, and Rae opened it to find James, Josh, and Chris on the other side. Josh was wearing a suit, and oddly enough, he and Gabi did make one fantastic looking couple.

Chris was even less original than Alyssa. He was in his regent form, choosing to use that as his costume.

James was the worst of all. He wore a hoodie and jeans.

"What are you supposed to be?" Alyssa asked.

"The infamous kid who didn't buy a costume," James said.

"And yet, you're still the hottest guy for miles," Gabi said.

James went red. "Um…thanks?"

"Looks like someone can't take a compliment," Gabi commented.

"Uh…"

"It's true," Alyssa said gently. "The thing about you being hot I mean." James looked just as gorgeous as always. He didn't need to buy a costume or do anything special with his hair. Josh didn't need to either, though he wore the suit for Gabi's sake. Everything else about him was the same, and he still looked incredibly hot.

"So is you sister coming with us?" Gabi asked. She'd gotten her driver to take the group to Sheffield in her limo.

"Yeah, she's waiting downstairs," Chris said.

"You could've told her to come up here," Rae said.

"I did. She didn't want to. I think she embarrassed by her costume. I'm embarrassed too."

"What does her costume have to do with you?" Alyssa asked.

"It's too revealing and she's my sister. My _middle_ school sister. Who will be surrounded by _high school _guys."

The middle schoolers had their own Sheffield dances that took place a week before the ones for the high schoolers, but the middle school parties weren't nearly as fun. The middle school students could go to the high school dance if they were invited by an older student. As a regent, Cara had to go the high school dance, so James invited her. They'd have to walk in together, but then he was free to be Alyssa's date for the rest of the night.

Cara was fidgeting downstairs. She was dressed in a nurse's costume. A white dress with a red border and a hat. She wore white pantyhose and white flats. The dress was majorly short.

"Whoa. What's with the almost porn?" Gabi snorted.

Josh glared at her. Cara was like his sister too, and he didn't like the idea of her wearing that outfit in front of older guys either.

"It was my mom's costume from when she was my age," Cara explained. "But Mom was a lot shorter than me when she was my age."

"Well maybe you'll catch the attention of some really hot guys," Ellie said teasingly, only to get on Chris's nerves.

Alyssa coughed awkwardly and said, "Well we better go!"

"Wait!" Silena called. "I need to take pictures!"

"Mom!" Rae cried, but Gabi smiled.

"Oooh yes, let's take pictures!" she agreed. She gave Silena a huge smile. Rae couldn't be sure whether she actually wanted to take pictures or she just wanted to everything Silena Shane said. The whole star struck mode Gabi went into when she met Silena was the reason Rae didn't like to bring people to her house.

After Silena took millions of picture in every combination she could think of, and offered everyone a cookie (what they would need with cookies on their way to the dance, Rae had no idea, but since everyone else took one, she felt pressured to as well), they finally climbed into Gabi's limo.

"Who wants this?" Rae asked, holding up her cookie.

Everyone reached for it at once, then stopped when they saw everyone else wanted it too.

"That awkward moment," Gabi muttered. Ellie giggled as Rae handed the cookie to Sage.

"Hey!" Josh, Chris, and James cried.

"She likes them more than the rest of you," Rae defended.

"Why'd you take one if you were just going to give it away?" Caty asked.

"All of you took one. It'd make my mother feel bad if I didn't," Rae explained. "Peer pressure guys. It's real."

Everyone laughed.

"Jake would've had so much fun if he decided to go with you," Caty said.

"Even I prefer you over _Lana_," Gabi said, saying Lana's name as if she were saying 'arsenic.' "But I do know what her thought process was."

Everyone looked at Gabi.

"Well, we all know that Lana likes Chris, right?" Gabi asked.

Everyone nodded except Chris himself who said, "Wait, what?"

"Ignore my oblivious brother," Cara sighed.

"Well," Gabi went on, "she wanted a boyfriend over the summer, and since Chris doesn't hang out with our clique even though he plays baseball, Chris wasn't an option. So she wanted Jake."

"But Jake liked you," Rae said.

"Right. And she asked him out in the beginning of the summer and he turned her down. Rumor has it, he turned her down for me. Anyway, she doesn't really like Jake, so she could handle losing him to me. She views me as comparable to herself. She really needs to be knocked down a few pegs if she thinks she's closer to my level of beauty and popularity than Bree, but whatever. She got Dalton Drew instead. But now, Jake broke up with me and it looked like he wanted New Girl to be his next girlfriend."

"So?" Cara asked.

"So, even though she likes Chris, she couldn't handle the fact that the guy who turned her down over the summer was going to go for a girl nine million levels below her in the high school hierarchy, so she asked him before he could ask you."

"He wouldn't have asked me anyway," Rae said. "But I was going to ask him yesterday before Lana made it clear that they were going together."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Alyssa said. "Jake's a decent guy. There's no way he'd actually like Lana Oller. And everyone knows he likes you."

"Then why'd he say yes to Lana?"

"She's hot," Josh said.

Gabi giggled, but the other girls glared at him.

"What? She is!"

"_Anyway_," Ellie said, "I'm pretty sure he said yes because she did that whole begging thing that she does."

"Oh, that makes me want puke every time I hear it," Alyssa cringed.

"What begging thing?" Rae asked.

Gabi turned to Josh to demonstrate. She pouted, put on puppy dog eyes, and said in a sickly sweet voice, "Oh Jake, Dalton just broke up with me. Now I don't have a date for the dance. I was so looking forward to it. Hey, I know. Why don't we go together? I promise it'll be a lot of fun, and I'll just _die_ if I couldn't go because I had no date. Please say yes? Please!"

Everyone laughed at that.

"But then why were they holding hands? And why was he okay with it when Lana stuck her tongue down his throat, and Josh, I swear to God if you say 'because she's hot,' I'll zap you," Rae threatened, making everyone laugh.

"Honestly?" Alyssa asked. "He was probably trying to make you jealous. Everyone knows he likes you Rae, but you're never clear on how you feel. We know you like him because you told us, but I don't think he knows how you feel about him, which is why he didn't ask you to the dance. He has no idea what you're thinking."

"Well going out with Lana Oller is not going to help. I'm officially done with Jake."

"HA!" Ellie and Caty exclaimed at the same time making everyone else laugh.

Rae glared at them.

"Trust me," Gabi said. "From experience I know, you can never really be done with Jake Saunders."

Rae huffed and crossed her arms. Then she changed the subject. "So guys…is James ready to help out today?"

"Yes," Sage said. "He knows three types of martial arts. I'm not actually sure what that is, but it's like the fighting we learn in Meridian. Plus the martial arts trained him with a sword. It was a wooden sword, which is heavier than a regular katana, so it helped him. All I had to train him in was sword work. He's not perfect, and he's probably weaker than Josh and I, but that's to be expected. He could probably take on Chris."

"And you Alyssa?"

"I'm not very good, but I'm still joining the battle," Alyssa insisted.

"So what did you guys come up with in terms of plans?" Josh asked. "For the attack."

GRACE exchanged looks. They weren't sure how Cara, Sage, and the boys would react to what they had to say.

"Um…" Rae said. "We were kind of planning to just…wing it."

"Excuse me?" Josh said. "Wing it?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Cara asked.

"Well what are we supposed to do?" Gabi snapped. "Just because we know this attack is happening doesn't mean we know enough about it to make a plan."

"We know how many of them there are," Cara pointed out.

"Not necessarily," Caty disagreed.

The boys, Sage, and Cara looked confused.

"What do you mean?" Sage asked. "Ellie's dream…"

The night before James found out about GRACE, Ellie had a dream about the Halloween attack. It wasn't long. It just showed her the attackers. They were large, six foot, dark brown monsters with long blond hair, sharp fangs for teeth, yellow eyes with red irises, and clubs for weapons. There was also one really scary eight foot monster with green skin in a red cape with a large brown coat over it, wearing a witch's hat. He had red eyes with no irises, and he had a chain as a weapon. One end had hair on it and the other end was a ball with spikes. The whole thing was glowing green. Hay Lin said the brown monsters were nothing she'd ever encountered in Meridian, so they must be from Eldantia, but the green guy was the Tracker, a formidable opponent she and the rest of W.I.T.C.H. had faced when they were guardians.

In Ellie's dream, there were twelve brown monsters. Rae and Gabi were fighting one. There was one after Caty, and one after Ellie. Cara and Chris were double teaming against two more. Josh was fighting one and Sage was fighting three. Eric was fighting two. Alyssa, obviously in human form, was trying to outrun one.

The next night, the night that James found out about GRACE, Ellie had the same dream, but in this one, James was in front of Alyssa with a sword, ready to fight off the monster Alyssa was trying to outrun.

"Look, Ellie had a dream that the five of us were in Meridian fighting the snake monster," Caty said. "In the dream, all five of us were in guardian form. But Alyssa doesn't have powers."

"Maybe she gets them back by then," Sage suggested.

"That's what I thought at first," Caty said. "But I don't think that's it. In the dream, I still needed Ellie's help to make ice. But lately, I've been able to make burning hot water completely cold, like ice cold. Hay Lin said it's not long before I can make ice on my own. If that's true, then there's no way I would need Ellie's help soon, so that dream might not happen. And besides, there's no situation ever in which we would go to Meridian without at least two of you guys to help us, but in the dream, it was just the five of us."

"But the air guardians dreams are visions of the future," Josh protested.

"No, they're visions of a _possible_ future," Caty corrected. This was a theory she'd explained to the rest of GRACE earlier that day, which caused them to decide to wing it during the battle today. "When Ellie had that dream, none of us even knew we were guardians yet, and none of us knew you, James, or Sage, and we didn't know Cara, Chris, and Eric were regents. At that point in time, no one knew Taranee would eventually realize Alyssa had been training, and take away her powers. Now that that's happened, and we know all of you, that vision isn't the correct version of the future. Or rather, it's not going to be part of the future in our current timeline."

"So what?" Cara asked.

"So, Ellie's first dream about today's attack didn't include James. It was a _possible_ future. Her next dream did include James because by that time James already knew about GRACE. So him helping us was another _possible_ future. But none of us knew that night that he'd be so okay with it that he'd want to help us. Remember, he didn't ask to join Team GRACE until the day _after_ she had the dream about James helping us. He may not have wanted to help us, in which case, the first dream she had, without James, would be the one that would come true. Ellie doesn't dream of the future. She dreams of _possible_ futures. So just because she dreams something, doesn't mean it comes true."

"It's like what the Oracle said about his powers," Rae said. "He told us he doesn't just see one future, but he sees all possible futures, and it's his job to help people take the path of the best possible outcome."

"I still don't understand why all this means we're winging it today," James said.

"What I'm trying to say is, Ellie dreams of possible futures. But that doesn't mean her dreams _are_ the future," Caty said. "So really, we have no idea what's in store for us today. The number of monsters, the type, the hallway we were fighting in, the groups…everything is just a possible future, and all of that could be wrong."

The boys, Sage, and Cara looked haunted at this possibility, the way the rest of GRACE looked when Caty explained this theory to them.

"Look, the way I see it, we're good with our powers," Rae said, trying to calm everyone down. "Gabi doesn't get woozy in the air anymore, and since our fight with Snake Dude, all five of us have done battle. Gabi's creative, she knows how to use her powers. Caty, Ellie, and I can make storms. Together, Caty and Ellie can make ice, and together, Caty and I can kill someone. Caty can produce water even in human form, Ellie can make tornadoes and hurricanes, which is much better than when all she could do was blast air at things, Caty's mind control is getting really strong, and before I couldn't do a single thing except unite the guardians, but now I can shoot lightening. Even without Caty, I could kill someone."

"United you stand, divided you fall," Josh said grimly. "You have more power, but you _don't_ have Alyssa. Without her, your powers are diminished."

"Snake Dude wasn't fighting at full strength that day. No one is disputing that," Rae said. "But I don't think it was in his 'testing our powers' plan to get knocked out. If that's how our powers are _diminished_, I think we're good."

"Either that, or diminished has a different meaning in guardian speak," Caty joked.

"What does diminished even mean?" Ellie asked, making everyone sigh. Ellie huffed. "Never mind," she mumbled.

"Besides, we've got you big, strong, handsome guys to help us out," Gabi said flirtatiously. "We couldn't ask for better."

"Um, you've got us too," Cara reminded.

"Oh, yeah, and Cara and Sage," Gabi said breezily, making everyone laugh.

"Okay," Josh said, giving GRACE a genuine smile. "We'll do it you way. We'll wing it."

"Really?" Rae asked.

"What can I say Keeper? I trust you," Josh said.

He looked directly into her eyes after casting a surreptitious look at Alyssa, and Rae knew he meant more than just about the plan.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it. One quick thing: I didn't want to post the flashback in bold with the words 'flashback' and 'end flashback' but I had no choice. I could do it in italics since the girls speaking in their minds is in italics. I think that's all I have to say, so until next time, review!**


	20. The Halloween Dance

**A/N: Hello everyone! As promised, this chapter is the long awaited Halloween attack, although after the bomb I dropped in the last chapter, no one seems to care about the attack anymore. To be quite honest, I'd been toying with the idea of Josh and Alyssa being siblings for so long, not sure whether I was going to use the idea or not, that I'd forgotten all about it, which is why I called the last chapter filler. I kind of wish I hadn't put it in the last chapter, because there were other things I think people skipped over that were important. Oh well. Sacrifices, right?**

**Anyway, I'd like to give a huge thank you to AzamiBlossom, who followed this story, and 100gmaesvictor who favorited this story. And for those of you angry about Caleb and Taranee's tryst, I'm sorry, but it's not as bad as it seems. All will be explained, but not til towards the end of the story. Now, on to the shout outs, and then the story.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: Yup, you got to be the first reviewer, just like you wanted. Lol, Jake's a real coward, huh? Ellie's actually my least favorite character, but she's growing on me. Don't worry, it's not like he actually **_**likes**_** Lana. I doubt anyone could like Lana. I'm pretty sure the emotional part of the link isn't a W.I.T.C.H. concept, but I thought of it and had to add it in. Like Caty and ice. I don't think the water guardian can ever make ice by herself, although I think she can control ice or something? I know it'll be a fun chapter to write, but I hope people have fun reading too. Stop, everyone, including me, likes Alyssa and James better. We'll see where I go with that though. The dress part wasn't too fun to write, but some people wanted to know. Anyway, hope you like this chapter.**

**SilvenArrow: It's like my friend Nick who can't seem to break up with psycho stalker girlfriend, lol. But yeah, I really love Rae's sarcasm. I'm really sarcastic like she is. Most things she says are things I would say. Doesn't Lana just mess everything up? Don't worry though, Jake and Rae will work through this. Yup, sister, lol. I'm glad I could put that in there. Don't worry though, you'll learn more about Caleb and Taranee's tryst that will make you feel better. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: Hey, if Jake and Rae went to the dance together…well wouldn't that just be too easy? Especially since Alyssa and Gabi are both already going with the guy they like! Don't worry, the Caleb/Taranee thing is not what it seems. But I really like my idea of Josh and Alyssa being siblings. Hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: Lol, I was expecting a huge reaction from you on the Jake/Lana thing considering Jake and Rae are your favorite. Now I normally don't do this, but to appease you, I'll let you in on a little secret: Rae and Jake are going to officially get together **_**very**_** soon. Like, in the next couple of chapters soon. Like, the next time she sees Jake soon. Don't worry about Caleb and Taranee, all is not as it seems. I'm sorry I made you so angry, but you're right. The mark of a good writer is that she can envoke emotions in her readers, so I'm glad you felt everything in this chapter so deeply. I hope you like this chapter. It's mainly about friendships and the battle, but it'll give way to a bunch of big events.**

**Shay: Yeah, Rae and Jake are frustrating, but from what we know about them, it would be really out of character if they got together too quickly. But don't worry, they'll work it out. Lol, as I keep saying, try to forget the Caleb/Taranee tryst part, because when I explain what actually happened, you'll feel better. Unfortunately, that explanation won't come til the end-ish chapters. My best friend also said he used to watch BTVS when he was little and he was happy I was watching it now. My main motivation was to see Alyson Hannigan as Willow, because I love Aly, and she's she fun and feisty as Lily in HIMYM, so I wanted to see how well she'd pull off a more shy character like I've heard Willow was. I was happy with her performance, and I ended up loving the show too. I'm almost done with season 3 now. I haven't been able to watch much because of my summer semester, but I'm finished with two out of four classes tomorrow, so hopefully only having two classes will free me up. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Misa: To be fair, Rae's not sure Jake likes her. She's nervous. It's understandable. As you'll find out later (in the next chapter actually) Rae's not the most trusting person ever, especially when it comes to guys, and she tries not get caught up in stuff like crushes, so liking Jake is a big deal for her. I was thinking the same thing about Taranee letting Nigel name her Alyssa. But don't worry, there will be a happier ending for Taranne/Nigel and Cornelia/Caleb than what you're thinking. I love BTVS too. I just recently got into it, and am finishing up season 3. When I thought about what Caty could wear to blow Brian away, I immediately thought of Willow's costume, then decided Buffy's would make a good costume for someone too. I originally thought Gabi, but since I kept stressing that she was going to wear an old dress of her mother's, I switched it to Rae's costume. As for Alyssa finding out, depending on where my writing takes me, she'll either find out soon (like next couple of chapters soon), or it'll be a while (like 5-10 chapters a while). We'll see. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When the group entered the gym, Rae found herself abandoned almost immediately. Ellie and Caty went over to their respective friends groups. Gabi headed towards Bree with Josh and Sage in tow. Cara went to say hi to Ellie's ex Carter Hall. Cara and Carter had been flirting secretly since the beginning of the year, since Chris would not be thrilled to know his eighth grade sister was interested in a junior. Chris, as the only 'one of the most sought after guys in Sheffield' without a date, was immediately surrounded by girls asking him to dance, and even Alyssa and James had left her to grab drinks.

Rae knew there were two people in the gym she _didn't_ want to run into, so she knew the universe must hate her when one of those two people came right up to her with an easy grin on his face.

"Hey Rae," he said, as if nothing was wrong. As is she hadn't told him just the previous day that he was a horrible person and she spent the entire school day today avoiding him. As if he hadn't just messed everything up.

Rae glared at him. She desperately wanted to slap him in the face. She also desperately wanted to scream, "I like you, you aggravating son of a bitch!" and kiss him senseless. She had a feeling neither of those things would go over too well.

"Hey," she finally sighed, realizing he wasn't going to go away. "How's you date?"

"Oh, she's fine…I think…"

"You think?" Rae repeated. "Shouldn't you know?"

Jake shrugged sheepishly, and looked around the room. "Well, she's over there talking to Gabi. That's a good thing, I guess."

'Not really,' Rae though, but just shrugged. "Oh, well that's _awesome_."

Jake frowned. "Are you being sarcastic?"

"No, I was serious."

"…Was that sarcastic too?"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi sighed inaudibly for what felt like the hundredth time that night. So far, the dance wasn't going at all like she hoped. At first, everything was fine. She, Josh, Sage, and Bree were making light conversation. Then Dalton came over, and gave Bree a drink, and she gave him a smile and Gabi was happy everything seemed to be working out.

It was Lana who ruined her mood. She saw Jake go over to Rae, so Lana took that opportunity to make her way over to Gabi in that ridiculously beautiful dress of hers. It was pink with see through sleeves and lots of ruffles. The pink got darker the lower the gown went, and there was a magenta sash in the middle. It was made of silk and even though ruffles were so fifth grade, Lana made it work. Besides, pink was really Lana's color. She enhanced her beauty with pink eyeshadow, pink lip gloss, a silver necklace with a pink stone, and ruby earrings. Both Dalton and Josh's mouths dropped open when they saw her, and Lana gave both Gabi and Bree a smirk before greeting Sage with sincerity she usually only used with Kelli. Gabi couldn't understand how someone as sweet as Sage could be friends with someone as cruel as Lana. Lana fed both Sage and Jake a story about how it was Kelli who wrote the newspaper and she had no idea, and they were both naïve enough to believe it.

After that, Gabi's good mood all but disappeared. She was Josh's date and she loved the admiring look he gave her and the barely audible "Whoa" he uttered when he saw her back at Rae's house. But he was struck speechless by Lana. Did she look better than Gabi today? Even with her kaleidoscope eyes, Gabi felt inferior today. That's what Josh did to her.

When she was dating Jake, he gave her a confidence boost in every way. Josh made her feel nervous and insecure instead, but she didn't even mind. Every time she and Josh touched, whether it be accidentally at work, or on purpose when she grabbed his hand today, she felt fire between them, the way she used to feel with Jake. Whatever she felt for Josh was real.

But he clearly felt nothing for her, because he spent most of the night sitting on one of the chairs, throwing apprehensive looks at Alyssa dancing with James, and glares at every guy who asked Rae to dance, even though she turned all of them down.

"I know she's you sister, but you can't do that," Gabi finally said to him as he looked over at Alyssa and James again. "You may be able to take James in a fair fight, but if he punches you first, you probably won't be able to get up."

"He's scrawny as hell," Josh said.

"He knows three different types of martial arts. That really doesn't matter," Gabi replied. Luc took tae kwon do, and even though he was the smallest kid in his class, and smaller than even some of the third graders, even though he in fifth grade, he beat Tommy Press in a fight. Tommy Press was the biggest kid in the elementary school, who punched kids for looking at him the wrong way. He was held back twice but Luc still beat him.

"I don't like seeing him touch her," Josh muttered. "Like, he's always holding her hand or has his arm around her, and now his hands on her waist."

"They're dancing!" Gabi cried. Michael was just like this with her. She knew from experience the protective older brother thing was the most annoying thing in the world.

"They shouldn't be dancing," Josh said moodily. Then he looked at her. "When you told Caty and Ellie about Alyssa and I…what did you tell them?"

"If you mean, did I tell them you're Alyssa's brother, then no. Remember, I only found that out this afternoon."

Gabi noticed Rae looked almost haunted the previous day after she talked to Josh and Gabi asked what they were talking about. Josh avoided the question at first, but when the pair got home, Gabi caught Eva, who Luc was supposed to be watching since Sienna and Daniel weren't home, cutting up Gabi's Halloween dress.

Gabi chased Eva out of her room and cried. Luc kept apologizing, saying he should've been watching her, but Gabi, being the good big sister she always was, didn't let him take any blame. Josh felt so bad for her, he blurted out, "Alyssa and I aren't just friends. Actually she's my sister, and that's what I was talking to Rae about!"

Gabi had all but forgotten about the dress after that (which Hay Lin had been able to fix). Now she and Rae were the only ones who knew the whole story.

"And you didn't tell them after you found out?"

"No. When would I do that? I was with you most of the afternoon, and I never got a moment with Caty and Ellie without Alyssa. Besides, why would I intentionally spill your secret?"

"Isn't that what you did the first time?"

"No! I said you grew up together, but not because I wanted to. Caty used her mind control to make me tell her. I guess that was partially my fault for saying I knew a secret of yours. Then Caty told Ellie to convince her there was no possible way you could be the traitor."

"Wait, what?"

"Well, when she first had the dream about the Halloween attack and the traitor, she thought you might be the traitor."

"_Why_?"

"Well, because she knew it was a boy, and naturally she assumed it was someone who trains with us, and even though she hates Chris, she didn't think it was him, so that left you. You gotta admit, that's pretty smart for Ellie."

Josh got a thoughtful look on his face. "We've been so preoccupied by the attack that we haven't done any work on the traitor. So it's definitely a guy, and it's not me, and it's not Chris. James is the only other guy in our group, but he wasn't even part of the team when Ellie had this dream, so it can't be him…"

"So then who is it?"

Josh sighed. "It's not someone we know. Someone has been spying on our training sessions."

Gabi shuddered at the thought. Her life would be so much simpler, and much less terrifying, if she was never chosen as a guardian. But then she never would've met Josh. Considering how bored she currently was, she wasn't sure if that was such a bad thing. If Josh didn't want to dance with her, why did he even say yes? She wanted him to _like_ her, not bore her to death. Things were so much better with Josh before the Poor Little Rich Girl article. But the others figured out pretty quickly it wasn't her, so why was he still mad at her? Well, she wasn't just going to sit there, looking like a loser. She was the most popular girl in school and she was determined to have a good time, like the popular girls were supposed to.

"Come on." She got up, pulled Josh to his feet, and headed toward the dance floor.

"Hey!"

"Sage told me you can dance, and Ellie and her friends are about to sing," Gabi said, nodding to the air guardian and her two female companions, also dressed as angels, who were on stage. "We have to dance."

The deejay stopped the music and announced the first performance of the night. He asked Ellie what the girls would be singing.

"_Classless-a, do we have a link_?" Gabi asked.

"_Um, yeah, I set it up for us in the limo_," Alyssa replied. "_Why_?"

"_Ellie, if you're listening, sing a slow song_," Gabi said.

Ellie frowned, turned to Milly and Jade, and asked them something. They looked confused, but nodded. All three motioned for Adam, who was dressed in some lame army costume, to come on stage. Ellie said something to the deejay, then shot Gabi a thumbs up sign.

"Okay, let's give it up for these three lovely angels and G.I. Joe, who will be singing Stay by Rihanna and Mikky Ekko."

"_Oh, perfect,"_ Gabi smiled.

Josh began to dance with Gabi, but rolled his eyes. "This is what passes for music in this world?"

"What does Meridian music sound like?"

"Better."

"Of course. Everything is better in Meridian," Gabi said sarcastically, but she was smiling.

"Darn right," Josh said, grinning at her. Gabi nearly melted.

Josh waved at someone behind Gabi. Turning around, Gabi saw the person he waved at was Sage, who was dancing with Chris.

Gabi turned back around and looked down.

"If you don't look up at me, this dance will get all messed up," Josh said.

Gabi looked back up at him, biting her lip. One thing she hadn't thought of was Sage. She hadn't told Sage she liked Josh. She also said she was only going with Josh as friends. She didn't like lying to Sage, but she wasn't sure how Sage would feel if she knew the only person she told about her feelings for Josh was trying to steal him from her.

"What's going on between you and Sage?" Gabi asked finally.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…she told me you guys used to be betrothed."

"We were, before her mother abolished the rule that the heir to the throne had to choose a groom by her thirteenth birthday."

"And then you were released," Gabi nodded. "How do you feel about it?"

"Gabi, what are you trying to get at?"

"Do you like Sage?"

"Like…you mean, like…romantically?"

Gabi nodded.

"No! Definitely not. At one point, yes. She and her mother asked my parents if I could be chosen as Sage's groom when we were twelve. They weren't happy about it, but they agreed because I said I wanted to. I had the most pathetic crush on Sage since I was nine, but when I met this girl Tally when were fifteen, I realized I wasn't into Sage anymore. I didn't get to date Tally cuz Sage and I were still supposed to be married, and I eventually got over her too, but I started getting crushes on other girls, so when Queen Elyon abolished the rule, I was…"

"Relieved," Gabi said.

"Yeah. And I'm sure Sage was too. She has such a big heart. Even though we're best friends, she still wouldn't want to get married to someone she doesn't love."

Gabi nodded. Okay, so Sage may be in love with Josh, but Josh didn't like her. Did that make him fair game? She was pretty sure that was against girl code, but Sage was never going to do anything about her feelings…was it different then? No. It wasn't. She had to get Sage's permission.

"Gabi, we're friends, right? _Just_ friends?" Josh asked.

Or maybe she didn't Sage's permission after all.

"Uh yeah, totally," Gabi said, giving him her famous fake smile that everyone thought was genuine.

"_Oh, burn!_" Ellie cried as she and her friends finished their song.

"_Shut up Drama Freak!_"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Alyssa said as the song ended. James had been weird with her all night. Everything was fine before they got to the dance. Now all of a sudden, he's been quiet and lost in his thoughts the whole time he was dancing with her.

"Um…"

"I'm a bad dancer, aren't I?"

"No, that's not it at all."

"Please! I have two left feet."

"In case you haven't noticed, so do I," James reply, making Alyssa laugh.

"Then what are you thinking?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know what I'm thinking," James said.

Alyssa cocked her head. What did that mean? Usually James was so open with her. What was going on?

"James, whatever it is, you can tell me," Alyssa said earnestly. Did he not trust her? Why was she getting all out of sorts about this?

He smiled at her and she nearly turned into a puddle of Alyssa goo. Right. Because she liked him.

"Okay, but you have to promise you won't think any less of me."

"Never."

"If I'm being completely honest, I'm a little nervous about the battle today."

Alyssa frowned. He was lying. Not completely, but there was something else on his mind that he wasn't telling her. Still, she let him continue.

"I'm good with a sword and I can fight. But I've never fought _monsters_ before. I didn't even know they were real until four days ago. I'm trying to be brave and all, but I'm a little…"

"Scared?"

James nodded.

"That's understandable. Your first monster was Snake Dude, and he was mad creepy. But you don't seem afraid."

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not afraid of the monsters Lyssa. I know they're dangerous and I could die, and it's shocking. But the part that scares me is that you're charging into this battle with no powers and the least amount of skill. You haven't had training. And I'm afraid I won't be able to protect you."

"I don't need anyone to-"

"Seriously?" James cut in. "Alyssa, if I just stood here right now, in a lazy stance, not even paying attention, and you kicked me, do you think you'd knock me down?"

Alyssa bit her lip. "Point taken," she conceded. "But I don't want you worrying about me. That's going to distract you."

"Ellie saw me fighting off the monster that was chasing you in her dream," James said. "I know Caty said not everything in Ellie's dream has to come true, but that part will be true because you're the one I'll be watching. I'm going to worry about you no matter what. Even if you had all your powers and could kick my butt."

Alyssa blushed. When Chris or Josh mentioned protecting her, she always felt patronized and weak. But when James said it, it just made her feel special.

"I know you'll be fine. I wouldn't let you take part in this battle if I wasn't 100% sure you were ready. And ready includes protecting others, because that's what Team GRACE is about. Protecting other worlds, and that means we also have to protect each other. And even without powers, I'm still part of Team GRACE and I need to at least protect myself so I can help us. I wouldn't be joining this battle if I thought I was going to be a hindrance."

James smiled at her. "You're not a hindrance. I just don't want you getting hurt."

"Honestly, I don't think it's that big an issue. We beat hundreds of monsters with just four guardians, two regents, and three fighters that day in Meridian. Today we only have to face twelve with four guardians, three regents, and three and a half fighters…um, I'm the half in case you couldn't figure that out. Besides, Sage doubles as a fighter and a sorceress. That's why she was taking on more monsters than the rest of us in Ellie's dream."

"Alyssa, if Kasson is only sending twelve monsters, then they've got to be strong. Together, they're probably way stronger than Snake Dude, and you guys could barely beat him when he wasn't even trying."

"It's like Rae said. He may not have been trying, but we did knock him out, which probably wasn't part of his plan. And we didn't have the Regents then, and we didn't let Sage fight."

"What's different about today that you're going to let Sage show herself?"

"The plan is to kill all twelve."

"And what about this Tracker guy? He sounds dangerous."

Alyssa shrugged, biting her lip. "He scares me to be honest, but in Ellie's dream he seemed to be standing back and watching us, so hopefully he won't attack until the rest of the monsters are taken care of."

"That's a pretty big hope."

"I don't see what else we can do," Alyssa replied, shrugging. "But my mom has been in tougher scrapes than this. And she was a lot younger than I was when she became a guardian. If she can make it, so can I."

James thought about pointing out that, even though Taranee was younger, she never had her powers taken away, but decided that's not what Alyssa needed to hear right now. He'd just have to work extra hard to make sure she didn't get hurt.

"Oh look, Ellie's going up to sing her solo," he said.

Alyssa turned to look at the stage where Ellie was standing, wearing a headset. Three girls were in the back, standing in front of mike stands. They were backing her up for the song. The Music III class had to do a few performances in little groups (so far Ellie had done one, and Sage had done two), one big group performance, and each student had to do a solo song. Sage had done hers already. She'd chosen Happy by Marina and the Diamonds. Sage had an interesting taste in music. Ellie said she was going to do the song Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5.

However, when the music started, Alyssa knew it wasn't Makes Me Wonder.

"Isn't this a Taylor Swift song?" James asked.

"Mean," Alyssa confirmed.

For half the song, Alyssa just listened. Then, Adam, Jade, and Milly came up to her. Alyssa gave James a panicked look. She told him what had happened between her, Ellie, and Adam.

"Can we help you?" James asked, stepping in front of Alyssa protectively.

"We just came to talk," Adam said.

"About what?" Alyssa asked.

"Ellie's singing Mean up there," Jade said.

"Gee, I hadn't noticed," Alyssa replied sarcastically.

Adam raised an eye brow. Alyssa hadn't been that sarcastic back when they were friends. But a lot changed about her.

"We're wondering why," Milly spoke up. "She said she was going to do Makes Me Wonder. She's been hanging around with you a lot. Do you know why she switched songs?"

Alyssa bit her lip. "I _do_ know why," she admitted. "But not because of her hanging around me recently. The song is actually about something I knew about thanks to our previous friendship."

Adam threw her a confused look.

"You didn't know about it," she mumbled.

Now Adam looked surprised. There was something Ellie didn't tell him about?

"You guys were friends in elementary school," Milly said. "So why is she singing about it now, in high school?"

Alyssa shrugged, because she was wondering the same thing. 'She told me it stopped,' she thought. 'Maybe she was lying?'

That upset her, first because it was supposed to have stopped. Now she began to realize that maybe Ellie's life was even worse now than it was back then. And there were so many clues. Maybe it was still going on. And if that was true, then that means Alyssa and Ellie ended their friendship for nothing.

Ellie was finishing up her song. She was an actress, and had to put emotion into everything, but Adam knew there was more real emotion in this song than ever before. There was anger and determination; she put emotion into every word and it scared him. Did she relate to this song?

"But all you are is mean," she sang. "All you are is mean and a _liar, _and _pathetic_ and alone in life and mean, and _mean_, and _mean_, and _mean_!"

Alyssa bit her lip. Yeah, she knew exactly why Ellie chose this song and who she was singing about.

But someday I'll be living in a big old city  
And all you're ever gonna be is mean  
Yeah someday I'll be big enough  
So you can't hit me  
And all you're ever gonna be is mean  
Why you gotta be so (mean)  
Someday I'll be living in a big old city  
(Why you gotta be so mean)

And all you're ever gonna be is mean  
(Why you gotta be so mean)  
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me  
(Why you gotta be so mean)  
And all you're ever gonna be is mean  
Why you gotta be so mean?

Everyone clapped once she was done. Jade and Milly clapped too, reluctantly, still wondering why she changed the song. Adam and Alyssa exchanged looks as they saw Ellie wipe away a few tears before she got off stage.

"Okay, so are you going to tell me what that was about?" Adam asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's her secret to tell. If she hasn't told you yet, then…well, I guess it sucks she doesn't trust you."

Adam looked shocked and Alyssa looked away. She hadn't meant to say that. It was Ellie's secret to tell, but she thought Adam had every right to know.

'I guess I'm angrier at him than I thought,' Alyssa thought.

Adam sighed and walked over to Ellie with Milly and Jade.

"I'm missing something here, aren't I?" James asked.

Alyssa sighed and nodded. "But I can't tell you what it is."

"I kind of figured that," James grinned, instantly making Alyssa feel better. "But whatever it is, I can tell it's taking a toll on you."

"Ellie promised me something the summer before sixth grade, something that made me okay with ending out friendship, and I'm beginning to realize she didn't keep that promise. But I wish she had, because it would've saved her a lot of pain. It was for her own good."

"You guys ended your friendship when you were eleven," James said. "You were young and you did what you could. After that, you didn't talk, so you had no idea what was going on in her life. You did all you could at that age."

"Maybe I should've checked in with her."

"Would she have let you?" James asked.

"I guess not…"

"I like her Lyssa, but you can't beat yourself about this. The truth is, she doesn't deserve a friend like you if she just left."

"She didn't leave, we-"

"Got in a huge fight. Yeah, I know," James finished. "Look, I don't understand what happened, but it's in the past now. You guys weren't friends, she didn't deserve your help."

"But-"

"If it bothers you that much," James said, "help her now. You're friends again, so try to help her out now. Like I said, I do like her, and I think she deserves your help on whatever she's dealing with now. But don't feel bad about not doing anything before. That wasn't your fault. It was hers."

Alyssa nodded. He was right. She could help her now. And she would.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Ask _Nick_ to dance?" Caty repeated, staring at Nina and Misha with a confused look on her face. "But why? I'm trying to get _Brian_."

"You danced with Brian a few times already," Misha said. "Now it's time to ask other guys, namely his friends, to dance with you, and make him jealous."

"I don't know. If some guy I liked asked you two to dance, I'd think he wasn't worth it and give up on him."

"Well, guys don't think like that," Nina said. "They're stimulated by competition."

Caty paled.

"That's not what I meant!" Nina said quickly, blushing. "I just mean, if Brian sees other guys are interested, he'll want to be the one to get you in the end."

Caty rolled her eyes. "Fine. But I hate you both."

Nina and Misha smiled. "That just means we're doing our job as your friends right," Misha replied, giving Caty a little push in the direction of the food table.

Caty walked over to where Brian was getting punch. He gave her a huge smile. "Hey!" he said. "Here, just like you wanted."

"Thanks," she said airily, not taking the glass he held out. She looked at Nick, who was right next to Brian. "Dance with me," she commanded. Brain gave her a confused look, which she ignored.

Nick immediately nodded and grabbed her hand. Brian and all of his friends had stared at her open mouthed when she'd first walked up to her. She thought Travis was going to drown in his own drool.

Nick turned out to be an exceptional dancer, which she did not expect. She actually had a lot of fun dancing with him. He took her back to the food table where Brian was waiting patiently after a couple of dances. Will was with him too.

"Will, want to dance?" Caty asked, making Brian's mouth drop open.

After a few dances with Will, Caty asked Travis. Brian glared at him when he said yes. Travis was his best friend. She danced with Travis twice when a slow song came on.

"Are you okay with this?" Travis asked, moving closer.

Caty smiled and nodded, so they slow danced. When the song was over, they headed back to the food table, where Brian was watching them.

"So what happened to that Spiderman costume?" Caty asked him.

Brian went a little red. He had come in a suit. "I thought this would be easier to dance in," he said.

Caty bit her lip, feeling a bit bad. He'd worn something to be able to dance easily, and she'd danced more times with every other guy.

"Well then, maybe we could-" Caty started to say, but stopped when someone put a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around and came face to face with Tony DeLuca.

"Tony! Hey!" she said brightly.

"Hey Caty. Wow, you look great."

"Thanks. Nice costume," she replied. Tony was dressed as Nightwing. Caty wasn't one for superheroes, but she did know who Nightwing was, and it totally worked for Tony.

"Thanks. Want to dance?"

"Yes!" Caty cried, loudly, then blushed at her enthusiasm. "I mean, sure."

To Caty's delight, another slow song was playing, so she got to slow dance with Tony.

"So do you really like me new look?" she asked shyly.

"It's different."

"Good different or bad different?"

"Just different," Tony said.

"You don't like it?" Caty asked, her face falling.

"Do you like it?"

"I…yeah."

"Then so do I."

"Tony, really!" Caty protested.

"Really," Tony insisted. "Caty, I think you look great no matter what. I always thought so. You're beautiful."

Caty blushed madly.

"You won't look any less beautiful for changing your look, but I don't it makes you any _more_ beautiful either. I just want you to be happy in your own skin. If you're happy with this look, that's all that matters, because to me, you're the most gorgeous girl here."

Caty thought she was going to explode.

"Thank you," she whispered. Then they fell silent.

She'd only danced with Tony once when Nina and Misha ran over to her, apologized to Tony, said they needed to borrow Caty, and dragged her away.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Caty complained.

"Why are you dancing with Tony?" Misha asked.

"You guys are the ones who told me to dance with other guys," Caty pointed out.

"Not Tony," Nina said, rolling her eyes. "Brian's way hotter than Tony, but he doesn't know that. If he sees you dancing with someone like Tony, who is hot, and smart, and athletic, and in the popular clique, he _will_ give up on you because he'll know Tony has more of a chance with you. You have to dance with guys in _our_ social circle, because he'll see those guys as competition, but won't be discouraged because they have the same social status as him."

Caty groaned. "This is so complicated! I actually _like_ Tony."

"Well, do you want to stop romancing Brian? You can," Misha said.

"No," Caty sighed. "It's my future on the line here. I have to keep going."

Gabi chose that moment to walk over. "So nerd subjects, what do you think of the costume?"

"You mean Caty's?" Nina asked, ignoring the 'nerd' comment for Caty's sake. "As much as I hate to admit it, you did a good job."

"One question though," Misha said. "How did you get her to leave her cardigan at home?"

"She didn't," Caty said. "She gave it to Rae's dog and he ruined it."

"It was the only way. All's fair in love, war, and fashion," Gabi said haughtily. Caty had no idea why Gabi was so smug about ruining her cardigan, but she never really understood Gabi Shay.

"Nice touch," Misha complimented.

Gabi smiled, then saw Bree waving her over, and walked away. As she did, the polite smiles Nina and Misha wore disappeared.

"God, that girl needs to disappear," Nina sighed.

"I don't know why she thinks she's so great," Misha agreed.

"Well…" Caty said, shifting uncomfortably, "she _is_ the one that got Brian to ask me out."

"Like we couldn't have done that for you," Misha scoffed.

"Um, actually," Caty said nervously, "you couldn't."

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Misha asked, sure she heard her best friend wrong.

"It's true, you couldn't. When you tried to help me, I looked like a fool, embarrassed myself in front of Brian, could barely walk straight, twisted me ankle, and fell down, further hurting the leg I fractured. But when Gabi helped me, she made me look like a model, she helped me to say the right things, made Brian all nervous, and got him to ask me to the dance."

"So what, she insulted us, but you still like her?" Nina asked.

"I…" Caty stopped. She'd been mad at Gabi ever since she'd insulted Misha and Nina, but she still _did_ like her. "Yeah, actually. I'm mad at her for what she said to you guys, but I _do_ still like her."

"Gee Caty, I didn't know any rich girl skank who put a little make up on your face could win your favor," Misha said nastily, suddenly mad at her friend.

Caty was taken aback, but glared at Misha anyway. "Gabi is not a skank!" Sure Gabi was a bitch sometimes, but not a skank. That would be Lana. "And I _don't_ just like her because she gave me a makeover. I happen to like who she is as a person. Sure, she'd well off and athletic, but she hasn't had the easiest life. It may not seem like it, but she wants good grades. She tries hard in school; it just doesn't come to her like it does to us. And her family is falling apart. But when you see how loyal she is to Bree or how kind she is to her brother…you _want_ to befriend that person."

"Maybe _you_ want to," Nina said, "but not us."

"Last year, you cursed Gabi's name," Misha said. "You spent hours complaining this summer because Lili had joined Gabi's cheerleaders. And now you're hanging out with her _willingly_?"

"For tutor circle," Caty said.

"Oh this goes way past your little tutor circle," Nina replied. "I'm not sure if tutor circle is even real, but if it is, it's definitely not the _only_ thing you're doing. You've changed."

"What do you mean?"

"She's talking about your behavior lately," Misha said. "You've been skipping out on practice for Mock Trial, Model U.N., and Debate Team. You lost president to Brian and you didn't even care. You're not all there during soccer, according to Nina, and you've only been to Key Club once this year. You're never paying attention in student council, and you haven't written a single article for the paper since the Poor Little Rich Girl paper came out. Editor-in-chief does not mean we get a free pass. It just means we don't have to write as many articles as normal."

"I've been preoccupied."

"_Too _preoccupied," Nina said. "Your grades are slipping Caty. You're number 3 in class rank, and that makes you one of the leaders of our social circle. The minute your drop rank, Sheila Breslin will scoop up our entire group. And other people in our group, like Emma and Karen have noticed your grades aren't what they used to be."

"My GPA is still over a hundred. I'm not losing my rank."

"Yet," Misha said, rolling her eyes. "I like Rae Dylan as much as you do Caty, but as you drop, she's getting closer to you. She may be friends with us, but she's not actually part of our group. You can't let her take your spot. Alyssa Ashcroft and Jake Saunders already hold the first and second class rank spot over any member of our group. We can't lose the third spot to Rae. And Brian's not dropping. Soon he and Rae will be tied, and Sheila will get all our friends on her side."

Caty sighed. She could see Misha's point. Including Nina and Misha, Caty had ten people in her little honors crowd sub group, eight girls and two guys. Including Travis, Nick, and Will, Brian had nine people in his sub group, three girls, and six guys. Including her best friend Simone and Ralph, Sheila had 28 people in her sub group. Even though she was ranked number 11, she knew how to manipulate and play people to her advantage, and the last thing the honors crowd needed was to add more people to Sheila's personal army, which she would get if Caty dropped in class rank. But Caty was trying her hardest not to let that happen.

"I can get back on track," Caty insisted.

"As _assuring_ as _that_ statement is," Misha said sarcastically, "this isn't just about your grades. This is about you. You're not acting like the Caty we know. The Caty we know wouldn't hang around with people like Gabi Shay or Ellie Kramer."

"People like Ellie Kramer?" Caty repeated slowly. "You mean…"

"Stupid," Misha said, extremely matter-of-fact.

"Ellie is _not_ stupid," Caty said, her voice like ice. "She's resourceful and creative. I've never met anyone like her."

"You've got that right. You've never met anyone like her because you know better than to associate with people with such low intelligence levels," Nina said.

Caty's face went red with anger. "Do you even hear yourselves right now? I thought you guys were different, what with the way you accepted Rae and Alyssa so easily."

"Alyssa and Rae are on par with us," Nina said. "In fact, both have better ranks than Misha and I. It'd be nice if they eventually become part of the honors crowd. Ellie and Gabi are not the type of people we want to keep company with."

"Because they're not smart?" Caty asked, already knowing the answer. "That's not right. We're the lowest social class. We get teased relentlessly. How can we discriminate people the way the cheerleaders do to us?"

"In case you're forgetting, one of the girls you're getting so friendly with _is_ a cheerleader."

"And she's a far better person that you are," Caty shot back. "All that stuff Gabi said about you guys? I think she was just being possessive of me, and that wasn't the right way to try and tell me that, but she made a mistake. Oh well. She may be the girl who led the others in their teasing, but she's changed."

Caty knew this was true. Ever since the girls got deeper into the guardian thing, Gabi had been different. She may still address Alyssa directly with her nicknames, but when she was talking about Alyssa, she never used the nicknames anymore. She was friendly with Rae, she helped Caty out so much, and she was the only member of Team GRACE who didn't treat Ellie as if she were stupid. Every other member had treated her that way at one point.

"She's not the only one. You've changed too Caty," Nina said.

"You're right, I have," Caty agreed. "And thank God I did, because I'm a better person this way. I shudder to think that at one point, I was just like you."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Did someone's date ditch her?" Gabi taunted as she, Josh, Bree, and Dalton walked over to Lana, who was standing in the middle of the dance floor on her own.

Lana glared at her, then looked around. "Seriously?" she asked herself when she finally spotted Jake.

Gabi stifled a laugh. All night she'd noticed Jake would hurriedly have a conversation with Lana, then try to talk to or dance with Rae, who wouldn't give him the time of day. It was actually pretty entertaining to watch.

"Isn't New Girl's costume gorgeous?" Gabi taunted, making Bree giggle.

"Not as gorgeous as mine," Lana bit out.

"I suppose that's why Jake has been hanging out with Rae all night?" Dalton asked, smirking, making Bree laugh out loud.

Lana glared at him, then turned to Gabi. "How could you let this happen?"

"Let what happen?" Gabi asked.

"Jake Saunders is in the popular clique. New Girl is a nerd. The two of them shouldn't even associate."

"And what do you want me to do about it?"

"Put her in her place. That's what the head cheerleader is supposed to do!"

"I have a better idea," Gabi said, a smirk gracing her face. "You Lana Oller, are a _snake_. I happen to still care about Jake, and I know the only reason you asked him to the dance is because his popularity appeals to you, and you don't want to lose someone you already lost to someone who is so much lower than you on the social hierarchy. But Jake deserves much better than you. And as much as it pains me to admit it, he deserves much better than me too. _Rae_ is a good person. She's kind and loyal and sticks up for the people she cares about. She protects anyone she thinks needs it. And that's the kind of person someone as amazing as Jake deserves to be with. And that's the kind of person we should all strive to be like. So if I need to put anyone in their place, it's _you_."

Everyone looked at her shocked. Bree's mouth hung open. She hated Lana as much as Gabi, but since when did her best friend think so highly of New Girl?

"Well someone's lowered their standards," Lana finally said.

"Wow, what a comeback!" Gabi exclaimed. "I want you to admit to Jake you wrote the article."

"Like I'm going to do that!" Lana laughed.

_"Caty, I know we're not on the best of terms, but I'm gonna need a favor,"_ Gabi said. She explained what she wanted.

_"Oh, I like it. I'm on it. And I forgive you. Right now, I'd honestly rather be your friends than Misha or Nina's,"_ Caty replied.

Before Gabi could ask what that meant, Lana had a dazed look on her face. She walked up to Jake, tapped him on the shoulder, and said something. Then the dazed look disappeared and she looked confused, as if wondering why she said whatever it was she said.

_"Thanks,"_ Gabi said, smiling.

"Wow, did she really-?" Bree asked, then got confirmation when Jake glared at Lana, and told her off.

"How'd you make her do that?" Dalton asked.

"Never underestimate Gabi's powers," Bree said.

"Or GRACE's," Josh said so only Gabi could hear, making the brunette smile.

After that, Bree asked Josh and Dalton to get them drinks. When they were out of earshot she asked, "Gabi, why did you stand up for New Girl?"

"She's honestly not that bad," Gabi said. "Don't get me wrong, I don't particularly _like_ her. I mean, okay a little, but we're not going to be friends or anything. And hanging out with her is still just a means to an end. But she is everything I said she is, and I do think she's perfect for Jake. He's amazing, and I'm not saying that because I'm in love with him. Honestly, I'm over him. But he was one of my closest friends for a long time, and despite everything that happened, I still want him to be happy."

"Yet you keep avoiding him every time he tries to apologize to you?" Bree pointed out.

Gabi sighed. "I just don't feel like talking to him for some reason."

"He was a jerk to you. It's understandable," Bree said. "So, what are you going to do about the fact that you're in love with the boy Sage is also in love with?"

"Ugh," Gabi moaned.

Bree giggled.

"Bree, I know you actually started to fall for him when you were fake dating. Are you okay with this?"

"Of course. Once Dalton asked me out, I knew Josh was just an infatuation. It's always been Dalton for me. Your plan worked perfectly."

"I'm glad. And as for Sage, I don't think I have to worry. Josh wants to be 'just friends' with me."

"Aw Gabs, I'm sorry," Bree said sympathetically.

Gabi shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it, right?"

The boys walked back over to them.

"No drinks?" Bree asked.

"They were out of punch," Dalton said.

"One of the chaperones said they were getting more, and we can some later," Josh said. "But right now, Gabi, do you want to dance?"

Gabi smiled. "Sure," she said, liking that she didn't have to drag him on the dance floor.

To her immense delight, a slow song came on, and Josh seemed way more comfortable dancing with her now.

"That was amazing of you, you know? Defending Rae like that," Josh whispered.

Gabi shrugged. "No big deal."

"No, wrong. It _is_ a big deal. You're a good person Gabi. I just wish you'd let more people see that."

"I'm only a good person to the people I like," Gabi said.

"You defended Rae, but you don't like her," Josh pointed out. "Don't sell yourself short. You're incredible."

"You only think that because I said some nice things about the girl you have an insane crush on," Gabi mumbled.

"She's not the girl I have an insane crush on," Josh said.

Gabi looked at him, hardly daring to believe. Before she could ask him to explain, he pulled away from her and said, "I think the attack's started."

Looking around, Gabi saw the rest of Team GRACE gathering.

How ironic that the very thing that helped her meet Josh just ruined her moment. She doubted she was ever going to get that back.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie rolled her eyes as Adam tried to drag her onto the dance floor.

"Give it a rest Adam. I don't want to dance," Ellie said. She silently added, 'with you.'

"Come on El, one dance," Adam begged.

"Not even half a dance," Ellie replied, making Milly laugh. Jade silenced her, not liking Ellie's attitude.

Alyssa, who was dancing with James, caught her eye, and Ellie smiled at her. Then she noticed Rae jump as she tried to ignore Jake. She placed a hand on the twine that held the Heart. She said something to Jake, then quickly sprinted to the doors, catching Ellie's eye.

"I have to go," Ellie said quickly.

"Go…where?" Jade asked, confused.

"To…that door," Ellie said lamely, pointing to where Rae was. "Uh…see ya!"

Before anyone could say anything else, Ellie took off, motioning to the doors with her eyes to let Alyssa know what was going on. She did the same as she passed Josh and Gabi, then grabbed Caty's arm, interrupting her dance with Brian.

"I need her," she said quickly before dragging her towards the door.

"The Heart vibrated the way it does when a portal opens," Rae said.

"That means the monsters are coming through," Cara said.

"What's the plan?" James asked.

"Told you, we're winging it," Rae said.

"I mean the plan to not get any of these other people involved," James said.

"These doors lock from the outside, and as student council vice president, I have the key that locks and unlocks them," Caty said. "I'm going to lock them all til the battle is over."

James nodded. The group headed into the hallway. Caty locked three of the four doors before the monsters caught up to them. Instead of sticking together that way Rae hoped, everyone sprinted in different directions.

"Guardians, unite!" Rae said quickly, hoping she'd get all the girls. Unfortunately, she only heard Gabi's voice.

"Earth!"

"Quintessence!"

Rae heard a door slam and realized Caty was probably locking the last door. Several monsters had already gone after the others. There were two right near them.

"Ready?" Rae asked.

"As I'll ever be," Gabi replied before dodging the swing of a monster's club.

Rae launched a ball of lightning at the other guy. He put up his club and the diffused the ball.

"Well I was not expecting _that_," Rae muttered to herself.

"New Girl, in the air!" Gabi commanded. Rae immediately flew up, joining Gabi. Gabi wiggled her fingers, causing an earthquake. The guy that diffused Rae's attack managed to stay on his feet, but the other fell, dropping his club in the process.

Gabi used her telekinesis to make the club float towards her, making use of it as her weapon.

Rae spent some time dodging the other monsters swings, and kept hitting lockers and walls. "I am not made for hits like this," she muttered.

She heard screams of the others, then heard the sound of Chris's lasers.

"Gabi we need to finish this and get to the others," Rae said urgently.

Gabi flew into the air, then clapped her hands together, making the two monsters crash into each other. The one without the club got hit by the other's club and fell unconscious. Gabi used the club she had to hit the other guy over the head, knocking him unconscious too.

"Nice!" Rae complimented.

"I honestly had no idea if that would work," Gabi admitted.

"Thank God it did," Rae replied. She launched a huge ball of lighting at them, killing them, then the pair flew over to where the others were. "Guardians, unite!" Rae yelled.

"Water!"

"Air!"

"About time!" Caty commented, throwing a blast of water at one of the monsters.

"Sorry, got held up," Rae replied.

One of the monsters advanced on her.

"Get out of the way!" she heard Ellie yell. She flew left and in the next second, the monster was trapped in a tornado.

"Nice El," Alyssa said as she ducked under one monster's club.

"Hey, El, help me out here!" Caty cried, drenching a monster.

Ellie sent the still spinning tornado to the monster and he was completely frozen.

"Whoa," Gabi said.

"That's new," Alyssa said. They'd never completely frozen a person in a block of ice before. That monster was dead. In the next second, Rae killed the monster that Ellie knocked out with her tornado.

That's when Alyssa began to notice Ellie's dream was playing out. There were sixteen monsters to begin with, but now there were only twelve.

Rae and Gabi were fighting one. There was one after Caty, and one after Ellie. Cara and Chris were double teaming against two more. Josh was fighting one and Sage was fighting three. Eric was fighting two. The last one started chasing Alyssa.

Alyssa turned and ran. James charged at the monster head on with his sword. He managed to slice through the monster's shoulder, making him scream and bleed, but he still came after them.

"Go!" James yelled, and Alyssa continued to run. James ran after her, turning back every few paces to try and hit the monster again.

"Ow," Gabi moaned, sinking to the ground.

"What's wrong?" Rae asked.

"And why do I suddenly have a pounding head ache?" Caty added.

"Thank Classless-a," Gabi replied. "She can't control her telepathy, so now a mental link equates an emotional and physical link."

"What does equate mean?" Ellie called as she wrapped herself in a tornado as a shield.

"Not the time," Caty replied, knocking her monster to his knees using water.

"All I mean is, if one person gets a head ache, the others do too," Gabi said. "And that's why Caty has one. Because I do. There's no way I can use Earth here, so I've been using my telekinesis and that's causing my head ache, and because of Klutzcroft's mental link, Caty feels it too."

"How come Ellie and I don't have a head ache?" Rae asked, her lightning ball missing her target completely.

"Careful!" Caty admonished. "And I think the head ache only transfers over to other who have telepathic powers. I have mind control and Alyssa's psychic. That's why we feel the head ache and you and Ellie, whose powers aren't based on the human mind, don't."

"We need to practice control," Rae declared as she kicked one monster out of her way.

"I can't do anything here," Gabi complained, pulling locker doors off their hinges and hitting the monster she and Rae were fighting with them, knocking him out. Rae killed him. "My head hurts too much to use my telekinesis and I can only use the lockers with my power over Earth, but we can't destroy the school."

"Let's get outside," Rae suggested. "Up on the roof, everyone!"

_"Good plan, we're up on the roof too," _Alyssa said in everyone's heads. _"Sage and Eric are also up here. My head hurts really badly though, I can barely see."_

_ "Feeling that too," _Gabi groaned.

Caty quickly explained her head ache theory as they led the monsters up to the roof. Rae noticed the Tracker standing there, just watching them, but not going after them. She noticed he entered the hallway after Sage, Eric, Alyssa, and James had gone up to the roof, she he probably didn't see Sage. That was good because Sage was still technically in hiding, and Rae was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to kill the Tracker, so he couldn't see Sage. Still, Rae shuddered. He was creepy. Was he going to attack or was he just going to watch?

Up on the roof, the girls seemed to be having more luck. Josh and James worked very well together to take out a monster with their swords. Ellie, with Alyssa's guidance, managed to kill a monster by cutting off his air. Gabi was able to use rocks and vines to knock monsters out, but left the killing to Rae. Caty managed to kill two by drowning them. Cara killed using her phasing powers, and Eric used telekinetic tricks. Chris shot monsters with lasers.

"Guys, these are way more than twelve!" Caty cried.

She was right. The girls had taken out 27 monsters already and more were coming.

"It's the portal!" Eric cried. "Close it!"

Rae nodded and she started back down the stairs. Josh and Chris followed her for back up. About a dozen monsters met them downstairs, but Josh and Chris fought them off while Rae closed the portal. She joined the fight right after, and after killing them all, they headed back to the roof.

Up there, the others were facing off against twenty more monsters. Rae shot a bolt of lightning at one, but the bolt was so small the monster laughed in her face. Rae sent another bolt at him and the same thing happened.

Caty wasn't able to produce water, Ellie was downgraded to air blasts, and Gabi's rocks was pitiful pebbles instead of the boulders she was raising a few minutes before.

_"Guys, what's going on?" _Alyssa asked. _"You're suddenly weaker!"_

_ "We _have_ been fighting for a while,"_ Caty pointed out.

_"But Hay Lin didn't say out powers get weaker with the passage of time,"_ Rae reminded.

"_Well we need to figure this out soon. These guys are winning_!" Gabi said.

"Ugh," Rae groaned, feeling a pain in her chest. Looking down, she realized with a start that the Heart, which fused with her body in guardian form, was slowly making its way out of her chest. What did that mean?

Ellie, realizing her air power wouldn't be enough, starting using fancy flying to tire the monsters out. Chris used his lasers to take out the two monsters she tired out.

_"This isn't working guys! I can barely produce water anymore,"_ Caty said, her voice panic ridden.

In the next instant, the Heart stopped glowing, and made a buzzing sound, as if it was out of battery or something. The warmth Rae usually felt from the heat disappeared. It felt like cold metal now. The girls immediately transformed back into humans. Ellie screamed. She was floating away from the roof when they changed.

"ELLIE!" all the girls screamed.

Gabi immediately used her telekinesis to lift Ellie up and Ellie tried to control the winds to keep her up in the air, but both girls were weak.

"Rae!" Caty cried.

"I didn't do it in purpose!" Rae cried, trying to get the Heart to work again.

James, Josh, and Sage were getting tried. The Regents were still going strong, but there were too many monsters.

"I can't hold on much longer," Gabi groaned.

"Bring her back to the roof," Alyssa shouted.

"I _can't_!" Gabi replied. "I-oh no!" Gabi had dropped Ellie. She began to scream again, then abruptly stopped when someone caught her.

The person that caught her flew her up to the roof. Everyone gasped. The person who caught her looked like an angel. She had large wings like Chris's, but they were white instead of black. Her appearance kept changing, from blue eyes and curly golden hair to green eyes and cropped red hair to brown eyes and long, straight brown hair to gray eyes and shoulder length platinum blond hair. She was glowing pink, darker than the glow of the Heart.

"Who…are you?" Rae asked.

"My name is not important. I am known as the Angel of Magic," the woman replied from up in the air. Her voice echoed, as if she was using a voice modulator and combining several voices at once. Rae couldn't place it. "You can call me Angel."

"Is she on our side?" Gabi asked Eric.

Eric shrugged. He'd never heard of the Angel of Magic. Even Sage and Josh seemed to be at a loss.

The Angel of Magic turned her gaze to two monsters. In an instant, they both disintegrated.

"Whoa," Ellie breathed.

The Regents and Sage took advantage of this situation. Even though she was tried from taking on several monsters at once, and using her magic and combat skills at once, Sage killed one monster with her dagger, and used magic to kill the other one.

Cara pulled out the hearts of two, Chris blasted one with his laser, Eric telekinetically threw two off the roof, and Angel disintegrated the rest.

"They're gone," Caty said, relieved.

"Is that all?" Angel asked, landing on the roof.

"The Tracker is downstairs," Rae said.

"I sent him back," Angel said. "I paralyzed him, opened a portal, and sent him to the Meridian prison. Hopefully he stays paralyzed long enough for the guards to lock him up."

"You can open portals?" Sage asked.

"Can't you?"

"Well yes, but…who _are_ you?"

"The Angel of Magic," Angel said, making everyone groan.

"Thank you for helping us. Are you on our side?" Alyssa asked politely.

"I do not generalize sides," Angel said. "But my allegiance lies with Queen Elyon."

"My mother," Sage sighed, relieved.

"Yes," Angel nodded, but her tone suddenly turned sour.

"Are you from Meridian?" Josh asked.

"No," Angel replied, but didn't expand. "Is the Heart warm again?"

"Oh…yeah," Rae said, relieved. "Do you know why it stopped working?"

"One of you doesn't have powers, correct?" Angel asked.

"Me," Alyssa said meekly. "My mother…uh, she took them away."

"That is why. Your powers are diminished without one of the guardians, so they grow weaker as time passes until the Heart…times out for lack of a better word."

"So if Alyssa still had her powers, that wouldn't have happened?" Caty asked.

"Correct," Angel replied, her echoing voice and ever-changing appearance giving Rae a head ache.

"Good thing you showed up when you did," Eric said as he, Cara, and Chris changed back into their human forms. "Thank you again."

Angel nodded. "No thanks necessary. You will always receive my help as long as your allegiance lies with Queen Elyon."

With that, Angel disappeared in a flash.

"What just happened?" James asked.

"That's an early magic trick. She teleported herself to…well wherever she wanted to go," Sage said.

"But no one knows who that was?" Josh asked.

Everyone shook their head.

"Let's unlock the doors and head back to the restaurant," Eric said. "The dance is almost over anyway. We can ask Hay Lin if she knows."

Everyone nodded and headed downstairs.

"Whoever she was, she was trying really hard to conceal her identity. Her voice echoed and her appearance kept changing," Alyssa said.

"And she didn't provide a name," James added.

"She said she's loyal to Queen Elyon. That has to be good, right?" Ellie asked.

"Definitely," Gabi said.

"It seemed to be more than just loyalty though," Josh said. "It was almost scary. She doesn't generalize sides, remember? So that means, if Elyon ever got brainwashed and fought on the side of evil, Angel would too."

"If that's true, she must _know_ Mom," Sage said. "They must be friends."

"But you've never met her?" Alyssa asked.

"I doubt I would recognize her if I had. I've never met someone with changing appearances," Sage replied.

"I wish she stuck to one face. It gave me a serious head ache," Rae moaned.

"Speaking of, mine's gone," Caty spoke up.

"I broke our link after Angel left," Alyssa explained.

"Thank God," Gabi said.

"Lyssa, we need to get your powers back," Chris said. "If what Angel said is true, then harder battles are going to go even worse."

"What are Angel's powers?" James asked. "She said she was the Angel of _Magic_, but even Sage couldn't disintegrate those guys just by looking at them."

"I could, if that's what I was trained to do," Sage said. "Magic isn't all encompassing. It comes in skill sets. You usually learn one skill set at a time. There are hundreds of skill sets, and even the most powerful magicians, like Kasson's family, Cassandra's family, and my family, can only learn up to fifty skill sets in a lifetime. Disintegration is part of the Warrior Skill Set, which I never thought was important to learn since I can fight."

"But disintegration is such a useful power!" Ellie cried.

"But it's not easy to learn. It takes years," Sage said. "As the heir to the throne, Mom made me learn the most effective skill sets that take the least amount of time so that by the time I was queen, I'd already know fifteen skill sets."

"So Angel is an experienced enchantress," Cara mused. "I wonder who she is."

"Someone powerful," Ellie said.

"And someone we have to watch out for," Rae added. "Just to reiterate, she said she was loyal to Queen Elyon, which means she'll be on whatever side Elyon is on. And knowing what we do about Cassandra, I wouldn't be too surprised if she did make Elyon turn on the good side."

"So having Angel around could be either very good or very bad," Chris said.

"If she's not on our side, what do we do?" Ellie asked.

"Fight?" Gabi ventured.

"I don't think even I can fight her. My magic is no match for someone with the Warrior Skill Set," Sage said.

"So then what, we die?" Caty asked sardonically.

The others just exchanged nervous looks.

"I was kidding!" Caty cried.

"Kidding…but right," Josh said.

"Don't be such a Debbie Downer," Alyssa admonished, smacking his arm.

Gabi held back a laugh. "Only you would use such a loser-ish term Classless-a," she said, and for the first time, Alyssa actually smiled instead of rolling her eyes or bristling. She heard Gabi's light tone.

In the next second, the other guardians began to laugh. Everyone else just looked at each other and shrugged, not finding anything funny. They were happy that the guardians were finally getting along. The group started unlocking the gym doors, not realizing someone had been watching them the entire time.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: What did you think? I'm glad I got that chapter done, because I've got some fun and exciting events in the next couple of chapters, including new developments with Rae and Jake, Rae finally meeting Elaine, someone close to one of the guardians finding out about G.R.A.C.E., new developments with Eva, another attack, and GRACE's secrets revealed. And I should be able to update quicker from now on. I've had three summer classes so far, and two of them are ending tomorrow. I'm starting another one on Monday, but hopefully the two classes combined won't give me as much work and I'll be able to write more. For right now, since I have the type of finals that you can't really study for, I'm going to spend most of this weekend writing the next chapter. Hope you guys are excited for that, and liked this chapter. Review!**


	21. The Thousand Year Guardians

**A/N: Hello lovely readers! So I actually have til Tuesday before I go back to school, so I'm hoping to get this chapter out by then. Five days? I can do it! I was also extremely surprised by the reception I got on the last chapter. Several people liked it, and I didn't expect that. Anyway, this chapter covers a lot of secrets the guardians have and bonding time. I actually liked coming up with stuff, so I hope you guys like reading it.**

**Also, HUGE DISCLAIMER: The lines of the prophecy belong to Rick Riordan. I took lines from his prophecies in the Percy Jackson series and rewrote them to fit W.I.T.C.H.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: Good job, reviewing quickly. See, that's how you get to be the first reviewer. I liked the Jake and Rae part too. I guess I had to since I **_**did**_** write it. Probably because it will lol. It can't be that easy, especially with Gabi and Josh. They're gonna go through a lot before I put them together, if I ever do. Remember, I still might put Gabi back with Jake in the end. Yup, I thought so too. I like Caty and Tony too. I don't know if I'm gonna put them together though. I think I'm gonna slowly develop a real friendship between Gabi and Rae. You'll just have to wait and see about who saw, and you're right about the Angel of Magic. I already know you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! There are a lot of secrets and mysteries. Unfortunately, you won't find out who the Angel of Magic is for a while, but it'll be pretty obvious who the person that saw the whole battle will be in this chapter. Hope you like it!**

**Shay: I'm so glad you like it. I hate static characters, but I always seem to write about them, so I'm glad the characters in this story are dynamic. I think one of the main characters being a bitch in the beginning helped me remind myself to change the characters. That was supposed to be a big theme in this story. I hope you like what I came up with for this chapter!**

**Misa: Yes, the guardians are finally coming together, and they'll bond even further in this chapter. I really like James and Alyssa together too, even though I'm still not completely sure what I'm going to do with her. I have a few ideas. And Rae and Jake are still my favorite potential couple. I wouldn't worry too much about them if I were you. That's an interesting idea about the spy, but no it's not the spy that saw them. I mean, yes, the spy was watching them too, but that's not who I was alluding to. You'll see who I was talking about in this chapter. As for the Angel of Magic, you'll have to wait a while to find out her identity. And I wish she said they could call her Angela or something because every time I write Angel, all I can think of is BTVS.**

**SilvenArrow: I hope so too, haha! I'm so glad you liked it. I tried really hard to make sure my characters were dynamic in this story because I'm usually really bad at that. It'll be a while til you find out who Angel is, and probably even longer til you find out who the spy is, but this chapter will reveal both who was watching the battle, and The Thousand Year Prophecy. Hope you like it!**

**WaterAmulet: Yeah, I didn't want to do too much with them, because like I said, they're gonna get together soon, probably in the next chapter. I knew you'd be excited about that. I liked Caty and Gabi as friends too. They balance each other out well. Well of course not, I didn't want to give it away. And as for her appearance, I got that idea from the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series. The goddess Aphrodite keeps changing her appearance whenever she appears. And even though they never said it in the book, I figured their voices are loud and booming and "echo-y" because they're gods, so I used that for Angel's voice. You'll know in this chapter who the person watching was. Hope you like what I came up with!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Want to come with me?" Caty asked Gabi when they reached Caty's house. Each of the girls wanted to go back to their own house to change and grab their stuff before going back to The Silver Dragon for their sleepover. The rest of Team GRACE decided to stay too, especially since Josh and Sage felt a little weird sleeping in Gabi and Rae's houses by themselves, so they headed to James' house first, then Caty's. "Lili will be there."

"Sure," Gabi said and the two girls exited the limo.

When Caty opened the door, she was greeted immediately by Iris, who peppered her daughter with a thousand questions about the dance and her first date.

Caty gave Jeremy a panicked look, to which all he offered in return was a sympathetic smile. Aunt Dawn bit back a smile too. She saw Layla, Libby, Liam, and Leo watching something on a TrappleLap, Trapple Industries most expensive, but best, laptop to date, but Lili was nowhere to be seen.

"Mom, I promise I'll tell you all about the dance tomorrow. I just came back here to change and grab my biology stuff."

"Really Caty, your Aunt Dawn and cousins are here. You couldn't put schoolwork on the back burner for one night?" Iris protested.

"No Mom, I _couldn't_. Schoolwork is _important_," Caty growled out. Her mother could never understand why Caty obsessed about school and extracurricular actives so much. Iris got decent grades and played tennis in high school, but that was the extent of her school life. Before Iris got pregnant, Iris's failure to understand Caty's neurotic view on school was one the extremely few things that reminded Caty she was adopted.

"Not more important than family," Iris said.

"Nonsense," Dawn broke in. "Caty was here for Lili all summer and I really appreciate that. And one thing I always admired about Caty, and hoped my own kids would pick up on, is her work ethic and her smarts."

"That's Caty. Always an overachiever," Gabi chimed in.

Caty looked at Gabi. "It must be so painful for you to call me something as nice as overachiever, instead of nerd."

"I'm working on being okay with it," Gabi joked.

"I know you," Dawn said. "You're one of Lili's friends. One of the cheerleaders."

_"Head_ cheerleader actually Aunt Dawn," Caty said. "This is Gabi Shay. And somehow, she became my friend too."

"It's because I'm completely awesome," Gabi said.

"You're the girl who gave my daughter a makeover, right?" Iris asked. "I want to thank you for showing Caty how easy it is to look your best. I've been trying for years."

"My pleasure," Gabi said pleasantly, snickering internally at Caty's embarrassed look.

"Mom," Caty groaned. "Come on," she said to Gabi and led her to her room.

Lili came out of the bathroom at that moment and followed the pair.

"Hey Lil," Gabi said as Caty closed the door, lowered her blinds, and picked out a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants that were comfortable to sleep in.

Lili didn't respond to Gabi. Instead, she regarded her friend with suspicion.

"Lil, why is your overnight bag on my bed?" Caty asked.

"You have a big bed and I want it. Since you're not going to be here anyway, I thought-"

"No!" Caty cried, making Lili jump. "I already gave up my room for Miss. Practically Has My Name, and after she's born, I'm going to give up my bed for Grandma and Grandpa. You can't sleep here!"

"But-" Lili started in her most obnoxious voice ever, but Caty cut across her.

"No! Out!" Caty demanded, thrusting her arm out.

Lili _yelped_ in fright, jumping back. Gabi laughed.

"Did you just _yelp_?" she asked.

Lili didn't answer. She grabbed her overnight bag. "Okay, I won't sleep here, just don't hurt me!"

"Hurt you?" Caty repeated, confused.

Lili grabbed her overnight bag and made a move to leave.

"Wait, Lili, what's wrong?" Caty asked.

"Nothing," Lili insisted.

"You sure?" Gabi asked.

"_Yes_," Lili said.

Caty and Gabi exchanged looks, then shrugged.

"You think Hay Lin will have sleeping bags or something? I don't know where mine is, so I can't bring it," Caty said.

"I'm sure she will. She would've told us to bring sleeping bags otherwise," Gabi pointed out.

"Hay Lin?" Lili repeated. "Like, Chris Lyndon's mom? I thought you were sleeping over at New Girl's house."

"We are…but we're going to The Silver Dragon first," Caty said, realizing that didn't make sense. Why would sleeping bags come into the picture?

Lili didn't question that however. She looked at Gabi. "And you're sleeping over too?"

"Well, Sage wanted to, so I figured I might as well."

"So you ditched Bree in favor of Sage?" Lili challenged.

Gabi bit her lip, realizing she had told Bree she was still grounded and that's why Bree couldn't sleepover. But now Lili knew she wasn't grounded. Would she tell Bree? Gabi was the one who brought Lili into her group, but Lili formed a close friendship with Bree.

"Um…"

"And is Josh sleeping over too?"

"Well, he doesn't want to stay in my house without me, so-"

"So, let's see, it's going to be you, Sage, Josh, Caty, New Girl, and Classless-a?" Lili asked.

"Yes," Gabi said.

"What about Nina and Misha? Aren't they in your group Caty?" Lili challenged.

"Oh, um, they're coming too," Caty said.

"That's funny, considering they told me you guys didn't have a sleepover planned for tonight because you were too busy with your tutor circle, whatever that is, and that you guys are currently fighting."

Caty groaned softly.

"Want to know what I think?" Lili continued. "I think you're having a sleepover with Gabi, New Girl, Classless-a, and the Drama Freak. And Sage will also be there, as well as Josh. But I also think Chris and Cara Lyndon will be there, and that new boy, James Mason. Am I right?"

"Uh…"

"And Eric Lyndon, Chris's father will be there for some odd reason, and Hay Lin-Lyndon, his mother, so you're actually sleeping over in The Silver Dragon basement."

Gabi and Caty exchanged looks. Not only had Lili named every member of Team GRACE, but she'd also cited their meeting place.

"And you want to know why? Because you guys are all hiding a big secret. Why else would a nerd, a drama freak, a new kid, a friendless loser, and the most popular girl in school hang out together?" Lili asked.

Caty was too freaked out to reprimand Lili for calling Ellie a drama freak or remind her that Alyssa was no longer a friendless loser, and regardless, shouldn't be called that.

"I know what that secret is too," Lili went on. "You're all witches."

Caty and Gabi just stared at her dumbly.

"You can grow wings and fly and make weird things happen, like make rocks fly or make water appear. And you kill freaky looking things. Except Klutzcroft can't grow wings like you. Probably a good thing since she'd be more of a menace in the sky. But she and Josh Hart and James Mason kill those things with swords. And Chris and Cara Lyndon and their father can grow wings and do superhuman things, and Sage Martin also uses a sword and has magic, so she's a witch too."

"Lili, what…?" Caty wasn't sure how to finish the question.

"I saw you guys," Lili said as if that weren't already clear. "I saw all of you exit the gym, so I followed you, but I came out of a different door so you wouldn't know. Then I saw Gabi and New Girl fighting two monsters, and then I hid while you guys all fought in a different hallway, then you guys went to the roof and I followed you there too and watched you through the window. I had to run downstairs when New Girl, Josh, and Chris went through, but there's a little alcove in the staircase I could hide in. Then I watched you through the window again, hid when New Girl, Chris, and Josh came back up, watched you once more, then hid when you guys made your way back downstairs. After you unlocked the gym doors, I called Mom to come pick me up a little early."

"Wow," Caty whispered. "Well…now you know Lili."

"Know _what_? I have no idea what it was that I saw!"

"How do we explain this?" Caty muttered.

"Well for starters, we're not witches," Gabi said, deciding to start the explanation off for Caty. "We just control different elements. I have Earth, your cousin has water, Ellie has air, and New Girl has lightning. The real term is a longer word, but I don't understand what that means. Oh, and Classless-a used to have fire, but that power was taken away from her."

"What else can you do?" Lili asked.

Gabi used her telekinesis to take Lili's overnight bag from her hands and put it back on Caty's bed. "I can move things with my mind. Classless-a can read minds, but not all minds. Only mine, Caty's, Ellie's, and New Girl's, and she can also talk in our minds and help us communicate in our minds. New Girl can talk to electronic objects, and we can all hear them. Her phone is constantly on her case for her using to play games instead of look stuff up for homework. Ellie can go invisible, and your cousin has mind control, but she's not very good at it."

Lili was now gaping at them.

"Lili, I have to go now," Caty said. "And I'll explain this all to you tomorrow, I promise. But you can't tell anybody."

"Who would I tell?" Lili replied. "No one would believe me."

"Thank you."

"So…you guys really won't hurt me?" Lili asked.

"We're the good guys. We're fighting evil and saving the world," Gabi said.

"Not this world though," Caty put in.

"_We-ell," _Gabi thought, but didn't say anything.

"Yeah, okay, but we don't hurt innocent people," she said instead. "We sometimes use our second powers for fun, like when Classless-a and I used telepathy to help Caty flirt with Brian, or when Caty used her mind control to make Lana admit to Jake she published the paper, but we don't _hurt_ anyone who doesn't deserve it."

"Okay," Lili said, looking relieved.

"And you know what, Lil? It's not a big deal if you sleep in my bed. You're right, I'm not going to be here," Caty relented.

Lili's eyes lit up. "Yay, you're the best. But I'll never admit to anyone I said that."

"Good. I don't really want anyone to know I'm considered the best in the mind of a cheerleader anyway," Caty said.

"Hey!" Lili and Gabi cried indignantly.

Caty just laughed, grabbed her backpack, said good night to everyone, and left with Gabi.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So now what?" Alyssa asked. The sleeping bags were laid out, five in a circle for GRACE, and the rest in the corners for the other members of the team.

It was 11pm by the time everyone made it back to The Silver Dragon, so James and Alyssa decided to skip their "date" and just have a late dinner with everyone else. Hay Lin spent the time telling the team about some of her adventures when she was still a guardian. There were occasional questions from the girls, and questions from James, which happened a little more frequently since he didn't know the _entire_ story, and it was a lot of fun.

However, after everyone was done with their food, Hay Lin and Eric went upstairs, GRACE went to the basement, and Josh, Sage, Chris, Cara, and James, as per Hay Lin's instructions, were supposed to remain upstairs for at least an hour.

"I think we're supposed to be _bonding_," Rae said.

"How do we do that?" Caty asked.

"Well, why don't we play a game?" Ellie suggested. "Everyone plays game at sleepovers."

"What kind of game?" Caty asked.

"Remember that one we used to play at your house Lyssa?" Ellie asked. "When Adam used to stay over?"

"Your mother let a boy sleepover?" Caty asked.

"Every Friday," Alyssa replied. "We started the tradition when we were five, and Mom was okay with it since it wasn't just Adam. Ellie was there too. I'll admit, Dad wasn't too thrilled, but Mom usually makes the rules in my house."

"Oh I'll bet," Gabi muttered, causing Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie to give her a strange look.

Rae's look, however, was curious. Gabi looked right into her eyes, and Rae understood. Gabi knew about Josh being Alyssa's sister, and Taranee and Caleb's tryst.

"Well, anyway," Rae said, "what game did you guys play?"

"I don't think it's exactly right for our age," was Alyssa's dodgy answer. She didn't notice that Ellie's face fell.

"Well, I have an idea," Gabi said. "My cheerleaders and I play this at out 'Welcome to the Team' sleepover after tryouts. It's called Full Disclosure. We all write down a secret, put them all in a hat, pick one out and try to guess whose it is. We only write down one sentence, because once we guess whose secret it is, they have to explain it to us."

For a minute, everyone just looked at Gabi. Then the protests started.

"No way!" Rae cried.

"I refuse," Caty said.

"I don't want to reveal my secrets," Ellie said.

"Yeah, I'm not comfortable with that," Alyssa agreed.

"Oh come on, how bad could your secrets be?" Gabi said, rolling her eyes. "We're supposed to be bonding, right?"

The others looked at each other uneasily.

"I don't know," Rae said, shifting. "I mean, I don't about the rest of you, but I'm not ready to share all my secrets with any of you guys yet. You know, except Alyssa, but she already knows my secrets."

"Then we'll have a rule," Gabi said. "Everything we learn stays in this room. If one of us tells someone's secret, then we have the right to tell yours."

"Well," Alyssa said finally, "it doesn't have to be our _deepest_ secret."

"Ground rules though. Nothing that's inappropriate or that will hurt anyone," Rae said. "And this game has to be about _our_ secrets, not anyone else's." She looked right at Gabi.

Gabi rolled her eyes. Did New Girl really think she'd spill Josh's secret?

"Okay, let's do it then," Alyssa said.

Caty took out her notebook, ripped a sheet of paper out, and split that into five strips. She handed each girl a pen.

"Well thank you Miss. Office Max," Gabi joked.

Caty just gave her a half smile and the girls all wrote down their secrets.

"Okay, anyone have a hat or anything?" Gabi asked as the girls folded their paper strips into little squares.

Rae grabbed one of Hay Lin's decorative bowls. "I'm sure she won't mind if we use this," she said, putting her secret in it. The others followed suit.

"Okay," Gabi said. "Who wants to pick first?"

"Oh, me!" Ellie cried excitedly.

"One rule before you pick," Gabi said. "If we pick your secret, you can't tell us. Just pretend to think about it like the rest of us."

The girls all nodded, and Gabi handed the bowl to Ellie, who eagerly picked a secret.

"I think my parents got divorced for no reason," she read.

"How is that a secret?" Gabi asked.

"It's more like a statement," Caty said.

"And it's obviously Rae," Ellie said.

"What do you mean by that?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"When I was little my dad used to disappear at the oddest times and not come back for hours and be really dodgy when my mother asked him where he was. I didn't understand it then, but as I got older, I figured he was cheating on her. But lately, I've been remembering hearing strange noises whenever he came home. He never used the door, and the noises sounded like what we hear when a portal opens or when someone is coming out of it."

"So you think he was going to Meridian?" Alyssa asked.

"He _is_ Sage's godfather," Rae said.

"But your mother knows about Meridian," Caty pointed out. "So why would he lie about that?"

"Maybe he _was_ cheating on her," Gabi said. "It doesn't necessarily have to be with an Earth woman."

"Maybe he cheated on her with Elyon and Sage is your sister," Ellie giggled.

Alyssa and Caty gave Ellie half smiles, and rolled their eyes. Rae and Gabi looked at each other uneasily. Sage wasn't anyone's sister, but that story sounded familiar.

'I think one secret sister is enough,' Rae thought.

"Sage doesn't even look like Rae. I doubt they're related," Gabi said.

"Obviously," Caty said. "I'm pretty sure Ellie was joking."

Gabi and Rae exchanged nervous looks again, which went unnoticed by the others.

"Oh yeah. Of course," Rae said, her voice unnaturally high. "Um…so yeah…that's it."

"How does that relate to your parents getting divorced for no reason?" Ellie asked as Alyssa and Caty gave Rae strange looked for her nervousness.

"I always thought the cheating was the reason they got divorced," Rae explained. "And I guess Gabi could be right, and he was cheating on my mom with some Meridian lady. But if he wasn't, if he was just going to Meridian to visit Elyon and Sage, then she probably thought he was cheating even though he wasn't."

"But that doesn't make sense," Caty said. "Why would he not tell her he was going to Meridian?"

"Well Elyon was his best friend, so he probably went there to visit her," Alyssa said. "Maybe he didn't tell her because he thought she'd get jealous."

"But Elyon and Silena are friends too. They're still friends," Gabi said. "She wouldn't think one of her closest friends would do anything with her husband."

"I don't know. The whole thing is weird. I mean, my mind is still blown by the fact that my parents both know about Meridian," Rae said.

Alyssa frowned. "_Rae, what are you really thinking?"_

Rae sighed inaudibly, but let Alyssa in. _"If there's one thing my mom cares about more than anything in the world, it's me. I have a feeling she divorced my father because she suspected he didn't care about me as much as he should."_

"_What does that mean?"_

"_Well…like I said, he always disappeared, and when I think about it, I think he went to Meridian. And Sage, who was born a year before me, is his goddaughter. Now I'm wondering, what if my parents got a divorce because my father cared about Sage more than me?"_

"_Rae, that's impossible! I know I don't know your father, but _you're_ his daughter, not Sage. And from what you told me about him, he definitely loves you. More than Sage."_

Rae gave Alyssa a weak smile, but didn't say anything. Sage was kind and beautiful and powerful. And why else would his father always cancel plans with her and why did he always go to Meridian? He probably felt as if Rae was inadequate, like she didn't match up to Sage, who was like the daughter he always wanted.

"Okay, who's next?" Gabi asked.

"I'll go," Alyssa said, taking the bowl. She picked up a strip of paper and read it aloud. "I wasn't adopted by choice."

Everyone immediately looked at Caty.

"What does that mean?" Gabi asked.

Ellie gave Gabi a questioning look. She figured if anyone knew about Caty's adoption, it would be Gabi. Even though Caty got along better with the other girls, Gabi and Caty shared more because they had "family issues" as Caty called them, in common.

"Well…" Caty sighed. "I wasn't put in an orphanage and adopted by my parents. I was left on my mother's doorstep…when she was nineteen."

"Your mother lived alone when she was nineteen?" Ellie asked.

"No. She lived with her parents. I think my birth parents were hoping my mother's parents would take me in, which they did. But my Aunt Dawn-that's Lili's mother-who was thirteen, was hanging out with the wrong kinds of people, and getting into trouble. My Uncle Josh, who was 24, had fallen on hard times, and he and his wife had to move in with my grandparents. And my Aunt Alexia, who was 16, had been in and out of mental facilities since she was 14. She's schizophrenic, but it took until she was 28 for her to get properly diagnosed. So I was pretty much ignored."

"Even as your aunts and uncle got older? I'd imagine by the time you were three or four, your Aunt Dawn made better decisions and your Uncle Josh moved out? Alyssa ventured.

"Oh, uh…I wasn't put on my grandmother's doorstep as a baby. I was already four."

"Really? Do you remember your real parents?" Rae asked.

"Not at all. Not one thing," Caty replied sadly.

"Was there a note or anything for your grandparents? I mean, do you know why you were given up?" Ellie asked.

"No clue," Caty said. "Apparently, my parents had made a pillow out of fallen leaves or something, and I was sleeping with my head on the leaves when my grandmother opened the door to go out and found me. I woke up as soon as she brought me inside and started crying. They didn't even know my name. It was my mother Iris who suggested the name Caitlin after my grandparents decided to keep me."

"Wow," Ellie whispered.

"Wait. Why don't you live with your grandparents then?" Gabi asked.

"Like I said, my grandparents ignored me because they were so busy with my aunts and uncle. My mother was their only normal kid I guess. She stayed out of trouble, got decent grades, and helped out around the house. She was already dating my dad by that time. They'd started going out two years prior and with four little siblings, my dad was really great with kids, and my mother noticed immediately that I was being ignored. Instead of acting like my older sister and her boyfriend, Iris and Jeremy, acted like my parents. Six years later, I was ten, and they'd graduated college and finished grad school and both had their first jobs and Mom moved out of my grandma's house just a month before so she could get a place with Jeremy. My mother thought she was pregnant, and went to the doctor. It turns out she wasn't pregnant, and she couldn't get pregnant. It wasn't _impossible_, but it wasn't likely either."

"That's terrible," Rae said.

Caty nodded in half-hearted agreement before continuing her story. "My Uncle Josh and his wife, my Aunt Kristin, had moved out by then, but I was still being ignored since my Aunt Alexia was getting worse and my Aunt Dawn was getting arrested every now and then. Iris and Jeremy had went to college in town, and had commuted so they could still see me, the girl they considered their almost daughter. When they realized they may never have a baby of their own, they officially adopted me. I wasn't getting care at my grandparents' house anyway, and Iris and Jeremy had taken such good care of me that I'd taken to calling them Mom and Dad by the time I was five. I love my grandparents, and they love me too, but Iris and Jeremy were much better parents. So I live with them and still call them Mom and Dad."

"But now your Mom's pregnant," Gabi said.

"Like I said, it wasn't _impossible_. They always told me they love me, and they want another kid, but they didn't want to adopt again. I thought for a long time I was going to be an only child. My parents kept trying, but were never successful. But now my mom is pregnant. She and my dad are only 32, plenty young enough to have a healthy kid, and they're so excited."

Gabi nodded. She knew what Caty was getting at. She wished she had telepathy so she could assure Caty that her parents would still love as much as they do now even with a sister, because she couldn't say that out loud. Then again, Gabi kept complaining that it seemed like Daniel loved Eva more than her, so maybe Caty wouldn't believe her anyway.

"Anyway," Caty said, "I'll go next."

Everyone gave her a concerned look, but Gabi, knowing she wouldn't want to be coddled, handed the bowl to Caty.

Caty picked one and read it. "Sometimes I feel out of place in my family."

"Now there's a secret. We actually have to guess," Gabi said.

"I guess you," Caty replied.

"It's not me," Gabi said.

"I would guess you Caty, but yours was already read," Ellie said.

"It's gotta be you," Gabi said to Ellie.

"It's not me. Are you sure it's not you?" Ellie asked.

"I think she'd know if it was her secret El," Alyssa giggled.

"Well let's see…Rae's secret was revealed and so was mine. That leaves three of us," Caty said.

"It's obviously Lyssa," Rae said. "I knew the minute you read it. And Caty, seriously, were you trying to infuse logic into a guessing game?"

"Logic works in everything."

"She's right though," Alyssa said.

"About it being your secret?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, it is my secret. But I was talking about the logic thing. Logic doesn't work in a guessing game." She looked at Rae. "How'd you know it was mine?"

"You've never directly said it, but your body language spoke for you. You're close to your mom, and protective of your brother. You're a complete daddy's girl. But sometimes your body language shows you feel awkward and out of place with them."

'Awkward and out of place? I wonder why?' Gabi thought to herself sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Ellie was silently, and secretly, seething. Rae had once again proven _she_ was Alyssa's best friend. Ellie had never noticed anything like that before, but now that she thought about it, Rae was right.

When Ellie, Alyssa, and Adam were younger, and spent every day at Alyssa's house, Adam had noticed something. Every now and then, as the pair walked from Alyssa's place back to their own houses, he'd bring it up.

He'd always ask, "Didn't that conversation between Lyssa and her father seem a bit weird?" or "Did you notice how awkward it was with Alyssa and her mom today?" or "Didn't Lyssa seem a bit uncomfortable at dinner when her family was talking about what they all had in common?" There was even one time when he straight up said, "I think Alyssa feels like she doesn't belong in her family."

Even though they were young, with Adam being the middle child of eleven children and Ellie already dealing with an absent father and cruel mother, both of them were sensitive of family dynamics. Adam picked up on it immediately. Ellie noticed too, but didn't think too much of it. Her family was so screwed up that any family that was whole seemed normal to her. But it always there in the back of her mind that there was something off about the Ashcrofts. She just ignored it.

"Why do you feel that way?" Caty asked.

Rae and Gabi both visibly tensed, but only Caty noticed.

"I'm not really sure," Alyssa shrugged. "It's just…there are things my mother and father and brother have in common that I don't. And I'm a lot like my mother, but, besides my eyes, I feel like I'm nothing like my father. And I love my dad, and like Rae said, I'm a Daddy's Girl, but every now and then, I feel a little awkward with my dad. Like something's not quite right."

Gabi and Rae exchanged tense looks. Once again, Caty noticed, but Alyssa and Ellie didn't.

"Your parents love you Lyssa," Ellie said. "And your brother would do anything for you. Everyone feels a little weird with their family sometimes, but I'd say you're pretty lucky."

Alyssa smiled. "I know. I am pretty lucky."

"So who's next?" Rae cut in, wanting to move away from this subject before she could accidentally blurt out Josh's secret. She was usually good at keeping secrets, but keeping a secret from her best friend nearly killed her.

"Why don't you pick?" Gabi suggested.

Rae nodded, picked a strip of paper and read aloud, "Sometimes, I feel invisible."

Everyone looked at Ellie immediately, who put her hands up in surrender. "Not me," she said.

"Yeah, Ellie _always_ has something to say. No way for a motor mouth to feel invisible," Rae joked. Caty and Alyssa laughed, Ellie pouted, and Gabi remained silent.

"She's in drama after all," Caty added. "So then it must be…"

Everyone turned to Gabi.

"Now how does the most popular girl in school feel invisible?" Alyssa asked, her tone mocking. She was the only one still not on civil terms with the cheerleader.

"At home," Gabi sighed. "Because my dad treats Eva like his real daughter and me like someone whose shit he doesn't want to deal with."

"Gabi, you've been his daughter for seventeen years. He loves you no doubt. He just wants to make Eva feel like part of the family," Caty said.

"The she-devil doesn't deserve to be part of the family!" Gabi snapped, still angry over the 'dress cutting' incident. "And where does she get off calling him 'Daddy' when she and the step monster aren't going to be around for much longer anyway?"

"I know you said your dad's old girlfriends were all gold digging sluts, but he never married any of those women," Caty said. "You said Sienna doesn't really show the same gold digging traits as the other girls, and she and your dad have been together for two years, as opposed to the two months he usually stays with his girlfriends."

"She's no different," Gabi said stubbornly.

"I think you need to learn to accept her into your family. I know that means the family dynamic will change, but I don't think Eva and Sienna are going anywhere."

"Neither is Catherine," Ellie piped up. "So maybe you should take your own advice."

This made everyone laugh.

"That's _different_," Caty insisted angrily.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Sure Encyclopedirok," she replied.

"I honestly don't know why that nickname made me so mad before," Caty said.

"It's different when she says it in a malicious tone," Alyssa pointed out.

"Tired of this topic," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. She picked up the last strip of paper. "Okay, so this is obviously Ellie's."

"You don't need to read that," Ellie said casually.

"Of course we do. Those are the rules," Gabi replied matter-of-factly.

Before she could unfold it however, Ellie used air to snatch it out of Gabi's hands. Before Gabi could steal it back with telekinesis, the air guardian ripped it up into tiny pieces, then used air to send the pieces out the window and into the dumpster outside.

"Hey! That's against the rules," Gabi said. "Now you have to tell us."

"No thanks," Ellie replied.

"Ellie, that's not fair. The rest of us played along. Why can't you?" Caty asked.

Alyssa caught Ellie's eye, and the brunette blushed and looked down at her toes.

"Read her mind Classless-a," Gabi demanded. "Those are the rules."

_"El, you're secret isn't what I'm thinking, is it?"_ Alyssa asked

_ "Depends on what you're thinking,"_ Ellie replied cheekily.

_ "Like you can't read my mind,"_ Alyssa scoffed.

_ "…"_

_ "Ellie!"_

_ "You promised you wouldn't say anything!"_

_ "Because you promised you would! You told me it would stop."_

_ "It _did!_"_

_ "Is that why you sang Mean at the dance today?"_ Alyssa challenged.

Ellie didn't respond, and avoided Alyssa's eyes.

"Her secret is something about how to ruin a friendship," Alyssa said finally, making Ellie's head snap up. "That's something you know a lot about, isn't it Ellie?"

Ellie looked away again, ashamed.

An awkward silence passed over the girls, but Rae finally broke it.

"An hour must've passed," she said softly.

Everyone else looked up to see what she meant. The rest of Team GRACE was heading downstairs.

"So what're we up to?" James asked, sitting next to Alyssa.

Chris and Josh both looked unhappy at James' seat and both tried to sit on the other side of Alyssa.

"Hey Josh, why don't you come sit here," Rae said sternly, helping Chris win the battle. Josh took a seat next to Rae. Unfortunately for James, this meant they were sitting across from each other and Josh could glare at James all night.

Sage and Cara sat on either side of Gabi.

"What are you doing with Mom's bowl?" Cara asked.

Gabi grinned. "We're playing a game. We write down our secrets, put them in this bowl, pick them out one by one, and try to figure out whose it is."

"Like truth or dare without the dare?" Cara asked.

Gabi smiled. "Exactly."

"How come there are no secrets in there?" James asked.

"Because we already the played. The game is over," Rae said.

"Not for them," Gabi said. "They didn't play. It's time for Chris, Cara, James, Josh, and Sage to write down their secrets. And you guys can protest if you want, but just remember Caty can make you do whatever she wants."

The aforementioned Team GRACE members exchanged looks, and grudgingly agreed. Caty ripped another sheet of notebook paper into fifths and handed them all pens.

"Wait," Josh said suddenly, and everyone paused. "We'll do this…if you guys play too. You don't have to write down big secrets or anything, but they still have to be secrets."

GRACE looked around. They all had little secrets they didn't mind sharing.

"Okay," Gabi agreed as Caty handed out more pens and paper.

"Alright, since I didn't officially get to pick last time since _someone_ broke the rules." Gabi said, glaring at Ellie, "I'll go first."

She picked up a piece of paper and read, "I get nightmares about our first battle in Meridian."

Sage looked at Rae and Caty looked at Ellie, but both of them shook their heads. Ever since Rae got her second power, the nightmares had ceased, and Ellie's nightmares still came, but not as frequently, and she didn't really count that as a secret.

"Who else was around for that battle?" Gabi asked. "I wasn't."

"And Sage didn't get to fight. If it's not Rae or Ellie, it has to be Josh, Chris, Cara, or Caty," Alyssa said.

"Not me," Caty said.

"It was me," Chris admitted.

Cara stifled a giggle. She knew it was him. Everyone else gave him curious looks.

"I just get nightmares about how the battle could've gone," Chris explained. "What would've happened if you guys didn't get lucky."

"Lucky?" Ellie asked.

"Oh, come on El, you have to know we won that battle through pure luck," Caty said.

"That would've been scary," Rae admitted, thinking of her own dreams. "But I didn't imagine you'd be scared."

"I wasn't scared exactly," Chris said, looking uncomfortable. "Just worried."

"Worried?" Gabi repeated.

Now Chris looked sorry this was the secret he'd chosen. "I dreamt that Alyssa died," he whispered.

Everyone stared at him and Chris began to go red.

"She's the one I was closest to in that battle," Chris explained. "I mean, okay, Cara and Josh were there, but they could take care of themselves. Alyssa couldn't and I was just worried about her."

"Wow Chris, that's really sweet," Alyssa smiled.

James raised his eyebrows Chris, as if to say, 'Dude, she's _my_ girl.'

"You know, I wanted to protect you too," Josh grumbled.

Rae and Gabi exchanged fearful looks. Caty rolled her eyes. There was something Rae and Gabi were hiding and she needed to get to the bottom of it.

"You didn't even know me," Alyssa said, confused.

Josh realized what he'd just said and covered quickly by saying, "I mean, you know, I wanted to protect you because the fate of Meridian resided in the hands of the guardians."

"Oh…thanks?" Alyssa said questioningly.

"You know what? I really want some coke," Rae said suddenly. "Josh, come with me."

Josh, knowing what this was about, got up without protest.

"I want to a drink too," Caty said. "Gabi, come with me."

Gabi looked surprised Caty chose her over Ellie, but shrugged and followed her upstairs.

Rae shifted as she filled a glass with ice. She wanted to talk to Josh alone.

"Alright guys, spill," Caty said. "Gabs, you and Rae have been exchanging looks all night. You guys have a secret about Alyssa, and I think you know it too Josh. What's going on?"

The other three looked at each other, not sure how to get out of this one. Caty, with her powers, could force it out of them if she wanted to. They had to tell her.

Josh sighed. "Alyssa is my sister," he admitted.

Caty just nodded for a minute, before giving Josh a really confused look, then cocked her head with a flabbergasted expression on her face before saying in a small voice, "What?"

Josh quickly ran through the story and by the end of it, Caty looked even more confused.

"Wait…what?" she asked again.

"I have a question," Rae said as she waited for Caty to digest the story. "This is the reason I brought you up here. Who else knows about this?"

"Um, Sage does. Chris and Cara know. Mom told Elyon and Drake, so they know. I think that's it, unless Mom also told your parents."

"Cornelia may have," Rae sighed. "I'm having trouble keeping this secret though. I'm usually good with secrets, but this is something I have to keep from _Alyssa_. She's my _best friend_. Even in my old town, where I had lots of friends, I never had one I considered my best friend til now."

"I know, and I'm sorry I put you in this position, but I can't tell Alyssa. This'll break her heart."

"Not to mention she'll hate you," Gabi put in. "But you know what might make her hate you more? If she realizes almost everybody knew before she did!"

"It's not 'knowing before her' if I never tell her," Josh said weakly.

"Are you kidding?" Caty asked, finally breaking out of her stupor. "You can't hide this from her forever. She deserves to know!"

"Not to mention there's no way I can hide this from Alyssa for much longer," Rae added.

Josh sighed. "Chris keeps telling me to tell her too. That's what we've been fighting about. He's giving me an ultimatum. Either I tell her by her seventeenth birthday, or he will."

"Her seventeenth birthday?" Caty repeated. "When is that?"

"Next weekend," Rae said. "And you know what? I'm giving you the same ultimatum. Tell her by her seventeenth birthday or I will."

Josh looked troubled and Gabi wanted nothing more than to help him.

"Isn't that a bit harsh?" she asked. "Think about it this way. Alyssa and Josh were separated when they were ten and eleven. He finally gets to see his sister again after six years of only having memories and if he tells her this, she'll hate him again. It's not fair."

Rae and Caty exchanged looks. When she put it that way, it really didn't seem fair.

"Chris has that ultimatum in place already," Caty pointed out. "So it doesn't really matter if Rae backs off or not."

"I'll tell her," Josh said finally. "I'm her brother. She deserves to know that."

"You guys are only half siblings, but you act as if you're full," Gabi commented.

"I don't think it makes a difference," Josh shrugged.

Caty put some water into a glass and said, "Should we head back downstairs before they send a search party?"

"One more questions," Rae said. "Have you ever met my dad?"

"Yes," Josh said.

"Okay, I lied. Two more questions. Did my dad ever cheat on my mom? With a Meridianite?"

Josh looked thoughtful for moment. "Not that I know of," he said finally. "If he did, no one had any knowledge of it."

"So Sage definitely isn't your half-sister," Gabi said with a smile, which also made Rae smile.

Josh looked confused, but didn't question. Instead he said, "I'll put it this way. Mom and Elyon were best friends with your mother. Even though Elyon was closer to your dad, if she knew he was cheating, she would've told your mother. If he ever cheated with someone in Meridian, neither of them had any idea."

Rae nodded, not at all satisfied. Still, she led the group back downstairs where the others were laughing over some joke Ellie told. Even Chris couldn't resist laughing, and had to admit Ellie was just as funny as always. He did remember a time when they were friends, but he couldn't forgive her for abandoning Alyssa, even if Alyssa could.

When the four sat down again, Gabi demanded the game go on. She let Chris pick next.

"I miss my old best friends," he read.

Rae and Ellie both turned to Alyssa immediately. It took the others, even Chris, a little longer to process.

Alyssa blushed and looked down. "Yeah. It…that was about Ellie and Adam. I always kept my head up and pushed through, but I missed them every day."

Ellie opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, not sure what to say.

Gabi wordlessly gave the bowl to Sage.

"I regret leaving Alyssa. It was the biggest mistake of my life," she read quietly.

Alyssa's head snapped up as she looked at Ellie.

"I guess that's my response," Ellie said.

Everyone else looked at each other awkwardly, feeling like they were intruding on a private moment. Gabi gave the bowl to Cara.

"Mr. Mason is my favorite nickname," she read.

Alyssa went bright red and looked at James who grinned.

"It's true," he said.

"It's not really a secret," Gabi grumbled.

"It was," James insisted, looking into Alyssa's eyes. "But I didn't want it to be any longer."

Ellie and Rae resisted the urge to squeal out loud. Alyssa and James would make the _cutest_ couple.

Gabi smiled, unable to resist James' charm and the undeniable chemistry between him and Alyssa. She gave the bowl to Josh.

"I totally proved girls and guys can be just friends," he read.

"Whose is _that_?" Gabi asked.

"Caty," Rae said slowly. "You're talking about Jake, aren't you?"

Caty nodded.

After that, all the secrets were silly and not really secrets, but it lightened the mood and helped everyone laugh.

They had just ended the game when Hay Lin came downstairs and said she had something to tell them.

"I thought I'd give you guys some time to bond, and even though this was supposed to be a sleepover just for GRACE, I'm glad you all decided to stay over. I think everyone should hear this. I only called this sleepover in part to help you guys get closer. The other reason is because of what I'm about to tell you," Hay Lin said, more serious than the girls had ever seen her.

First Hay Lin showed them more of the video the previous guardians made. First the boys introduced themselves and told them their role in the guardian universe. Caleb and Matt were obvious. Everyone already knew that Caleb was the rebel army leader and Matt was Shagon. Matt also introduced Huggles and Napoleon and all three of them transformed.

The other boys introduced themselves after that. Each of them had a power essential to the guardians. Nigel could open and close portals and folds and Eric could transform the guardians. These powers were useful for when the guardians needed to transform or a portal and Will wasn't around. There were two other guys in the video. One was Irma's boyfriend, a boy named Martin Tubbs. He had a cute smile, was about a foot taller than Irma, and seemed to have the same build as Caleb. A far cry for the nerd he was in middle school. The other was someone Irma considered her "best friend outside of the guardians" Joel Stevens. GRACE exchanged a look at this, remembering that Irma eventually married Joel.

According to Irma, at first, Martin was the only one to know about the guardians, since he was Irma's boyfriend. As they grew up, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin found it harder to keep the secret of W.I.T.C.H., and realized it was either lose their boyfriends once they got tired of their girlfriends keeping secrets, or tell them about W.I.T.C.H. Even though they knew it wasn't practical to tell boys they might break up with and possibly never see again, the Oracle gave them permission, with the warning that should the girls ever break up with their boyfriends, regardless of whether the boy would tell others their secret or not, their memory of the guardians would be erased.

Nigel and Eric got their powers from Elyon granting them a bit of her magic. Both boys also learned how to fight. Martin learned with them and was the most successful. Joel joined the group because he started learning he could predict the future, in a much clearer way than Hay Lin could. He didn't tell everyone at first, but between having Irma as his best friends, and being in a band with the other girls' boyfriends, the secret came out eventually. Since they were all part of Team W.I.T.C.H., the others figured out there was something going on with Joel. When he told them, they realized some of their visions had to do with the guardians and brought him into the group.

Then W.I.T.C.H. came back on camera and explained their second powers, and the full extent of them. Irma explained how eventually Caty would be able to control several minds at once and make people do things they really didn't want to do, Taranee explained emotional links to the girls, young Hay Lin talked about the different things Ellie could do with invisibility, Will talked about Rae's eventual ability to make inanimate objects come to life and do her bidding, and Cornelia told Gabi how she could combine her power of Earth and her telekinesis to make her an even more powerful adversary. Gabi grinned at that.

After Hay Lin turned the video off, Alyssa slyly asked if any of them had broken up with their boyfriends.

"I mean, obviously my parents are still together and you and Eric and Cornelia and Caleb, but what about Will and Matt and Irma and Martin?"

"Um, Irma and Martin broke up," Hay Lin admitted. "And even though he and Irma still stayed close friends, his memory had to be erased. Irma's next boyfriend was Stephen, and somehow she managed to have a relationship with him for almost two years without telling him our secret. She did show him her powers though."

"Are they still together?" Alyssa asked.

"No, they broke up. Last I heard, Irma married Joel."

"Last you heard?" Ellie asked.

"Well, we're not really friends anymore, so I only found out through word of mouth. And I don't know about Will and Matt. They were together the last time I saw them, but they left Heatherfield soon after that."

The girls nodded.

"So what did you have to tell us?" Gabi asked, locking eyes with Josh. They were both clearly thinking the same thing. Maybe Hay Lin was ready to tell them about The Thousand Year Prophecy.

"Okay, well…let's start with a little history," Hay Lin said. "The guardians of the veil have been around for ten thousand years. The first group of girls were chosen ten thousand years ago today actually. They were a group of five girls from Germany named Marie, Anya, Gwen, Isobel, and Corrine."

"Which spells MAGIC," Gabi chimed in, making Ellie and Caty smile.

"Right. Good catch," Hay said, also smiling. "Every thousand years, a special batch of girls are chosen, and they are known as the Thousand Year Guardians. They are very special in three ways."

"What ways?" Ellie asked.

"First, the Thousand Year Guardians are called upon to save every world. The guardians are meant to protect whatever world has a veil placed over it. In cases of no veil being placed over any world, as was the case with CHYKN, and many other groups of guardians, they are to protect Meridian and Kandrakar from harm, and protect any other world that needs protection by discretion of the Oracle or current queen or Meridian. But the Thousand Year Guardians must save every known world."

"That means…Earth too," Alyssa said slowly.

"Yes," Hay Lin nodded. "The second thing that makes these guardians special is their extra power."

"Extra power?" Ellie squeal-asked.

Hay Lin laughed at that. "Yes. The members of the Thousand Year Guardians have one extra power awarded to them that the other batches of guardians don't have. For example, one group had the ability to see the future, the way Joel could. Others had the ability of camouflage. They could blend with their surroundings. It's like invisibility, but not as safe."

"I hope we don't get that. Nothing special about it for me," Ellie grumbled, making Gabi giggle.

"What's the third thing?" Rae asked.

"The third distinguishing characteristic is that each member of the Thousand Year Guardians are direct descendants on one member of MAGIC."

Everyone considered this for a moment before Ellie spoke up. "So what does that mean exactly?"

"It means, that if, say, _we_ were Thousand Year Guardians, then MAGIC would be our ancestors. The water guardians would be my ancestor, the air guardians would be yours, and so on," Caty said. "So that means, with Thousand Year Guardians, there isn't just one member that is chosen for continuity of spirit. All of the members are chosen for continuity of spirit."

"That's right," Hay Lin nodded.

"And the reason you're telling us this in so much detail," Rae said slowly, "must be because _we're_ Thousand Year Guardians."

Hay Lin remained silent, but nodded solemnly.

"I wanted to tell you this before," she admitted after a few minutes.

"But it makes sense for you to tell us today," Gabi said. "Because MAGIC were told about being guardians ten thousand years ago today."

Hay Lin smiled at that.

Gabi, catching sight of Caty, remembered something Josh told her. "Were any of the members of MAGIC related?" she prompted.

"Yes," Hay Lin said. "Not that you mention it. The water guardian Anya and the fire guardian Gwen were sisters. All the girls were seventeen, except Gwen who was fifteen. Actually, besides you guys, MAGIC were the only group of guardians to be chosen after they were fourteen. Usually the guardians are notified by the time they are thirteen or fourteen."

"If Anya and Gwen were sisters," Gabi prompted, "wouldn't that mean-"

"That Alyssa and I are related!" Caty said suddenly. She looked at Josh and Rae and Gabi understood her unsaid sentence. 'And that means I'm also related to Josh.'

"We're cousins," Alyssa agreed. "How come I didn't know?"

"I'm adopted. How would you?" Caty responded.

"Wow, that's crazy," Ellie said.

"Is there a reason we were told of our guardianship so late?" Rae asked suddenly.

Hay Lin nodded. "It's because you're Thousand Year Guardians, so the Oracle wanted to wait to see if there would a time when you were all together, location wise. Like I said, the Heart chooses the Keeper and the Oracle chooses the other guardians. One is chosen because she was related to a previous guardian. But for Thousand Year Guardians, the Oracle looks for the five people who have the closest relation to MAGIC, then chooses which girl should have which element. Usually the Heart chooses a Keeper out of a multitude of girls, but for Thousand Year Guardians, the Heart doesn't get to choose. Its Keeper is automatically the girl who is related to MAGIC's Keeper, Marie. However…"

The girls looked at Hay Lin expectantly.

"However, the Heart can reject the Keeper. This has only happened once, with a group I call POWER. Portia was the girl related to Marie and was supposed to be the Keeper, but the Heart rejected her."

"What happened then?" Ellie asked.

"It is standard for the Keeper to have the power of Quintessence, but it is not required for the guardian of Quintessence to be the Keeper. For example, remember how I told you in my grandmother's time, the Heart's power corrupted Nerissa, so the Oracle passed it on to Cassidy? That's what he did with POWER, who were the fifth generation of Thousand Year Guardians. He passed the Heart on to Winona, POWER's fire guardian."

"But if Portia was the guardian of Quintessence and the Heart rejected her, then what did she do for POWER? She didn't unite them and she didn't have powers," Rae said.

"Well, she still transformed when Winona united them. Like always, without Portia around, POWER would not be as powerful…uh no pun intended. And since POWER were Thousand Year Guardians, they like you, got their second powers early."

"So this time," Alyssa said, trying to ignore the fact that when they first got their second powers, Hay Lin told them she didn't know why they got them early, "since the guardians had to be a specific set of people, what would you have done if Rae hadn't moved here? My dad said something about the Heart exploding if it waited too long."

Hay Lin nodded. "Yes. Once the Heart recognizes that its new Keeper has been born, it has up to sixteen years to be united with its Keeper, even if it plans to reject the Keeper, before it explodes, taking the legacy of the guardians with it."

"So exploding Heart means no more guardians…ever?" Caty asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "The Heart was getting really testy the same day we found you girls. I was going to give it two more days, then go to Kandrakar myself and ask for the Oracle's help. He usually can't tell us who the guardians are, but with Thousand Year Guardians, he can tell me who the guardians are and where they would be so I could unite the Keeper with the Heart. If Rae hadn't moved here, I would've had to go find her myself."

"But if I didn't move here, even if you found me, how would we get to train and stuff?" Rae asked.

"Do you think we've never had that problem before?" Hay Lin asked. "The guardians before my grandmother's time, girls I call FAIRY, had that problem. Their Keeper, Felicity, had moved away just a few minutes before their guardian teacher was going to tell them about their guardianship. In addition, Yolanda, their air guardian, lived in a different town. Thankfully, their guardian teacher was Eileen, the water guardian from the previous generation. Her daughter, Ilana, was the new guardian of Water, and Eileen could use life force from her daughter to tele-transport and get them all in the same place to train them and get them to wherever they needed to go when they were needed."

"What if their guardian teacher wasn't a previous guardian?" Caty asked.

"That's never happened before," Hay Lin said. "Why would anyone else be their teacher anyway?"

Caty had no answer for this, which made Ellie oddly happy.

"So why did you finally tell us about this?" Rae asked.

"Two reasons," Hay Lin said. "The first, are because of these." She gestured to five piles of books behind her. There had to be about one hundred and fifty in all. "Each batch of Thousand Year Guardians have to keep journals to help the next batch. Each of them filled up about three journals. Some filled up four, some only filled up two. You must read each of this diaries. It'll probably be easiest if each of you reads the journals belonging to the girl who had your element in each batch and fill each other in. In addition, you have to keep your own journal." Hay Lin gave them each an expensive looking journal with felt covers, each in a different color. Predictably, Rae's was pink, Gabi's was green, Alyssa's was orange, Caty's was blue, and Ellie's was gray. "Write about everything, including everything that's already happened. Rae, write about how you felt before you received your power of Quintessence. Alyssa, make sure to write about your mother taking your powers again. Gabi, Caty, write about why you decided to quit in the beginning, and what changed your minds. Ellie, write about how excited you were."

"But that stuff's kind of private," Caty said.

"So? There's no reason to be embarrassed because the only people reading these will be the Thousand Year Guardians," Alyssa pointed out. "We'll be long dead before the first batch after us read these journals."

Caty nodded reluctantly.

"Good. I've bought two extra journals for each of you, waiting here for when you need them. Take them with you everywhere, and write in every spare moment so you can fill in what has already happened in your journey as GRACE."

The girls nodded.

"You said there were two reasons you finally told us. What's the second reason?" Alyssa asked.

"That has to do with The Thousand Year Prophecy. This Prophecy explains the final battle you will face. It is the one that will either save or destroy all the known worlds."

"No pressure there," Gabi said, her tone serious.

"It _is_ a lot of pressure," Hay Lin agreed. "But so far, all the Thousand Year Guardians have succeeded."

"So what does this battle entail?" Alyssa asked.

"It varies for each group, but the basic formula is the same. There is an enemy that tries to take over Kandrakar, and the guardians must defeat said enemy in a gruesome battle. At the end, one side will live while the other dies. So far, the guardians have won and all survived while the enemy on the other side died."

"Wait, the enemy tries to take over Kandrakar?" Alyssa asked. "But I thought our enemy was Kasson, who took over Meridian."

"Just because you're Thousand Year Guardians doesn't mean the enemy that takes over Kandrakar is the only enemy you'll have to face," Hay Lin said. "The only difference between you guys and the other groups of guardians is that you guys need to reach Zenith in order for you to defeat your biggest enemy. That's another reason we must wait to tell the Thousand Year Guardians of their powers unless the enemy surfaces early. It's easier to get in and out of Zenith when you're older."

"What is Zenith?" Rae asked.

Gabi shot Josh a terrified look. Josh just shrugged weakly. Clearly he didn't know that the Thousand Year Guardians had to reach Zenith early if they wanted to succeed.

"Zenith. The highest point reached by a celestial object," Alyssa defined.

"Yes. Except this time it refers to humans," Hay Lin said. She explained zenith was the peak of the guardians' powers and they would reach a second transformation when they reached Zenith. She did not however, warn them of the dangers of reaching Zenith early, like Josh had. Gabi looked at Josh, and he shook his head, telling her to keep her mouth shut about what she knew. She wasn't happy about it, but she listened.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Caty asked.

Hay Lin held up a scroll. "This holds the actual prophecy. It is an ancient scroll that has been passed down from guardian teacher to guardian teacher. It holds the prophecy meant for the previous batch of Thousand Year Guardians until the new batch is born. The new prophecy, meant for you guys, wasn't revealed until Wednesday, which is why I called a sleepover for tonight."

The girls nodded. Hay Lin read the prophecy, then tried to calm their frayed nerves, but no one, not the guardians, or the other members of Team GRACE could be consoled. No one could get to sleep either, the prophecy consuming their thoughts.

_The Guardians of Legend will face an enemy none can imagine. He will take over the world of the Oracle, as happened several times before. Five girls must answer the call and win back the land against all odds._

_The girls must find the one who has turned_

_To find what was stolen and have it safely returned._

_They shall be betrayed by one whom they call friend,_

_And fail to save what matters most in the end._

_Despair for a life entombed in stone,_

_And fail without friends to fly home alone._

_Five shall go to save the one in chains_

_One shall perish in the land without rain._

_The bane of Meridian shows the trail,_

_Only combined may the chosen ones prevail_

_The curse of Zenith one must withstand,_

_While one will perish by a parent's hand._

_You shall rise of fall by a prince's hand,_

_The Child of Fire's final stand_

_Use all you must, even breath_

_Or lose one you love to a fate worse than death_

_A child of magic two shall birth_

_Child of lightning, beware the Daughter of Earth._

_Her single choice may end your days,_

_And Kandrakar to preserve or raze._

_So five chosen ones must answer the call_

_To make sure none of the known worlds fall_

_Heartache and betrayal they must face_

_So that they may save every known race._

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: There we go! I really hope you guys enjoyed that. I'm super excited that I got this chapter done, because I have parts of the next chapter done already, and I have a couple events in there that I think a lot of people will really like, so I'm really excited to get that out. There will be more guardian stuff in the chapter after next, but since we covered The Thousand Year Prophecy in this chapter, I didn't want to do an overkill, so the next chapter has a lot to do with the girls' personal life.**


	22. Deciphering the Prophecy

**A/N: Guys, I hit 100 reviews! Actually, 101, but you know what I mean. And as I'm typing this author's note, my friend Emily is typing out her review for chapter 20, so soon it'll be 102. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I got review #100 and #101 until after I published chapter 20, so their shout outs will be below. So this chapter isn't too eventful. I wanted to address a lot of the "high school drama" issues that the previous chapters have been leading up to. The prophecy is mentioned and partly deciphered though, so don't worry. Hope you guys like it!**

**Just in case, I'm going to put in this disclaimer AGAIN: The lines in the prophecy belong to Rick Riordan. He wrote them for the Percy Jackson series, and I tweaked them to fit W.I.T.C.H. I only own the little blurb in the beginning and the last four lines, plus a line every now and then in between.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Anonymous: You're my 100****th**** reviewer, and you're review was so nice! I'm so glad you like it, and I'm really glad you can picture it, I tried really hard to make sure people can see what's going on as they read. I do think my details get boring sometimes, so I'm glad someone likes them. I hope you enjoy the rest!**

**Guest: I didn't realize C.H.Y.K.N. had different outfits until you mentioned it, but looking back, you're right. I remember thinking to myself that I didn't like their outfits, but I did like W.I.T.C.H.'s so I gave G.R.A.C.E. the same ones. Like I said, I didn't initially realize C.H.Y.K.N. had different outfits, so I figured all the guardians wore the same thing constantly. I should've noticed, so that's my bad. I hope you liked everything else though! Thank you for reviewing! **

**Emily: A lot more people liked that Lili was the one to find out than I expected, so that's good. Yes, we did play that game, along with Pass it Around and stuff. Well, we can't have Alyssa just accept Josh is her brother, now can we? That's not realistic! They are cute, aren't they? I am in LOVE with them as a couple. There may be more to Martin than meets the eye. I'm not sure, but I think I may have more of a plan for him. Hope you like the parts of this chapter you haven't read yet.**

**Guest: Same guest as before or different Guest? Lol. Anyway, I guess you pretty much proved most people don't read author's notes. I always do because there are important things in there. In Chapter 21, after the author's note, I put in a disclaimer saying the prophecy lines belong to Rick Riordan, and I just changed them up to fit for W.I.T.C.H./G.R.A.C.E. but I will reiterate that in this chapter. But other than that, I hope you found everything else to your liking.**

**SilvenArrow: Yes, you are right. The next person to find out will be someone close to Ellie. It should be in the next chapter or the one after that. Eventually Ellie's secret will be revealed. I have a plan for that too. Don't worry, Gabi won't be hiding the Zenith secret for long. Hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: Don't worry, Jake's in this chapter, and yes, they get together in this one! Yes, I'm hoping Lili won't give Caty a hard time now that she knows she's saving the world. It was kind of filler, but I really wanted to get that stuff out there. I hope you like this chapter!**

**Misa: More people will find out. You'll soon realize GRACE is really bad at keeping their guardianship a secret. The next person to find out will be someone close to Ellie and it should happen in the next couple of chapters. Jake and Rae used to be my favorite couple, but now I'm too in love with James and Alyssa. I hope you like what I came up with for this chapter!**

**Shay: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I feel the same way about the scene at Caty's house. I do think Caty and Gabi will get really close, and I'm excited to write about it. I'm not going to too much with Lili until later on, but in the next chapter, someone else will find out about GRACE. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: I'm so glad you enjoyed it! James and Alyssa are definitely my favorite couple too. It used to be Rae and Jake, but I fell in love with Alyssa and James' chemistry. You should enjoy this chapter since you like James and Alyssa so much. You find out more about the prophecy in this chapter. I hope you like what I came up with! And hopefully this is soon enough for you, haha!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty groaned when she woke up the next morning. She tried to feel around for her phone, as she did every morning, before realizing she was at Hay Lin's and all the girls had put their phones on one of the many boxes in The Silver Dragon's basement as Hay Lin read them the prophecy.

The prophecy. The thought of it made Caty groan again. She could not handle it. On one hand, she should be happy. The prophecy mentioned Rae, Gabi, and Alyssa by power, but didn't single out Caty or Ellie. But the whole thing was scary and mentioned death two or three times.

Caty rubbed her eyes and crawled out of her sleeping bag to get to her phone. As she walked back over to her sleeping bag, Alyssa and Rae both stirred, then sat up.

"Wassup?" Rae muttered.

"She's not very good at waking up," Alyssa said.

"I think it's about time we all woke up," Caty sighed. She looked to her right where Ellie was supposed to be. Instead of right next to her, Ellie, sleeping bag and all, were up in the air. Ellie mentioned she sometimes floated in her sleep if she was scared or nervous.

Caty turned to her right, wanting to wake Gabi first, so she could telekinetically catch Ellie if she fell, but saw an empty sleeping bag.

"Where's Gabi?" she asked.

Rae, who'd finally opened her eyes, looked at the empty sleeping bag. "Oh yeah, where is she?"

Caty rolled her eyes. "I was asking _you_!"

"Oh."

"That's not very witty response," Caty teased.

"Sorry, but my sarcastic comebacks don't operate before 8 a.m.," Rae snapped.

"_That_ was sarcastic," Caty replied. "And you can't use that excuse. It's 3:30 in the afternoon."

"Whatever," Rae muttered sleepily.

Caty sighed and decided to wake Ellie anyway. Maybe the sleeping bag would cushion her fall. She said Ellie's name a few times. When Ellie showed no sign of hearing her, Alyssa went inside her head.

"_Wake up!"_

Ellie still showed no sign of stirring.

"Wow, it's usually you who sleeps like that," Alyssa said to Rae. Rae didn't respond and Caty and Alyssa both blanched when they realized Rae had gone back to sleep.

"My turn," Caty muttered. _'Wake up!'_

Ellie immediately woke up and landed on the floor hard. "Ow," she muttered, making Caty wince.

At the same time, Rae yelled, "Ahh!" and shot up immediately. "Caty, what the hell?"

"Sorry, I had to wake you guys up somehow," the water guardian shrugged.

"What's going on?" a male voice groaned. The girls looked over to the source and saw Josh beginning to wake up.

"I think we need to discuss the prophecy," Caty said seriously, even though she knew no one, herself included, wanted to.

Josh nodded and started waking everyone else up. In a few minutes, GRACE, minus Gabi, were sitting against the left wall, facing Cara, Chris, Josh, Sage, and James.

"Where's Gabi?" James asked.

Caty shrugged. "We're not sure."

_"Gabi, where'd you go?"_ Alyssa asked in her mind.

_"I'm upstairs Classless-a," _Gabi answered. _"I woke up early, so I went home, showered, got changed, and came back here in time for lunch. I have a shift today."_

_ "When does it end?"_

_ "Three hours."_

Alyssa checked her phone. "Gabi has a shift til 7," she said.

"Maybe we should just meet up later," Caty suggested.

Alyssa nodded. "Where?"

"Whichever house is emptiest," Rae said. "My mom has a million clients coming over, so not my place."

"My place is too small," Ellie said.

"Lili's family is still at my place," Caty said.

"My parents are out of town and John is staying at a friend's. We can meet at my house around 8. I'll order pizza for us," Alyssa said.

The girls nodded.

"Should we come too?" Josh asked, motioning to himself and the other members of Team GRACE.

"I think the first run through should be just us," Caty replied. "We'll tell you what we figured out tomorrow at practice."

Josh nodded. "Okay. My shift starts in an hour and I work til close anyway."

"We're already ten minutes late," Cara said to Chris. "Mom's gonna kill us."

One by one, everyone went into the basement's bathroom to change and fix their hair. Cara and Chris got to work immediately. Josh sat at a bar stool to wait for his shift. Alyssa told Gabi the plan before the rest of the group headed out. Rae said she'd shower at home, and head over early. Caty agreed to come over early as well, so maybe the three of them could actually get some work done on their biology project. Maybe getting a head start would even help Misha and Nina warm up to Caty again. The girls all went their separate ways, each still unsettled from the reading of the prophecy.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"How'd it go with Lili?" Gabi asked, biting into a slice of pepperoni pizza.

Rae grabbed a slice of mushroom as Caty said, "Great actually. Talking to my mom about the dance was more painful. Lili didn't care much for history or big explanations and didn't have a lot of questions. She just wanted to know what yesterday was about, so I gave her the sparknotes version. She told me to be careful, and keep her updated. I didn't tell her about the prophecy or about us being Thousand Year Guardians."

At the word 'prophecy' the girls, who were in good moods because of the three delicious looking pizzas in front of them (one pepperoni, one mushroom, and one jalapeño and olive, all extra cheese and stuffed crust), became uneasy and depressed.

"So…we should talk about what the prophecy could possibly mean," Rae said.

The others nodded and Caty took out the scroll, which Hay Lin had entrusted her with. She read it out loud to the girls one more time.

"_The Guardians of Legend will face an enemy none can imagine. He will take over the world of the Oracle, as did happen several times before. Five girls must answer the call and win back the land against all odds._

"_The girls must find the one who has turned_

_To find what was stolen and have it safely returned._

_They shall be betrayed by one whom they call friend,_

_And fail to save what matters most in the end._

_Despair for a life entombed in stone,_

_And fail without friends to fly home alone._

_Five shall go to save the one in chains_

_One shall perish in the land without rain._

_The bane of Meridian shows the trail,_

_Only combined may the chosen ones prevail_

_The curse of Zenith one must withstand,_

_While one will perish by a parent's hand._

_You shall rise or fall by a prince's hand,_

_The Child of Fire's final stand_

_Use all you must, even breath_

_Or lose one you love to a fate worse than death_

_A child of magic two shall birth_

_Child of lightning, beware the Daughter of Earth._

_Her single choice may end your days,_

_And Kandrakar to preserve or raze._

_So five chosen ones must answer the call_

_To make sure none of the known worlds fall_

_Heartache and betrayal they must face_

_So that they may save every known race."_

"Who wrote this anyway, Dr. Seuss?" Gabi asked, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"Let's take it line by line," Alyssa suggested. Everyone nodded.

"Okay, so the first little blurb, about the enemy and the world of the Oracle is an allusion to someone taking over Kandrakar, which Hay Lin already told us about," Caty said.

Rae spoke up next. "Something has been stolen. So we have to find it and give it back to it's rightful owner. And the first line about the 'one who has turned.' That could mean someone who changed sides."

"Maybe it's talking about Kasson," Caty suggested. "He used to be friends with Elyon, but once he married Cassandra, he became evil and took over Meridian. And maybe the thing that's been stolen is the Heart of Meridian."

"Maybe we shouldn't read too much into this…or like, we shouldn't try to explain everything tonight," Alyssa suggested. "This is just the first read through. Let's just try to get the bare bones theories."

The others agreed and they moved on.

"Okay, the next line is obvious," Ellie said. "We know there's a traitor or spy. He supposedly has gained our trust."

"But who is it?" Caty wondered.

"Are we completely married to the idea that it's not Josh?" Ellie asked.

"It's _not_ Josh!" the others cried in unison.

"Okay, okay," Ellie said. "But then who? Who has gained our trust?"

"In the dream you had," Caty said, "you said the man, probably Kasson, asked the spy if he got close to all of us and he said yes, but was probably lying. So that means it's a guy who's only close to one or two of us."

"Maybe it's Jake," Alyssa snorted. Everyone glared at her. "I was _kidding_, God!" she defended.

"I bet it's Dalton," Gabi said.

"Right. Dalton Drew who was impossibly ordinary and boring since just about forever, which by the way, is how long we've all known him," Caty said. "No. It's not Dalton."

"Maybe it's that new kid," Ellie suggested.

"Holden?" Caty and Gabi asked together.

"Who?" Rae and Alyssa asked in unison.

"Holden Marshall. He just transferred to our school on Thursday," Gabi said. "He plays soccer and is on newspaper."

"He also earned himself the number 10 class rank," Caty said. "He's in all our classes. Are you telling me you haven't noticed him?"

"Holden Marshall isn't new," Alyssa said. "At least I didn't think he was. Wasn't there a Holden Marshall in our elementary school? He moved away, and I thought now he was just coming back."

Gabi, Caty, and Ellie all gasped.

"You think it's the same guy?" Ellie asked

"He _looks_ like the same guy," Alyssa said. That's what she'd told Rae.

"Either way, he's close to me and Caty but no one else," Gabi said.

"He even used to be friends with both of us in elementary school," Caty recalled.

"So you think it's Holden? Maybe. He always did seem a bit…strange. You know, how most people think Josh is? Maybe that's because, like Josh, he's not from this world."

"Are we sure the spy is not an Earth human?" Caty asked.

"I think we just assumed…" Rae trailed off.

"Guys wait, we're way off topic here," Alyssa said, motioning to the scroll.

The other girls nodded.

"So who's in favor or skipping the 'fail to save what matters most' line?" Caty asked.

"I don't think that's as ominous as it seems," Alyssa said. "Hay Lin said she's confident we can win, and she already read the prophecy. If she really thought there was something to worry about, she'd warn us."

"Maybe," Caty said slowly. "But okay, that line is pretty self-explanatory as well. If Hay Lin thinks we're going to win, something else must matter more than the fate of Kandrakar."

"The next line must refer to someone who's dead," Rae said.

"Do you think it could Elyon or someone in her family?" Gabi asked.

Everyone looked haunted by that suggestion. What would they tell Sage?

"What if it's the Oracle? Can he be killed?" Alyssa asked.

Everyone shrugged.

"The next line doesn't make much sense," Caty said, looking at it. "Fail without friends to fly home alone?"

"Maybe it just means no one can do this alone," Rae said, and since no one could think of anything else, they moved on.

"Okay five shall go to save the one in chains. That's either us, or any five members of the team," Alyssa said. "Someone must be chained up. Maybe the Oracle or Luba. One shall perish in the land without rain."

"So someone will die in a hot place?" Ellie asked.

"Morbid," Gabi said.

"If it's prophesized, can we change it? This is telling us some people are going to die. Can we save them?" Rae asked.

Everyone shrugged again, not wanting to think about this topic.

"It can't be any one of us because we're mentioned later on," Alyssa said. "And I think, for us to win, all of us have to survive. All the guardians I mean."

"We don't _have_ to," Caty said. "We just have to defeat the enemy."

A silence fell over the group and it was a good five minutes before Rae looked down at the scroll again.

"The next line talks about the 'bane of Meridian' showing us the way. So someone who is hated by all Meridianites, maybe Kasson, or one of his kids," she said. "And the next line talks about us only succeeding 'combined.' So we must need to work together with this 'bane of Meridian.'"

"Fun," Gabi muttered.

"What does 'bane' mean?" Ellie asked.

Everyone groaned.

Caty gave her a definition, and Gabi explained it laymen's terms before moving on.

"Okay, what about this curse of Zenith?" Caty asked. "If Zenith is the peak of our powers, it seems like a good thing. So maybe the one who has to withstand the curse is someone on the evil side?"

"I don't think so," Gabi sighed, going against Josh's wishes and telling the girls what she knew about Zentih. "Only one guardians has ever stayed in Zenith form and Josh doesn't know what actually happened to her."

"But we don't know how many times guardians have gone into Zenith early," Rae said. "What if W.I.T.C.H. was only the second group to do it? We're being forced into early Zenith."

"This fear is probably the reason Josh didn't want me to tell you," Gabi said. "I don't think he realized the guardians of legend have to go into early Zentih."

"Wait, he knew about the prophecy already?" Alyssa asked.

"Wait, if he knew, then…you knew," Rae said, looking at Gabi.

Gabi flushed. "Yeah. But I wasn't allowed to tell."

"Nothing would've happened if you did!" Caty cried. "We can't keep secrets from each other guys. We're the 'chosen ones.' Full disclosure from now on."

Everyone nodded tersely. Rae had a feeling none of them would follow this rule.

"Okay, what about 'one shall perish by a parent's hand'?" Ellie asked. "Does that mean someone's parent will kill them?"

"Why would any of our parents do that?" Caty asked.

Alyssa and Ellie exchanged looks, but neither said a word.

"I don't even see how that plays into this prophecy. None of our parents know about Meridian except…mine," Rae said slowly.

"It's not you," Alyssa disagreed. "Hay Lin knows you're the only one who has parents that know about Meridian, and you're the Keeper. If you die, our powers go with you and there's no way we could win."

"She's not the only with parents who know about Meridian. Your mother was a guardian Classless-a, remember?" Gabi said. "And Caty was adopted. Maybe her real parents know about Meridian."

"It's not Alyssa. Her parents would never!" Rae cried. "Besides, she's mentioned later on."

"It _could_ be an accident," Caty ventured, looking haunted at the idea that her real parents could know about Meridian. "One of our parents killing us I mean."

Everyone looked around, uneasy. That was true.

"Moving on," Ellie said, "You shall rise or fall by a prince's hand. Any theories on what that means?"

"Or who it's referring to?" Gabi added.

"It could be any number of people," Rae said. "Kasson is a prince, and so are his two sons. And Elyon has three sons. They're all princes too. So it means either we'll succeed or fail because of a prince."

"Our whole mission depends on a prince?" Caty asked wearily.

"It can't mean our whole mission. It seems like we have a lot of little tasks in between, like recovering something that was stolen, or freeing someone who is chained. I think this is referring to another little task," Alyssa said.

"The next line scares me," Ellie said. "The Child of Fire's final stand. That must mean you Lyssa."

"I think that has something to do with the prince. The rhyming lines must relate to each other," Gabi said.

"So final stand…does that mean death?" Caty asked.

"Maybe it just means final fight," Rae said.

"Because she could die, which means she can't fight again," Gabi said.

"Could you try to be a little sensitive to the situation?" Rae snapped.

"Rae, it's okay," Alyssa said.

"It's not okay!"

"Let's just move on," Alyssa insisted. "The next lines go, 'Use all you must, even breath, or lose one you love to a fate worse than death."

"Well use all you must even breath must mean persuasion," Caty said. "Someone needs to persuade someone else to either do something or not do something or lose that person to a fate worse than death. It's pretty vague, but maybe it relates to line above, Alyssa's final stand. Maybe you're the one who has to do the persuading."

"So then the person she needs to persuade must be the person she loves most," Ellie commented.

"Rae then," Gabi said. "Or James or Josh. They're the three people on the team you're closest to."

"But the rest of it is still super vague," Caty said. "And it doesn't have to be someone on the team."

"What could a fate worse than death be?" Ellie asked, silently wondering why she wasn't on the list of the 'Closest to Alyssa' people.

"Torture?" Rae guessed.

Everyone else just shrugged, so Gabi looked back at the scroll.

"A child of magic two shall birth," she read.

"So either a couple has a child that's magical," Caty said, "or two people have children that are both magical."

"It refers to one child, so it must be one couple," Alyssa said.

"Child of lightning, beware the Daughter of Earth," Ellie read.

Everyone looked at Rae and Gabi, who gave each other tense looks. Rae and Gabi were on better terms now, but there was always going to be friction between them. Now the prophecy was warning Rae against Gabi.

"You know what's weird?" Caty asked. "When the prophecy refers to Alyssa and Rae, it says 'child' of their element. But for Gabi, is says 'daughter' instead of 'child.' Do you guys think that's significant in some way?"

"If it is, I can't think of why," Alyssa said.

"Then let's keep going. It looks like the next lines relate to this last one," Ellie said. "Her single choice may end your days, and Kandrakar to preserve or raze. What does raze mean?"

"Raze means to destroy," Alyssa replied.

"The 'her' is me I'm guessing," Gabi said dully.

"So a choice you make could end Rae's days and either save or destroy Kandrakar," Alyssa filled in.

"Maybe not. The guardians lose their powers in the two ways. The first is if the Keeper dies. The second is if the Heart is destroyed, and the Oracle said if Kandrakar falls, the Heart immediately ceases to work," Caty said. "But if either of those things happen, why is there more to the prophecy?"

"You think the Child of Lightning may not be Rae?" Alyssa asked.

"I think it is me," Rae said. "Because the rest of the prophecy is just wrapping things up, reiterating our mission. So five chosen ones must answer the call, to make sure none of the known worlds fall. Heartache and betrayal must they face, so that they may save every known race."

"So basically," Ellie said, "the fate of Kandrakar, and all the known worlds, rests on Gabi's shoulders."

"I shudder to think," Rae muttered.

Everyone else just looked nervously at each other.

Gabi looked like she was about to pass out.

"Maybe we should call it a night," Alyssa suggested.

The other girls agreed, and they couldn't have left Alyssa's house faster.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next day, the group met early. Rae had her first official shift at Down the Rabbit Hole that afternoon, so the team met at The Silver Dragon at 9am. They spent two hours going over the prophecy, suggesting all kinds of different theories. Finally, they got tired of that.

Just as Hay Lin suggested, the girls carried their diaries with them everywhere, and Caty suggested they use some time to write. The girls had already read some of MAGIC's diaries Friday night. They all felt so bad for MAGIC. They were the first group of guardians, and the Oracle was their teacher. He did his best, but all known worlds needed the Oracle, so he couldn't be there for them constantly the way Hay Lin and all the other guardian teachers before her could be.

They spent two more hours writing, until Cara, who was reading some of the other journals along with the other members of Team GRACE, complained she was hungry. The girls realized it was 1pm and took a break for lunch. At 2, the girls practiced for two more hours. Rae had to head to work at 4 for her 4:30 shift, but the others spent another hour and a half training.

Rae was pretty excited for her first day of work. Her boss seemed nice. Her name was Jeanine Potter. Her employees called her Mrs. Potter or Mrs. P. Rae loved that her boss's last name was Potter. She knew it was common name, but it was still cool. Harry Potter was Rae's favorite book series. Her life would not be the same without those books.

Her dad bought her the first two during one of his visits, and she could not put them down. She had fallen in love with both Harry Potter and reading ever since. She used to think Frank bought her Harry Potter because he thought Rae would be fascinated by a book about magic. However, now she wondered if it was an allusion to his friendship with Elyon and his goddaughter Sage.

Maybe he was trying to tell Rae how amazing magic was, and how he had a goddaughter he loved more than his real daughter because she could do the amazing things the characters in the books could do, while Rae had no talents at all, let alone supernatural powers.

Rae shook her head. She couldn't think like that. How would Frank even think she would make that connection? That had nothing to do with the reason he bought her the books. Unless he subconsciously bought books about magic because of Sage?

That idea didn't seem as ridiculous as the last one. Maybe it was true.

Rae tried to seem upbeat and positive when she walked into the store. Like all the employees, she used the back door. Mrs. Potter had asked to meet with her before she started her shift, so Rae snuck past two boys stocking shelves, and met Mrs. P in her office.

Mrs. P explained there were several jobs around the store. Usually, two people worked the register, three people worked the floor (which meant they helped customers find things), three people did inventory, two or three people worked at the Starbucks attached to the store, and two or three people stocked. Mrs. P told her that everyone worked every job, but as Rae became an established employee, she'd be asked which jobs she preferred and which jobs she'd rather not do, and Mrs. P would do her best to accommodate her. She told Rae she was on floor today.

Rae met the two guys working on floor with her. They talked for a little while, then one of the boys, Ryan, who happened to be Mrs. P's daughter (and was extremely hot) told Rae she should go meet some of the other employees while they waited for customers to walk in.

He said she could go to the back to meet the inventory people, Starbucks to meet the baristas, or up front to the registers to meet the cashiers and/or the stockers. Rae went up front, anxious to meet Elaine, and hoping she was either stocking or on register.

Rae saw three girls up front. A skinny girl with curly brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, and glasses was behind the desk. Next to her was a supermodel gorgeous girl with shoulder length black hair, blue eyes, a button nose, and bow shaped lips. Finally, on the ladder was a blond. She turned to laugh at something the black haired girl said and Rae could see the girl had Irma's blue-green eyes. That had to be her daughter Elaine!

Elaine came down the ladder to join the others as Rae approached. She felt a little shy, but cleared her throat and smiled anyway when the girls turned to look at her. "Hi. I'm Rachel, your new co-worker. Most people call me Rae."

The girls stared at her for a moment before smiling back.

"Hi Rae. I'm Veronica. Most people call me Ronnie," the black haired girl said.

"I'm Elaine. Most people call me Lainey," Elaine said.

"And I'm Brooklyn," the brunette said, using a duster to clean the surface of her area. "Most people call me Brooklyn."

The girls all laughed.

"We call her Brooke," Elaine said. "But we're the only ones allowed to call her that. To everyone else, she's Brooklyn."

"Because it's way more sophisticated than Brooke," Brooklyn said, rolling her eyes. She looked at Rae. "But you can also call me Brooke."

"You look familiar Rae. Where do you go to school?" Ronnie asked.

"Sheffield," Rae replied.

"Oh, so do we," Brooke said, motioning to herself and Ronnie. "But Lainey goes to New Dorp."

"Isn't that one of Sheffield's rival schools? I thought that was in the next town over."

"It is," Elaine confirmed. "I don't live in Heatherfield. Well, my family lives on the border of Heatherfield and Star City, and the zoning laws dictated I go to New Dorp. My parents were upset, because they both lived in Heatherfield before they got married and bought our current house, so they both attended Sheffield. I could've gone to Sheffield if I wanted; my parents could've appealed. But I didn't go to the elementary school in Heatherfield, so all my friends were going to New Dorp."

Rae nodded. "I understand that. Sheffield is one of the best schools in the country, but the people are sort of intimidating. Heatherfield isn't a small 'everyone knows everyone' town, but Sheffield is the only school, so everyone knows everyone else in school. I was immediately recognized as the new girl."

"Heatherfield only has one elementary school too," Ronnie said. "And it includes pre-school and a day care. Most people put their kids in that day care when they're two or three, and so the kids here have known each other since we were all really little."

"See? Intimidating," Rae said. Then she grimaced. "If you guys go to Sheffield, you must know about the newspaper."

"Poor Little Rich Girl," Brooke nodded. "Don't worry, we don't believe any of that stuff. I'm on newspaper staff and that article wasn't approved, so I apologize. And no staff writer declares themselves anonymous, and we know the identities of non-staff writers that want to be anonymous."

Rae smiled, relieved.

"It's funny to think back in elementary school, I used to be part of Gabi Shays army of skanks," Ronnie said, rolling her eyes. She did look far too pretty to not be friends with the cheerleaders. So she left?

"I used to be friends with Caty Lewis and her band of nerds," Brooke reminded.

Rae winced at that. Caty was her friend now, but she also didn't want to make too much a scene in front of Elaine. They needed to be friends.

"So are you guys all juniors?"

"Ronnie is," Elaine said. "I'm a sophomore and Brooke is a senior."

The girls talked for a little while longer until they had their first customers. Brooke was cashier, along with a girl named Emma and a boy named Rich, Ronnie and Elaine were doing inventory with a couple of guys, and Rae went up to the customers and asked them if they needed help like she was supposed to.

She had a good first day, but she hoped her friendship with Elaine would grow quickly. Her friends promised to visit her the next day. What they really needed was an invitation to Elaine's house so they could meet Irma and see what they needed to do to get her to meet up with the other guardians. She just hoped her friends were savvy enough to help her garner that invitation.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"You're mad at me?" Jake asked. Well, asked was a loose term. He put the statement in the form of a question, but he already knew the answer.

"I'm not mad at you," Rae replied, closing the locker she shared with Alyssa. She didn't really use her own locker; it was far away from everything else, and before it got cold, she didn't really see the point of one. Alyssa gave Rae her combination so Rae could keep her jacket in a locker.

"But you are," Jake insisted. It was Monday morning, and he knew Rae was angry with him because when he greeted her that morning, she walked past him as if he wasn't ever there. "I can tell because every time you're pissed about something, you do that double eye roll thing that makes me dizzy every time I try to do it. And you're doing your double eye roll every time you look at me."

Rae looked over at him and felt herself doing the double eye roll Jake was talking about.

"See?"

"That doesn't mean anything! Maybe I just like rolling my eyes twice," Rae defended, realizing how stupid that sounded.

Jake just gave her that amazing grin she loved and blocked the doorway of the calc classroom.

"Wanna move out of the way?" she asked, her tone annoyed.

"I don't like Lana," was Jake's reply.

"Too bad, you'd make a really good couple. You're both jerks."

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," Jake said. "But Lana told me on Friday she actually _did_ write the article. And even before I knew that, I didn't like her. I never liked her."

"How is this information at all useful?" Rae asked, trying to make her tone incredulous so Jake would move.

It didn't work. Instead, Jake rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Stop doing that," he commanded.

"Stop doing what?" Rae asked, genuinely confused.

"Putting on that hot and cold act. It's like one minute you're into me and the next you wouldn't care if I got run over by a bus."

Rae widened her eyes. "Oh Jake, that's not true. I totally would care if you got run over by a bus. That would provide me with entertainment for a year!"

"Uhm…"

"I mean, think about it. How funny would it be when the smartest boy in school was stupid enough to walk into the street when a bus was coming?"

"Well…"

"And as funny as it would be, I'd still care if you died. I probably wouldn't come to your funeral, but it'd be such a drag to have to get a new tutor, and I'd probably miss you."

"Thanks?"

"You're welcome!" Rae said brightly. "Are you gonna move now, or do I have learn how to walk through walls to get in?"

Jake rolled his eyes again, half confused and half amused by Rae's usual sarcasm. "Do you like me?" he finally asked.

Did he really just ask her that? As if she would tell him?

"Dude, move!" Rae replied.

"Rae, come on."

"Sure I like you," Rae said. "I mean, I kind of have to like you, right? It'd be really awkward if I didn't like the guy that helped me pull my calc grade up from a C to an A."

"I mean _really_ like me," Jake said.

"I think the girl who shoved her tongue down your throat on Thursday really likes you," Rae replied.

Jake looked her square in the eye, determined to get this sorted out. "I don't like Lana," he repeated again, his tone serious.

"Then why'd you ask her to the dance?" Rae asked, her pent up jealousy coming out.

"Because I was all freaked out about asking you."

"So you asked another girl? A girl you didn't even really _like_? Who _does _that?"

"Sorry I found you a little intimidating Rae, but you're damn scary. You can glare someone into oblivion, you confuse the shit out of me, and you're five feet and 100 pounds of fury."

"I am 5'2"!" Rae cried. "And one hundred and…well, actually I'm only 90 pounds."

"And you could still kick my ass. Remember, you were the one that one that fight you had with Gabi. She couldn't even walk on her leg after!"

Rae held back a smile. That had nothing to do with strength. It had everything to do with GRACE.

"Okay, I'm scary. I guess I'll take that as a compliment. Now will you move?"

Jake sighed. "This is coming out all wrong. Rae, I'm trying to say I _like_ you. Will you go out with me?"

Rae gave him a scrutinizing look. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because I happen to want more from a relationship than being one of many. I understand most girls would be honored to be your bimbo for a week, but that's not me."

"How could you think-"

"Because you took a girl you don't even _like_ to the dance! How can I trust that I'm going to be different?"

"You are!" Jake insisted. "I took Lana to make you jealous. Because I thought she'd be the best person to make you jealous."

"I'm not into playing games Jake."

"Well neither am I!" Jake cried. "But that doesn't stop you does it? Because you keep playing with my emotions."

"Will you just move?!" Rae screeched.

Jake took a deep breath, then said quietly, "No."

"Jake-" Rae started, but stopped when Jake put his hands on her shoulders. "What are you doing?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he leaned closer to her, and kissed her. He moved his hands down to her waist. Rae pulled back, shocked. Before he could say anything, she kissed him. Jake deepened the kiss and Rae smiled into it. She was squealing and screaming on the inside.

"Aww, that's so cute!" Caty whispered to Gabi when they saw.

"Excuse me for not wanting to see my ex kiss another girl," Gabi replied, but she didn't seem mad. Josh on the other hand…

"F*ck this!" he said, a glare on his face. He stalked away, muttering under his breath. Caty laughed, and even Gabi giggled at his attitude, even though she didn't love the fact that he was still into Rae.

Jake finally pulled away and smiled. "So, what're you doing Friday night?"

"I was thinking about robbing a bank," Rae teased.

"Cool. It'll be the best first date ever."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

James slammed his head down on the table. "Urrghhh," he groaned.

"Someone's having a bad day," Alyssa teased.

It was lunch time, and Alyssa and Rae decided to have a quiet lunch with Josh and Jake. It would be weird for them to sit at Caty's table anyway, since she currently wasn't speaking to Misha or Nina. When she saw where Alyssa and Rae were sitting, she joined them. Ellie sat down with them too, saying her friends didn't care who she hung out or if she switched up where she sat as long as she still made time for them.

James, who usually sat with Sage at the popular table decided to join them.

"It's that table," James said. "I mean…all the guys do is argue about which football team is the best-as if it's _not_ the Giants-"

"It's _not_," Jake interrupted.

"-and the girls will not stop talking," James continued.

"Did you expect them to?" Jake asked.

"Expect them to what?

"Stop talking," Rae answered for him. "They're cheerleaders."

Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie laughed at that.

"I don't know how I didn't notice it before," James said. "All Bree does is blabber on about how she wants a dog, and Gabi kept listing ways she can get her dad to buy her a new car in the middle of it. And then they answer each other, even though they're both focused on different things. How do they do that?"

"That's a special gift girls have," Ellie said. "Lyssa and I used to do it."

"That's right," Alyssa agreed. "And now Rae and I do it sometimes."

"Try all the time," Josh groaned.

"But you love it," Alyssa teased.

"Not at all."

"But you love me!"

"Not even a little bit."

Alyssa pouted. "That's not very nice," she teased in a baby voice, making Ellie raise her eyebrows. Alyssa had been a lot more sarcastic and teasing since they reconnected this year. She wasn't like that before. That was probably Rae's influence.

"Okay, okay, fine, I love you," Josh conceded.

James coughed and Ellie gave Josh a worried look. She hoped Josh saying that was just best friend love, because she thought James was perfect for Alyssa. No one else appreciated Alyssa's creativity, smarts, and quirks as quickly.

Jake put his arm around Rae, and she snuggled into him happily. Josh glared at the sight, as if he was hoping if he stared intensely enough at Jake's arm, it would disintegrate.

"So are you two official now?" Caty asked.

Jake nodded.

"Yeah," Rae smiled. Jake kissed her cheek.

"Aww," Alyssa and Ellie cooed in unison.

Josh bit into his pizza angrily, the spit it out. "What the hell is this?" he asked.

"Cafeteria pizza," James said. "Which falls under the category of 'what not to eat.'"

"But it looks amazing!"

"That's called presentation," Jake said. "Didn't it seem a little strange to you that no one else chose to get the pizza?"

"I should've known better," Josh sighed.

"So what's with Lana?" James asked.

"She's Lana Oller," Alyssa replied.

James chuckled, then said, "She kept going on and on about how I'm so talented and adorable. It was really uncomfortable."

"You must be her new consolation prize," Caty said.

"Consolation prize?"

"Lana's only ever had eyes for Chris," Ellie explained. "So whatever guy she dates is just a consolation prize because Chris is who she really wants."

"You're not going to go out with her, are you?" Alyssa asked, biting her lip uncertainly.

"No, of course not!" James assured her.

_"Good. Lana Oller better not be moving in on _my_ man,"_ Alyssa thought.

James looked at her stunned.

"What?" she asked.

"Lyssa, I just heard you…in my _head_."

Everyone looked at Alyssa surprised.

"What do you mean 'in your head'?" Jake asked.

_"Ellie, knock over my coke can,"_ Rae said urgently.

Ellie did what Rae asked.

"Oh no! Jake, could you get me another coke?" Rae asked.

"Sure," Jake said, getting up.

Caty discretely used her power to dry up the spilled coke so it wouldn't make a mess.

"James, you were saying?" Rae prompted.

"What you were just thinking about Lana. I heard it in my head," James said to Alyssa.

"Remember what Hay Lin said?" Caty asked. "As you get stronger you'll be able to read and speak in everyone's minds."

Alyssa's eyes widened. "Wow. I completely forgot. At least this power is getting stronger. I can use it to spy since Mom took away my element."

"Spying is dangerous," James objected.

"But Ellie is learning how to turn other people invisible," Rae said. "If she can master that, the two of them could be spies for us."

"It'll make me feel useful," Alyssa agreed.

"No way. Too dangerous," Josh insisted.

"Never thought I'd see the day you and James agree on something," Alyssa giggled. Then suddenly, she gasped and went bright red. "James, if you heard me, then that means you know…"

"Yeah. But it's okay."

"I'm so humiliated," Alyssa moaned.

"Wait, what did she say?" Ellie asked.

James ignored her and took Alyssa's hands. "Lyss, if you don't know how I feel about you by now…you _have_ to know I feel the same way."

Alyssa's face began to lose the red color. "Really?"

"Of course. What do you say Miss Ashcroft, will you be my girlfriend?" James asked.

"I'd be honored Mr. Mason," Alyssa giggled.

James leaned forward and kissed her. Caty and Ellie giggled, Rae beamed, and Josh looked like he wished he'd never woken up this morning.

"Here babe," Jake said, returning with a coke. "I also brought napkins…but the spilled coke is all gone. How did that happen?"

"We cleaned it up already," Rae said quickly. "Thanks for the coke though."

Jake smiled, then looked at Alyssa and James. James now had his arm around Alyssa.

"Uh, did I miss something?"

"Yeah. The worst day of my life," Josh replied, leaving the table.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you going to tell me why you're so upset?" Alyssa asked, nudging Josh. It was Monday afternoon after guardian training. Rae had left early to get to work on time. Now Alyssa, Josh, Ellie were walking to Down the Rabbit Hole both to visit Rae and to meet Elaine. They ran into Jake on the way, who was also going to visit Rae. Now Ellie was talking to Jake, and Alyssa and Josh were several paces ahead of them.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been in a rotten mood all day. I understood at first. You still like Rae, and she got together with Jake, _after_ he invited the girl who exposed all of Rae's secrets to the whole school to the dance. But your mood got worse after James and I became official. So what's up? Why is that such a big deal?"

"Who says it's because of you and James that I'm in such a bad mood?"

"I'm not stupid Josh. Clearly those things are related, so stop insulting my intelligence and just tell me! Is it because you hate James? Or do you not think we'd make a good couple? Or-"

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because I care about you!" Alyssa cried. "I want you to be able to accept my relationship. You don't have to like James, but I want you to accept that I'm happy. And your opinion matters to me."

Josh sighed. "I just want to protect you," he said. "So obviously, with that mindset, I'm never going to like it when you're in any kind of relationship that could get you hurt."

Alyssa smiled. "Well that's super sweet. But you don't need to worry about me."

Josh didn't reply. He knew he didn't need to worry about her. It was just a natural reaction for him as her brother.

"Hey Lyssa!" Jake called from behind them. "What did you get for number 3 on the history test?"

Alyssa grinned, happy someone wanted to talk about it. Rae and Caty, both shaken from the brutal test, refused to go over the answers with her, wanting to forget about it. Alyssa was shaken from the test too, but she wanted to know if students on par with her got the same answers she did.

"Three was Degas. And five was Descartes, right?"

"That's what I thought," Jake replied, catching up to her. The two of them talked more animatedly as they got to the in depth short answer questions.

Ellie rolled her eyes, bored, and caught up to Josh.

"So you and Alyssa, huh?" she asked, grinning slyly.

Josh looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Me and Alyssa _what_?" he asked nervously. Had someone told her? Maybe Rae blabbed.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "You _like_ her. And that's okay, except now she's with James, and he's really good for her so-"

Josh tuned Ellie out and sighed. Why did this always happen? Why did everyone think he was into Alyssa? Was it so hard to believe guys and girls could be just friends? Weren't he and Sage living proof that girls and guys _could_ be friends-_best_ friends- without feelings getting in the way? So far, Jake was the only one who picked up on the fact that _Rae_ was the one he liked. And Alyssa herself of course. Even Gabi wasn't sure whether he was into Rae or Alyssa until he told her about Alyssa being his sister, and she was supposed to be an expert on relationships.

"Look, I don't like Alyssa!" Josh cried.

"Why not?"

"Because that's gross," Josh said without thinking.

Ellie gave him a half confused half angry look.

"Not that she's not pretty or sweet or anything, because she is. But it would be _wrong_ for us to be together."

"Why?"

Josh hesitated, then sighed. What was really the point of keeping it from Ellie? After all, pretty soon, Alyssa would know, and she would tell everyone.

"Alyssa is my sister."

Ellie shot him a puzzled looks. "Is…does 'sister' mean something different in Meridian? Because here on Earth it means-"

"I don't need your sarcasm," Josh interjected. He sighed again and told her the story.

"And Lyssa has no idea?" Ellie asked when he was finished.

"Not one. And you can't tell her or else she'll go crazy."

"Yeah, I know. You need the special herb and stuff. But I can't believe this. She's such a Daddy's Girl. She'll be heartbroken if she ever finds out Mr. Ashcroft isn't really her dad."

"That day will come sooner than you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm telling her this weekend at her birthday dinner," Josh replied.

"You can't! You can't let her feel all that heartbreak!"

"I don't have much of a choice. Rae and Chris both gave an ultimatum. Either I tell her by her birthday, or they will. And I think it'll be much better if she hears it from me."

"Well, I don't know what an ultimatum is," Ellie said as the two stopped in front of Down the Rabbit Hole and waited for Alyssa and Jake to catch up, "but I do know what threat means, and that's what I'm giving you. You tell Alyssa, I'll make you wish you were never born."

Josh gave her an incredulous look. Ellie just shrugged nonchalantly and went inside.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What is Jake Saunders doing here?" Ronnie giggled when she saw the foursome enter.

"He's here to see me," Rae replied. She and Ronnie were on register today, while Brooke was stocking next to them, and Lainey was on floor.

"Hi, can I help you guys find anything?" Alex, one of the floor employees asked.

"No thanks, I think we're good," Jake replied as the four made their way toward Rae. Rae stepped out from behind the counter.

"Hey babe," she said.

Jake smiled and gave her a kiss. Josh looked disgusted.

Ronnie stepped out from behind the register as well, grabbed onto Rae's arm, gave Jake a smile, and said, "Can I borrow her for a minute?" Without waiting for an answer, Ronnie pulled Rae toward Brooke and Lainey, and the four began to talk in whispers.

"I didn't know you were dating Jake Saunders," Ronnie said.

"We just became official this morning," Rae admitted.

"I thought he took Lana Oller to the Halloween Dance," Brooke said.

"He did. Long story," Rae said.

"Jake Saunders," Lainey said slowly. "I know he's one of the guys you told me about…is he the really smart really sporty one?"

The other girls nodded, making Lainey smile.

"But," she said, "the other guy is so much hotter! What's his name?"

"Josh Hart," Rae said.

"The strange one," Lainey said, snapping her fingers.

"Yes, except it doesn't matter. He could be 'I have five thousand heads' strange if all of them looked the same," Ronnie said dreamily.

Rae laughed, then went back over to Jake and her friends.

"So babe, willing to do me a favor?" Rae asked sweetly.

"Anything," Jake replied, making Rae blush.

"The blond," Rae said, "is Lainey Stevens. I can't really tell you why, but I need an invite to her house. Caty, Ellie, and I need to go."

"Uh…okay?" Jake said.

"You're charming and smooth," Alyssa said. "You can get the invite."

"I could try I guess," Jake shrugged, then walked over to Lainey.

Rae, noticing people were starting form a line at the registers, hurried back behind the desk. One girl headed to Ronnie.

"I can help the next person," Rae called. A boy approached her, and she smiled, making polite small talk as she checked him out. After the line of people were gone, Ellie, Alyssa, and Josh joined Rae behind the counter.

"So my mom is demanding I get a job," Alyssa said. "I think it's her way of ensuring I'm not still secretly training."

"You won't be if you get a job," Josh said.

Alyssa sighed. "I know. I'm already the worst at fighting, and I'm going to be even worse with less time to practice."

"Maybe you can pretend to work but really train," Ellie suggested.

"Mom's gonna want to see my pay check."

"You should be able to make it work," Rae said. "Gabi and I both work and do guardian training."

"Yeah, but Gabi doesn't spend as much time on homework as I do, and you don't have as many AP classes or after school clubs as I do," Alyssa replied. "I don't want to lose my rank, and if I falter even just slightly, Jake can take it."

"Then work at a low demand job," Ellie said. "Applebee's is hiring. I mean, technically, we're always hiring. If you do car-side or expo, that'll be really low demand."

"Well, I think I'm actually gonna work at Lange's Clayhouse," Alyssa said.

"That's my family's business!" Ronnie said suddenly. "I'm Veronica Lange, also known as the family disappointment, since I'm not artistic enough to teach any classes, coordinated enough to handle the ready-made pottery, or energetic enough to host a pottery party. And to top it all off, I didn't like my family business enough to work at the register, and chose to work here instead."

Alyssa smiled. "Your siblings work there though, right?"

Ronnie nodded. "My younger brother Tyler works the register, my older sisters Nicole and Samantha are both supervisors, and my oldest brother Marvin is a manager."

"It sounds like a Ma and Pa business. Do they hire out of family people?" Rae asked.

"All the time. They need way more help than what my family can provide," Ronnie said. She looked at Alyssa. "What are you applying for?"

"Well, my boyfriend and I went in yesterday, and they actually hired us on the spot. He's gonna work the register, I'm going to teach beginner classes, and we're going to host birthday parties together."

Ronnie looked impressed. "You must've made quite an impression on my father if he's letting you teach. He never gives high schoolers a teaching job unless it's one his kids."

Alyssa blushed. "Well, he tried to offer me a register job too, and I said that was fine. You mother saw me eyeing a fresh slab of clay though, while your father went to look for employee handbooks for us, and she told me to have at it and I sculpted this ballerina that had been in my head for a while. Your dad seemed blown away and offered me a teaching position instead, which pays a lot."

"Oh I know! Congrats," Ronnie said.

"Thanks," Alyssa beamed.

"It's so cute that you and James are working together!" Ellie squealed.

Josh made an irritated noise and Ellie blushed.

"You're Alyssa Ashcroft, aren't you?" Brooke asked, coming over to join them.

"Uh, yeah," Alyssa said, surprised someone actually knew her real name. "You're Brooklyn Summers, right? You're a year ahead of us in school."

Brooke nodded.

"Were you in my calc 3 class?"

"In the beginning of the year," Brooke confirmed. "But I switched into AP stats."

Brooke and Ronnie continued talking to Alyssa. Josh took that opportunity to tell Rae that Ellie also knew about Alyssa's being his sister.

"But she doesn't think I should tell Lyssa," Josh said.

"You don't?" Rae asked.

"Of course not! Think about it: Alyssa's heart would break if she finds out that her mother did something as horrible as cheating and that Nigel isn't really her father. And this'll destroy Taranee and Nigel's relationship and isn't there some saying or the other about not rehashing the past?" Ellie said without taking a breath. Then her face scrunched up in confusion. "What does rehash mean anyway?"

Rae rolled her eyes and ignored her question. "She deserves to know. At our sleepover, she said she always felt a little out of place with her family. That's because her father's not really her father and she's missing the presence of an older brother."

"It doesn't really matter what either of you say," Josh said. "I have to tell her, because if I don't, Chris will."

"Then _talk_ to him. Convince him not to say anything," Ellie said. "Chris wouldn't want to hurt Alyssa and this news will hurt her."

Rae and Josh thought this over. Josh did not want Alyssa to hate him, and he didn't want to hurt her. If Rae felt the same way, she couldn't probably convince Chris to keep quiet.

"I don't want to hide anything from Lyssa," Rae said.

"And I don't want to hurt her," Ellie replied.

Rae sighed. "Alright. I'll talk to Chris. But if he insists on telling her, that's it."

Ellie and Josh both beamed at her, making her feel a bit better about her decision.

At the same time, Jake walked over to them. "Okay. You got it. The invitation to Lainey's house. You, Caty, Ellie, and I are invited over for lunch Saturday afternoon."

"Really?" Rae asked, her face lighting up.

Jake laughed. "Yes. Just one little thing…"

"Yeah?"

"She thinks you're the president of Sheffield's Harry Potter club."

"Sheffield has a Harry Potter club?" Rae asked.

Jake shifted. "…No."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Wasn't sure how to end it, so I stopped it there. I got this done a bit earlier than I'd hoped, so hopefully, you guys all liked it. I have a lot of stuff planned for the next couple of chapters, like someone close to Ellie finding out about GRACE, the group's lunch at Lainey's (and more importantly, Irma's) house, and Alyssa's birthday party, but I don't know whether I will put it all in the next chapter or the one after, but hopefully I'll be able to get through all of that soon. Review guys!**


	23. When GRACE met Irma

**A/N: Hello everyone! I don't have much to say, except that I'd like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to for favoriting and following this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter! So, I'll just get right to the shout-outs. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: Lunch is in this chapter. It's the beginning of it. Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I was worried about how it would be received. I figured you'd like that. Not EVERYONE. James doesn't know. I wanted all the characters to be comfortable in their relationships. You'll see why the idea of an HP club would work out in this chapter. And you know I did write a little bit before Lindy arrived. I hope you like the rest.**

**WaterAmulet: It's okay, I expected you to comment on that first. I knew you'd like it. I don't know to be perfectly honest. I didn't plan on any death initially, but I might have some people die in the end. Probably not any members of GRACE, but I have some important characters in mind that could die, including certain members of the team. You'll definitely learn more about Irma, Will, and the guardians' fight in the next couple of chapters. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Taylor: I'm glad you like the prophecy. Even though most of it wasn't my own work, I put a lot of thought into what each line will mean, and I tried to foreshadow future events without giving too much away. I agree with what you said about James being open with his feelings. How else was he supposed to get someone like Alyssa? She is far too no-nonsense to put up with a guy who hides his feelings. Yes, this chapter does have Irma in it. I hope you like it!**

**Shay: I'm glad you like the prophecy. As I was telling another reviewer, most of the lines were Rick Riordan's, but I put a lot of thought into what each line will mean, and I tried to foreshadow future events without giving too much away. And yes, there will be a lot of switching sides and a lot of family drama because of it. About the death, I hadn't really thought about it, but just before I published the previous chapter, I was thinking some characters may die after all. None of the guardians, but some important characters; maybe even some of the other members of Team GRACE. Yes, I really wanted to get some of the couples together. Rae and Jake had to get together or else it'd be boring, unless I added another problem, which would just be cruel. Alyssa and James crept up on me. I didn't plan on making them official right now, but once I wrote it, it seemed to fit. Josh and Gabi will be my next focus. I just don't want to write about Gabi too much because she's my favorite to write about, and then I ignore the other characters. The lunch will be in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

**SilvenArrow: Everyone seems to be a big fan of the prophecy discussion scene. Predictably, everyone loved that Jake and Rae and Alyssa and James got together. I realize Alyssa and James seemed a bit rushed. I planned to write that scene differently, but couldn't remember my exact plans, and that's how it came out instead. I don't think it was sudden though. It was always heading to this, they just got together a little sooner then I'd planned. Then again, a lot of things in this story might take place sooner than I planned. I know you're a huge fan of anything that mentions the old guardians, so I hope you like the lunch, which I wrote about in this chapter. And I didn't notice all that til you pointed it out, but you're right. I think Gabi and Cornelia have more similarities than any other WITCH/GRACE pair except for maybe Alyssa and Taranee, who don't even count since they're mother and daughter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I came up with!**

**Misa: Seems like you liked every part of the chapter! I'm glad. Honestly does seem to be a real problem, doesn't it? It'll all blow up soon! And you'll see Irma in this chapter. Thanks for all the compliments on the last chapter. I hope you like this one just as much. **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with this," Jake said as he, Rae, Caty, and Ellie walked to Lainey's house on Saturday.

"What do you mean? It's just lunch," Ellie said sweetly.

Jake rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean El. We don't even know Elaine and we're trying to snoop in her house?"

"We may not know Lainey," Rae said. "But we know her mother."

"We do?"

"Well, you don't," Caty said. "But we do." She motioned to herself, Rae, and Ellie. The other girls nodded.

"I'm still not sure about this."

"I know," Rae said. "And I love that you'd still do this for me." She smiled at him.

Jake ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Yeah. You definitely have way too much power over me."

Rae laughed while Ellie bristled. She thought Rae and Jake were really cute together, but she wasn't really over him either, and still pined after him. Seeing him with Gabi was one thing. She barely ever saw them together because she only ran into Jake and Gabi with they were alone. But once he and Rae got together…well all she ever did was see them together. Even Gabi didn't seem to mind their relationship as much as Ellie. She wanted to be the one to steal Jake away from Gabi. It turned out she was never even in the running. Jake chose the same girl that had also stolen away Ellie's best friend.

Ellie knew it was irrational to feel possessive. Jake was just her friend. She knew in the back of her mind Jake Saunders would be the last boy to like her. And Alyssa wasn't her best friend anymore. It just seemed like both Jake's affection and Alyssa's friendship were more attainable before Rae arrived at Sheffield.

_"Okay, so should we go over the plan one more time?"_ Caty asked, using the link Alyssa had set up for the girls before they left.

_"If we go over it anymore, my head will explode,"_ Ellie complained.

Caty sighed. _"Lyssa, Gabs, are you guys standing by?"_

_ "We're here Caty. Chill,"_ Gabi said. _"Everything will be fine."_

_ "You guys are at the correct window, right? Hiding?"_

_ "_Yes!" Alyssa cried. _"We're hiding the bushes right outside of the master bedroom's window, waiting for you guys. Just calm down Caty."_

_ "And let's stop with the mental conversations when we get there. Jake already thinks we're weird enough when we just stand around looking at each other, not saying anything,"_ Rae said. _"The last thing we need is Lainey thinking we're strange, or Irma and Joel figuring things out."_

"Are you guys doing that silent conversation thing?" Jake asked. Rae's explanation for the girls' telepathic conversation was that since they were girls, they could have conversations just with their eyes, which she and Alyssa did do for real. Jake even backed that up himself saying he saw Gabi and Bree doing that all the time.

"It's a hard habit to break," Caty said.

Jake just shook his head. He was okay with Rae keeping secrets when they were just best friends, but now that they were together, he was getting annoyed by it. It seemed like James knew exactly what was going on in The Silver Dragon basement before he and Alyssa got together. He was even in on it. Jake thought for sure Rae would tell him now that they were a couple, but it seemed like she was keeping more secrets than before. He didn't know how much longer he could put up with that.

"Wait, do I do budget, or does Jake do that?" Rae asked.

"Jake does. He's the _treasurer_," Caty said in her most obnoxious, 'I know way more than you' tone.

"Of course," Rae said. "I'm never going to get this."

"You'll be fine," Jake assured her.

Jake found out Lainey was obsessed with Harry Potter. Remembering Rae felt the same way, he told Lainey that Rae was the president of the non-existent Harry Potter club in their school. Lainey thought that was awesome, and wanted to start her own Harry Potter club at New Dorp. Jake told her he and the rest of the club's officers could help her get started, so she'd invited them over for lunch.

It wasn't the worst excuse ever. Rae knew everything there was to know about Harry Potter, and Jake was a fan as well. Caty wasn't much for fantasy books, but she had read them all. Since she was president of a few different clubs, VP of student council, and Jake was student council president, they both knew how to start a club at a school and could teach Rae everything a president did. They made Jake treasurer, Caty, VP, and Ellie secretary of the non-existent club.

"This is it," Caty said. "She said yellow shutters and blue window sills."

"It looks worse than imagined," Jake groaned.

He was right. Lainey's house looked like something out of a kids' show where the characters were constantly happy and nothing bad ever happened. It was a white house with yellow shutters and a yellow roof with blue-gray window sills and sea green trimmings. The colors were horribly mismatched and looked terrible.

_"But Irma always had such great style in the pictures we saw,"_ Ellie complained, confused as to why the old water guardian would live in a house that looked the way it did.

_"Maybe it was Joel who chose the colors and style,"_ Caty suggested.

_"Why would she go along with it?"_ Rae wondered.

"Can we go inside before you guys make me feel left out again?" Jake joked.

Rae gave him a smile and the four walked to the door and rang the doorbell.

To everyone's surprise, it was a boy who answered the door. He looked about fourteen years old. He looked exactly like his father Joel did when he was young-same straight, spiky-ish hair, same blue eyes, same facial features. He even wore glasses like Joel did when he was in middle and high school. However, his hair color was brown, like Irma's.

"Are you Lainey's friends?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Rae."

"Lainey was expecting you guys," the boy said, letting them in.

"Are you Lainey's brother?" Caty asked.

The boy nodded. "My name's Greg."

"Rae, hi!" Lainey said as she joined her brother in the foyer.

"Hey Lainey," Rae smiled. "We just met your…where'd Greg go?" In the two seconds it took for Rae to turn to Lainey, Greg had disappeared.

"Oh, don't mind him," Lainey said dismissively. "Greg's kind of a loner. Not at school, he has bunch of friends there, though I have no idea how because here at home, he barely ever says a word, he's always in a bad mood, and he's practically antisocial."

Jake laughed. "My sister used to say the same thing about me."

"_You_?" Caty repeated disbelievingly. "You never said a word and were antisocial and always in a bad mood? Which Jake Saunders did Brittany know?"

This made Rae and Ellie laugh too.

"It's like Lainey said about Greg. I was different at school," Jake defended.

"_Way_ different," Caty muttered.

"Anyway," Rae cut in, "I want to thank you for inviting us over."

"Of course! Thank you for agreeing to help me start a Harry Potter Club at New Dorp. I'm the biggest Potterhead you'll ever meet!"

"I think Rae would have to disagree with you there," Jake said.

Lainey laughed. "Is this the rest of your club officers?"

"Yeah," Rae said. "As I'm sure Jake told you, I'm president and he's treasurer. This is Caty Lewis, VP, and Ellie Kramer, secretary."

"Kramer…I know I've that last name before," Lainey mused. "Any relation to Breanna Kramer?"

"Unfortunately," Ellie muttered. "She's my cousin. How do you know her?"

"We go to soccer camp together," Lainey replied. "And we're friends because of that. I'm at a lot of her parties. I had to miss her birthday party last year though."

"You didn't miss anything important," Ellie replied.

"Wait, Bree goes to soccer camp?" Caty asked. "That's how she's so good! I always wondered how a cheerleader could be such a good midfielder."

"Cheerleaders have a lot of stamina," Lainey pointed out.

"Probably to make up for their lack of brains," Caty replied, then bit her lip guiltily. Gabi was a cheerleader, and she was smart. Lili was no idiot either, even though she acted like it. Caty had told off her best friends last week for being judgmental, and now they barely even looked at her. Now she was doing the same thing.

Rae, Ellie, and Jake exchanged uncomfortable looks since they were all connected with Gabi. Before anyone could say anything, a new person walked into the room.

The girls exchanged excited looks as they saw the brunette woman with pretty blue green eyes. Irma!

"Lainey, are these your friends?" the woman asked.

"Yeah. Mom, this is Rae, Jake, Caty, and Ellie. Rae is the girl who works with me at Down the Rabbit Hole. They all go to Sheffield."

Irma smiled. "Sheffield was my alma matar," she said as she shook each of their hands.

"Yeah, Lainey told us," Rae said. "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Stevens."

"Oh please, call me Irma," she replied. "Lunch is ready, so follow me into the dining room. Lainey, call your brother down, will you?"

Lainey took a deep breath and yelled, "GREG!"

Irma looked annoyed and everybody else jumped.

"WHAT?" they heard Greg yell back in a just as jump worthy voice.

"LUNCH!"

"OKAY!"

"Lainey, that is _not_ what I meant!" Irma snapped. "Bad enough you break my ear drums every day, but in front of your guests? Really?"

Lainey just shrugged, not at all embarrassed, and Ellie grinned. She and Lainey were going to get along great…as long as Lainey never found out that Harry Potter club was an elaborate ruse she and the others created in order to spy on her family.

Greg came downstairs and the group sat down at the dining table, where Joel, who Lainey explained was the cook of the family, laid out fried chicken, spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, French onion soup, spring rolls, rice, and empanadas. It made Ellie drool just looking at it.

"Something for everyone," Lainey said proudly.

It looked like Irma added several extra chairs so that everyone could eat at once. She had Jake and the girls sit down at the chairs that were clearly part of the dining table set, and seated herself, Lainey, and Greg at the extra chairs. A few seconds later, Joel came downstairs and sat at one of the extra tables.

"Hello everyone," he said cheerfully with a smile. "I'm Joel Stevens. Call me Joel."

Rae smiled and re-introduced everyone.

"Saunders as in Zachary Saunders?" Joel asked Jake.

"My father."

"Zach and I were friends back in our Sheffield days. Didn't really talk much after college."

"He remembers you though," Jake said. "I've seen pictures. The two of you dressed up in partner costumes every Halloween."

Joel laughed as Irma looked embarrassed.

"Partner costumes?" Lainey asked, clearly never hearing this story.

Irma groaned.

"Like Salt and Pepper, Ketchup and Mustard, Batman and Robin…even the red and yellow M&amp;M one year," Joel explained.

"Alyssa and I want to do a partner costume for next Halloween," Rae said. She looked Irma dead in the eye. "That's my best friend, Alyssa Ashcroft."

Irma winced, which didn't go unnoticed by anyone at the table. Lainey and Greg exchanged half worried, half confused looks at their mother's reaction, and Jake looked at Rae as if to say, 'Explain.'

Joel cleared his throat uncomfortably and couldn't help but ask, "Ashcroft as in Nigel Ashcroft?"

"Her father."

"We…were in a band together," Joel admitted.

"I know," Rae said.

"You do?" Greg asked.

"I didn't at first," Rae lied. "But once you introduced yourself as Joel Stevens, I put two and two together."

"Wait, wait…Joel Stevens, Nigel Ashcroft, and a band?" Jake asked. "Wreck 55?!"

"And apparently, you're the _last_ to put two and two together," Caty said in her 'wow everyone's dumber than me' voice. Ellie wondered how she could sound like that when she was talking to someone who had a higher class rank than her.

"But I didn't know Alyssa well enough to know her dad was in Wreck," Jake protested.

"I know sweetie, it's okay," Rae soothed. "And you look really cute when you're confused!"

Jake frowned. "Are you being sarcastic?"

"No! Why do you always ask me that?"

"Because you're _always_ sarcastic," he, Ellie, and Caty said in unison, making Lainey laugh.

"Anyway," Rae said, turning back to Irma and Joel, "it's really cool to meet another member of the band. We thought meeting three was the most."

"Wait…two?" Jake asked.

"Seriously?" Caty asked.

"Josh's dad was in Wreck, although technically, he did quit before the band made it big. And Chris's dad was in Wreck too," Rae said. "Lyndon, remember?"

"Eric Lyndon's son?" Joel asked.

Rae nodded, trying to suppress a smile. Part of their plan was to try and sneak a peek at Irma's room to try and find Will. But the other part was to casually bring up the guardians, and the members of "Team WITCH" in order to tell Irma what they were up to, and make her feel nostalgic so she'd want to see them. It seemed to be going well.

They'd accidentally done it to Cornelia when they were in Meridian, and Hay Lin definitely wouldn't be opposed to a reunion. Will was proving hard to find, but Rae had a feeling Taranee would be the hardest one to convince.

"So who…who did Nigel marry?" Irma asked.

Rae bit back another smile and said, "Taranee Cook. Alyssa's just like her in every way, including looks. Except she has her dad's eyes." Rae faltered at this point and exchanged looks with Caty and Ellie, knowing it wasn't Nigel who gave Alyssa blue eyes. However, Rae forced herself to keep going. "And her brother John is a lot like Nigel…same red hair, same build. But he has Taranee's dark eyes."

"Those are some really interesting combinations," Lainey said. "I mean, I've seen Alyssa and she's really pretty, but red hair and dark eyes sound even cooler."

"It _is_ cool," Ellie agreed. "And John grew out his hair the way Nigel had it when he was in the band and it looks awesome. He's really cool for an eleven-year-old."

"And Alyssa…she's your age?" Irma asked.

Rae nodded.

"Didn't Taranee always want to name her daughter Joy?" Joel asked.

"Nigel chose Alyssa. She was okay with it," Caty said. "Her middle name is Joy."

"And Eric's son, uh…"

"Chris," Rae supplied.

"Right, Chris. Is he named after someone?" Irma asked.

The GRACE girls looked confused for a minute.

"_Oh wait, isn't Irma's brother named Chris?"_ Caty asked in their heads.

"_Right. Why would she think Eric would name his son after her brother though? Especially since she doesn't even know he married Hay Lin?"_ Rae wondered.

The girls didn't give any answer.

"I don't know," Rae said. "I don't think so. At least, he never mentioned anything. Cara didn't either. That's his sister by the way. Chris is our age, and Cara's in eighth grade."

"Who is their mother?" Joel asked.

"Hay Lin. She goes by Hay Lin-Lyndon now," Caty said.

"So they both married their high school sweethearts, huh?" Joel said, smiling.

"Hay always did want to marry Eric. I'm glad that worked out for her," Irma said.

"She's not the only one," Rae said, using what the girls called their 'secret weapon.' "Our friend Josh, who goes to school with us, is also the son of a Wreck member."

"Matt?" Irma asked, because the other Wreck 55 member was Martin, and she was best friends with Martin and knew he only had two daughters.

"Uh, no, Caleb. I know he wasn't in the band by the time you made it big, but he was in the high school Wreck," Rae said.

"He married his high school sweetheart too!" Ellie said.

Caty, realizing they weren't technically supposed to know that, quickly said, "That's what his son told us anyway. Josh. He said his parents were together since high school."

"So Caleb married Cornelia. That was written in the stars," Joel said.

"Do they have any other children?" Irma asked.

"Yeah. Jillian and Julianne are fourteen-years-old, like Cara," Ellie said. "They're fraternal twins, and they go by Jilly and Julia. And they have a two-year-old son named Julian. Josh says he's named after his grandfather Julian."

Irma and Joel exchanged shocked looks.

"Julian-Caleb's father-is dead?" Irma asked.

Rae nodded.

"You seem to know a lot about these people," Caty said. "I heard Wreck broke up because the girlfriends of the band members had a falling out. Is that true?"

"Sort of," Joel said, shifting uncomfortably. "The fight involved the band members too, sort of."

"That's not something you have to go into," Jake said quickly, making the GRACE girls jump. Clearly they'd forgotten he was there.

Jake smiled at Joel, then gave the GRACE girls a, 'What the hell are you doing?' look.

Rae ignored her boyfriend and said, "If you guys knew each other so well, you must know about Taranee's brother."

"Peter? What about him?" Irma asked.

"Oh I haven't spoken to Peter in years. How is he?" Joel asked.

Caty and Ellie looked at each other uncomfortably. They knew what the plan was, but they didn't expect Rae to bring Peter into this.

"He's dead," Rae said bluntly.

Joel looked like someone punched him and Irma gasped violently.

"Alyssa calls him Uncle Peter, but she never actually met him."

"How old is Alyssa?" Joel asked.

"Seventeen tomorrow," Rae said, nervousness washing over her. Every time she thought of Alyssa's seventeenth birthday, she thought of Josh's secret. Ellie had not stopped begging her to talk to Chris, and Rae realized she had to do it today.

"So Peter's been dead for over seventeen years?" Irma asked in a strangled voice.

Now even Rae looked sorry she brought it up as she nodded.

An awkward silence followed and the group spent the rest of the time eating. Rae, Caty, and Ellie telepathically filled Alyssa and Gabi in on the conversation.

"_As awkward as it might've been, I think it was good you brought up Uncle Peter,"_ Alyssa said. _"It might make Irma want to see Mom more if for nothing else than to offer extremely belated condolences."_

"_You're probably right," _Rae agreed. _"That's why I brought it up in the first place, but I feel like we overdid it. What if Lainey picks up on the fact that we're not really here to help her?"_

"_I think it'll be fine. She seemed surprised by the conversation, but not suspicious,"_ Caty said.

"_Hey guys…what does belated mean?"_ Ellie asked.

Everyone telepathically groaned except Gabi, who laughed and said, _"Ellie, you're my favorite."_

A satisfied smile spread on Ellie's face while the others just rolled their eyes good naturedly.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So…that was an interesting lunch table conversation," Lainey said half an hour later.

"Yeah. I had no idea your father was in Wreck 55!" Rae lied.

Lainey blushed. "Yeah. It was one of the best times of his life. Actually, Greg is named for the band?"

"He is? How?" Jake wondered.

"Well, Wreck was first started in middle school. The original members were Matt Olsen, Nigel, my father, and Greg Banks. Greg quit the band at the same time my dad did, but he never rejoined. Joel was the only one who remained friends with him all through high school. They lost touch after Wreck got their first national tour, and Joel says losing touch with Greg was his biggest regret…well besides…"

"Besides what?" Ellie wanted to know.

"Maybe she doesn't want to tell us," Caty hissed.

"No, it's okay," Lainey assured her. "Besides losing touch with the members of Wreck. But my mom hates when he talks about the old members. Mom used to be best friends with the members' girlfriends."

"Alyssa mentioned that too," Rae said. "Her mother said they were friends for a long time. Let's see…Caleb Hart was a temporary member in high school. His girlfriend met your mother and Eric Lyndon's wife, who were already best friends, when the three were in second grade. They met Nigel's wife, Alyssa's mom, when they were in fourth grade. She was new then. And Matt's girlfriend was new in seventh grade and five of them were best friends all through high school."

"My mom mentioned she was best friends with Eric Lyndon's wife. Sometimes I wish I could get them back together, if I could find her. You said you know her?"

"Yeah," Jake put in, tired of not being included in conversation. "Her son goes to school with us and she owns The Silver Dragon. It's the most popular Chinese restaurant in Heatherfield."

Lainey's face wore an expression of understanding. "I go there with Ronnie and Brooke sometimes. We were friends before the bookstore opened, and that's why we all applied there. We used to work at the bakery across the street from The Silver Dragon before it closed down and we would get Chinese for dinner if we had a late shift. I would tell Mom and Dad about it. I figured they went there when they lived in Heatherfield, but they refused to ever go there. The Chinese place here isn't that great. Now I get why."

"It's sad that your mom and Hay Lin-that's Eric's wife-used to be best friends, and now your mom won't even go her old favorite restaurant because she doesn't want to see Hay Lin," Ellie said.

"People change I guess," Lainey shrugged. "You don't stay friends with the people you grew up with. Sometimes, those people hold you back."

The GRACE girls and Jake exchanged looks, not sure what to say to that.

"I mean…" Caty said. "Well, Misha and Nina and I are in a fight and I originally thought that they'd turned into different people, but the truth is, _I'm_ the one who's changed. I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to be more accepting and less judgmental and they _would_ hold me back from that."

"Caty, how can you say that? Nina's been your best friend since just about forever. If Misha and Nina are judgmental and you don't like that, then try to get them to be more accepting too. Don't cut them off," Rae said. "I'd never cut Alyssa off no matter what. And Gabi was a bitch to all of us in the beginning, but don't we all pretty much like her now? She changed for the better. Misha and Nina will too, as long as they have your influence."

"They may not change for sure," Jake put in, "but they're still your best friends, which means you have to try. Aren't they worth the effort?"

"Jade and I used to hate each other at first," Ellie added, "but now we're best friends. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't put in the effort to try and get to know her."

"Anyway," Rae said, turning back to Lainey, "I heard your mother and her friends had some huge fight that led to a falling out. I don't know what it's about, but if they never had that fight, they'd still be friends."

"But maybe they had that fight because they didn't mesh the same way they used to," Lainey replied. "If they were meant to still be friends, they would be."

"_As interesting as this debate is,"_ Gabi said, entering their minds, _"can we move this along? I have a shift tonight, and I won't be able to put in a full two hours of training _and _work if we don't get going soon."_

"_She's right guys, this is taking too long. Gabi and I have been creepily sitting behind Irma's house for nearly two hours. I think people are starting to get suspicious,"_ Alyssa said.

The GRACE girls exchanged looks, then Rae said, "So we should probably talk to you about the club. Jake, Caty, why don't you guys start? I need to use the bathroom."

"Oh, upstairs, first door on your right," Lainey said.

"Thanks."

"Um, do you have another bathroom?" Ellie asked.

"Yup, downstairs in the foyer, third door on your right."

Ellie nodded and walked downstairs. She looked around and when she was sure no one was watching, she turned herself invisible and used her power over air to float upstairs. She landed softly in front of Rae.

"Hey," she whispered, staying invisible.

"_Telepathic conversations only,"_ Rae warned. _"Greg's room is right next to the master."_

Ellie followed Rae into a gray room with a queen sized bed, a wardrobe, two nightstands, a chest, a bathroom, and a walk in closet. Ellie walked up to the window.

"_Okay Gabs, we're here," _she said.

Gabi telepathically opened their window. The plan was to find anything they could about Will or why the guardians split up and have Gabi telepathically float the items out of the room.

"_So where do we start?" _Ellie asked.

Rae looked around and pointed at something. _"Those doors on the wardrobe are locked. That seems like a good place."_

"_How are we supposed to open it if it's locked?"_

"_It's not a padlock, it's an electric lock pad,"_ Rae said. _"Leave it to me."_

Rae shot a spark of lightning at the lock pad just like Will told her to do in the video. "Hey. Uh…what's your name?" Rae asked, feeling weird. She'd never had to start the conversation with an electronic object before.

"Hey sweetheart," the lockpad replied. "I'm Sal. What can I do for you?"

"Well," Rae said, surprised at how easy this was "I was hoping you could do a girl a favor and give me the code that unlocks the door you're guarding?"

"I never could resist a pretty girl," Sal replied.

Ellie and Rae both stared at each other, trying not to laugh at the fact that a _lockpad_ was flirting with Rae.

"The passcode is as follows," Sal went on. "2392038."

"Thanks Sal, you're awesome," Rae said happily.

"Anything to help honey," he replied.

Rae typed in the code and took out all the items she found.

"_Ellie, we totally hit the jackpot!" _Rae crowed.

"_What did you find?"_ Gabi asked as Ellie knelt down next to Rae.

"_There a journal here,"_ Ellie said.

"_And an ornate lock box,"_ Rae added. _"And it looks like the key for this box is also here."_

"_And finally, a guitar case. But it's super tiny. Like a mini guitar,"_ Ellie finished.

Rae giggled. _"Ellie, that's not a guitar case. It's a ukulele case."_ She picked it up. _"And judging by how light it is, there's no ukulele in there. But it's locked too, and there's not key for this."_

"_Anything that's locked is a big find. We should keep it," _Gabi said.

"_Okay, we're sending this stuff down. Are you ready?"_ Rae asked.

"_Ready,"_ Alyssa and Gabi said in unison.

"_Okay, journal incoming,"_ Rae said, tossing the journal out the window. Gabi caught it with her telekinesis and stuffed it into the large bag she brought with her.

"_Lock box next,"_ Rae said.

"_Got it,"_ Gabi replied a few seconds later.

"_Ukelele case."_

"_Done."_

"_And I'll keep the key since it's so small. You guys go back to The Silver Dragon and look through the journal and see if you can get the case to open,"_ Rae instructed, pocketing the key. _"We'll try to be there for training as soon as possible. If you have to start without us, go ahead."_

Rae didn't get an answer and assumed Alyssa and Gabi had left.

Caty walked into the room.

"_How're we doing? Lainey sent me up here to see what was talking you so long,"_ she said. _"And soon, she want me to check on Ellie too."_

"_We're done. I mean, we haven't looked through the whole room, but I don't think we're going to find anything more useful or interesting than what we already did,"_ Rae replied, closing the door.

"_Okay, then let's head back down."_

Ellie floated downstairs, made herself visible, then joined Lainey and Jake in the living room just at Caty and Rae sat down.

"Okay, so let's talk about Harry Potter," Rae said.

Lainey nodded, not at all suspicious.

That's what GRACE called a successful mission.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Can we talk for a minute?" Rae asked, grabbing Chris's arm after guardian training. Gabi and Josh had run upstairs to start their shift, Sage kept them company at the bar while she waited for Rae, Alyssa and James headed to their first shift at Lange's Clayhouse, Ellie said something about Adam's house, and everyone else went home. Cara, Chris, and Rae were still in the basement.

"Sure, what's up?" Chris asked.

"Um…alone," Rae said, looking at Cara. "It's about…what you want to tell Alyssa tomorrow."

Chris paled a little, but said, "Cara knows about that."

"About what?" Cara asked, looking up.

"About Josh and Alyssa being siblings."

"Oh yeah, I know that whole story," Cara confirmed.

"Okay, well…I was just thinking and…did Josh tell you guys what happened the first time Alyssa found about Taranee and Caleb's affair?"

"About how they stopped being friends because she was mad at him that he kept a secret from her for three years?" Chris asked darkly.

"Or do you mean about how heartbroken Alyssa was to learn that her father wasn't really her father and her mother did something so horrible?" Cara asked, giving Rae a knowing smile.

Rae smiled back. Cara was definitely feeling more confident. She'd always had that effect on Rae, despite being several years younger than her. Whether it was while Cara was training her in archery or during a regular

"That's exactly what I was talking about. For a while, Josh decided he was going to tell Alyssa tomorrow because he'd rather she hear it from him than you. But we recently realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell her."

"Why's that?" Chris asked, clearly unimpressed.

"Because if she was so heartbroken the first time, imagine how she would take it this time around," Rae said. "I mean, not only would she realize she's been in the presence of her secret half- brother for two months and her father isn't her real father and her mother cheated, but she'd also realize that she and Josh used to be really close and her mother made her forget it."

Rae wanted to tell Alyssa and even though she wanted to spare her best friend's feelings, she didn't agree with Ellie's reasoning, but she must've sounded convincing, because Chris looked uneasy now.

"That's what I keep telling him," Cara said. "I'm so glad you said something! But Josh said you really wanted to tell Alyssa. What made you change your mind?"

Rae thought about mentioning Ellie, but then realized Chris would be less inclined to keep the secret to himself if he knew that's what Ellie wanted, so instead she said, "I'm her best friend. I want to protect her."

"As her best friend, you should want her to know this huge secret about her life," Chris insisted, but his attempt was now half-hearted.

"She doesn't deserve to get hurt," Rae said simply.

"But she deserves people keeping secrets from her?" Chris challenged.

"I just don't want her to be in pain. Think about it Chris. I know you care about Alyssa, probably more than you're willing to admit. Do you really want her to suffer?"

Chris opened his mouth to fire back, then closed it. He sighed. "Okay. I won't tell her. But Josh can't hide this forever. Sooner or later, the truth will come out."

He stormed upstairs, leaving Rae wondering if she did the right thing. Even Cara's encouraging smile didn't make her feel better this time.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie sighed when she got home that night, after running lines with Adam, Jade, and Milly for hours. It was nearly midnight, and the door to 5J, her apartment building, was open. Ellie lived in what most would call a "shady" neighborhood. Not the type of place you'd want to leave your door unlocked, let alone open. But in situations where Ellie's mother passed out before Ellie or Jason got home, the door was always left open.

Ellie walked in, locked the door behind her, and was met with a shocking sight. The living room was clean. Not spotless, sparkling clean-that was too much to ask for. But no empty beer cans, vodka bottles, burnt out cigarettes, dirty dishes clean. And her mother wasn't passed out on the couch. Creeping upstairs, Ellie saw the master bedroom door was closed. Her mother was sleeping. Jason's bedroom door was open. He wasn't home.

Jason worked 80 hours weeks at Wal-Mart, and even though Wal-Mart closed at 9 on Saturdays, Ellie wasn't too worried. Ever since Markus started working there, they'd go back to Markus's place for a beer or, when Jason swallowed his pride and asked, a meal. What worried her was the fact that her mother was asleep, Jason wasn't home, and the door was wide open.

Ellie entered her own room, put her stuff down, and changed into her blue flannel pajamas, and crawled into bed. However, she got up not a full minute later. There was something wrong and she knew it. She had to figure out what it was.

Ellie could almost _sense_ a disturbance coming from her brother's room. She softly made her way over to Jason's bedroom, but a hand grabbed her wrist from behind and pulled her into the hall closet. Ellie was ready to scream, not sure what that would do anyway, because even if her mother heard her, she wouldn't care when the light came on and Ellie saw she was face to face with her brother.

"Jason?" she asked.

"Shhh," Jason replied, putting a finger to his lips.

"What are you doing in here?" Ellie whisper-asked. "Why was the front door open?"

"When I came home, I heard a crash from upstairs, so I headed there without fully closing the door. I thought I'd only be up here for a minute. Then I'd go back downstairs.

"How long _were_ you up here?" Ellie asked.

"Only about ten minutes. When I entered my room, I saw these…_things_ ransacking my room. There were three of them. When they saw me, they knocked me out and shoved me in here. I only came to a minute ago, but it's only been ten minutes since I got home."

"What things?" Ellie asked, confused.

"They were brown and huge. They had warts all over their bodies, they wore ripped green shorts and no shirts, they had blond hair and dog like ears and they were holding clubs as weapons. That's what one of them used to knock me out. They…El, they weren't human."

Ellie's heart literally skipped a beat. His description sounded shockingly familiar. Why were the monsters that attacked her at the dance at her house? And how did they get here?

"Jase, that's crazy," Ellie said, hating herself. "You sound insane. That's ridiculous!"

To Ellie's absolute horror, Jason, instead of looking pissed like she expected, looked hurt. "El, you don't…you don't believe me?"

'Of course I do!' Ellie wanted to scream, but couldn't.

"No. I think you're just tired from work."

Ellie didn't hear anything when she was upstairs, but she sensed something, like residual energy coming from a portal, meaning the monsters must be gone. But in that second, they heard another crash coming from Jason's room, a grunt of pain, and an angry growl.

Ellie tensed immediately and Jason looked at her.

"See? What _human_ would make that noise?" Jason challenged.

"Uh…humans in a costume?" Ellie questioned weakly, knowing she'd lost him completely when he gave her a look of disbelief.

"Alright El, well why don't you stay here while I go deal with these…humans in costumes."

"What? No!"

"If they're just humans, I can take them.

'But they're not,' Ellie thought.

"It's too dangerous."

"Humans or not, I can't just let these invaders take over our house. Dad isn't here…he's never here…so that means I need to step up. I'm glad I came to before you tried to go in my room. I just wanted you to be safe before I went to deal with them."

"Jason, wait!" Ellie cried desperately, grabbing his arm. "Five minutes!"

"What?"

"Five minutes. Wait five minutes and if they're still there, then you can go. Just please, please wait five minutes."

"Ellie-"

"Please!" Ellie shrieked, forgetting to whisper. Jason clamped a hand on her mouth and listened worriedly, but the monsters seemed none the wiser. Jason put a finger to his lips and removed his hand.

"Please," Ellie repeated again. She looked him dead in the eyes. "Five minutes. _Trust_ me."

Jason looked confused, but nodded and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"_Alyssa, are you there? I need you!"_

No reply.

"_ALYSSA!"_

"_Ahhh! Thanks for the wake-up call El!" _Alyssa snapped.

"_Lyssa, I need a mental link…now!"_ Ellie said, her tone no-nonsense for probably the first time in her life.

"_Why? What's wrong?"_ Alyssa asked, sounding alarmed.

"_Link now. Explanation later."_

Alyssa didn't reply, and in a few seconds Ellie heard, _"Anyone there?"_

"_I'm here. What's up?" _Caty asked.

"_I'm in trouble,"_ Ellie said.

"_How much trouble?" _ Gabi asked, tuning in.

"_Three of the monsters we fought on Halloween are in my house and my brother is home and saw them. We're hiding out in my closet. I managed to convince my brother to stay in here for five minutes instead of charge out there to try and fight them off. I need you guys to get here now!"_

"_We're on our way,"_ Alyssa promised. _"Gabi, can you take us?"_

"_Yeah. Want me to pick you up too?"_

"_Come to Rae's house. I'll go over there to wake her up,"_ Alyssa replied. _"Ellie, do we need more back up?"_

"_There are only three. The guardians should be enough,"_ Ellie replied.

"_Okay, Caty, should we swing by to get you too?"_

"_No, I'm at Emma's. She lives just a couple blocks over from Ellie, I can walk."_

"_It's midnight_," Alyssa said.

"_I'll be fine. Let's just get there before Ellie's brother tries to take those monsters on by himself,"_ Caty said, making Ellie smile in relief.

Gabi must've been a speed demon because they made it there in four minutes.

"_I'm telekinetically opening the door,"_ she said. _"Classless-a and New Girl are with me and Caty here's too."_

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.

"_Great!"_

"_One thing though,"_ Rae said. _"When I change us…you'll change too. And your brother will see."_

Ellie froze. She hadn't thought of that. _"It can't be helped,"_ she sighed.

She heard the girls come upstairs.

"Are those footsteps?" Jason asked.

"Yeah."

"El, it's been five minutes, and those footsteps probably mean these monsters in the hall."

"Actually, that's not who's in the hall," Ellie corrected.

Jason gave her a puzzled look and she smiled at him weakly.

"I'm sorry Jase. I didn't want you to find out this way. I didn't want you to find out at all."

"Find out what? El, what's going on?"

Before she could say anything more, Ellie heard Rae yell, "Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

Jason stared at his sister, open mouthed. Ellie rushed out of the closet. Either the yelling or the lights caught the monsters attention, because all three of them came out into the hall. Following them were four more.

"Ellie, I thought you said there were only three!" Caty cried.

"There _were_!"

"There must be a portal in there. I need a distraction so I can close it," Rae said.

"On it," Ellie said, throwing her right hand in the air. In just a few seconds, a huge tornado formed and she sent it towards the monsters, throwing them all back. One even got caught in it.

"Perfect," Rae said, flying into Jason's room. "Guys, little help," she said, her voice strangled with fear a few seconds later. "There are nine more in here."

Ellie used the same tornado trick, trapping another monster to clear a path for Caty to help Rae. Gabi stayed in the hall with the air guardians. She knocked out one monster using the same telekinesis trick she used on Halloween-stealing his club. Now she was engaged in a club fight with another monster.

'Okay, one knocked out and two dead,' Ellie said, thinking of the monsters she'd trapped and killed. That left them with four monsters and judging by the monsters' cries from Jason's rooms, maybe seven in his room.

Ellie decided to test her luck and tried a third tornado, but by this time, the monsters smartened up. Three of them pressed up against the wall. The one Gabi was fighting ducked, dodging Gabi's swing, then put his club up. The tornado hit, and to Ellie's surprised, the attack vanished.

"W-what happened?" she asked.

"Oh yeah!" Alyssa said suddenly. "Rae said this happened to her on Halloween. We think it's possible that the monster's clubs can diffuse our attacks."

Ellie's face scrunched up in confusion. "What does diffuse mean?"

"It _means_, attack hit club, attack useless," Gabi replied.

Ellie bristled. Gabi was the only one who hadn't treated her like she was dumb, until now. But she didn't want to call Gabi out on it. At least not while she had to protect her brother.

"_Lyss, get Jason out of here,"_ Ellie said, using telepathy so that the monsters, who seemed to not notice Jason, wouldn't be alerted of his presence.

"_Got it!"_

Alyssa crept over to Jason, grabbed his arm, and dragged him toward the stairs.

"But…Ellie," he said softly.

"Ellie can take care of herself, which is more than I can say for either of us right now," Alyssa replied.

Realizing she was right, Jason didn't argue and just ran down the stairs.

"We'll stay here for now," Alyssa said, taking a seat on the couch. Jason followed suit. "If it seems like the monsters may follow us, we'll leave. They won't follow. They're not really after us."

That wasn't entirely true. Jason had nothing to do with GRACE, but the monsters _could_ know Alyssa was an ex-guardian. Did the 'ex' part make her less valuable?

"So those things _are_ monsters?"

"Yup," Alyssa said, seeing no way around it.

"And Ellie's like…a monster fighting fairy?"

"Not exactly the words I would choose, but sure," Alyssa replied dryly.

Jason gave her a strange look. "I know this isn't exactly the time, but since when are you sarcastic?"

Alyssa smiled wryly. "Since I became best friends with that short raven haired girl up there," she replied.

Jason nodded. "So why did Ellie tell me I was crazy and suggest that those things could be humans in costume when I told her they weren't human?"

"Because she didn't what you to find out what she was. Knowing her secret puts you in direct danger."

"And what is she really?"

"A guardian."

"Which is…?"

"Something that'll be easier to explain when all of us are here."

"And why aren't you like them?"

"I used to be. My mother was a guardian when she was a teenager. She never wanted this fate for me, and when she found out I was a guardian, she demanded I repress that part of me. I pretended I was, but trained with my powers with the others. When my mother found out, she took my powers away."

"She can do that?"

"Apparently."

"What are your powers?"

"Each of us controls an element. Ellie's is air, mine was fire. Each of us have a few powers. Ellie can go invisible, and she can turn other people or objects invisible as long as she maintains physical contact with them. You can see we all have wings. Because she's air, she's the best at flying. She has enhanced hearing and her dreams are prophetic. I can't change or use fire anymore, but I'm psychic, and my mom wasn't able to take that away."

"Psychic? Like you can see the future?"

"No. Again, that's Ellie, with her dreams. I'm a telepath. I can read and speak in people's minds, and create mental, emotional, and physical links."

"Does this have anything to do with why Ellie's spending so much time at The Silver Dragon lately?"

"Yeah. The owner, Hay Lin, was friends with my mom, and she was also a guardian when she was teenager. She's our teacher. She trains us. She used to have air as well."

"Ellie told me she goes there to hang out and learn things. But she didn't specify. And of course I didn't ask because I didn't want to pry."

"I guess she still doesn't like to lie to you," Alyssa shrugged.

"I don't like the idea that Ellie has to fight monsters. She could get really hurt. But I am glad it gave a chance to reconnect with you," Jason said. "She missed you, you know."

"I missed her too."

"Why'd you guys really split up."

"I found out about what your mom does to you guys."

Jason looked stunned.

"We got in a fight about it," Alyssa continued. "I promised to leave her alone if she promised to tell someone what was going on. I didn't realize until recently she didn't hold up her end."

Jason looked away. "I want to tell Lyssa, really. I don't want Ellie getting hurt. But we can't."

"That's what Ellie said too, when I confronted her all those years ago. Why can't you?"

Jason was about to answer when they heard a crash from upstairs, and a scream.

"That's Rae!" Alyssa cried.

"Can we do anything to help?"

Alyssa bit her lip. "I don't think so. Since I got my element taken away and my power isn't offensive, I started to learn to fight, but I'm not very good and I forgot my sword at home anyway. When we fight these monsters, we need to kill them. If they can get themselves back home, they'll report what happened to their monster. Any information could be valuable."

"What is home?"

"Meridian. It's another realm. Also something easier to explain with everyone else."

Jason nodded. "How'd you guys know to get here?"

"Ellie contacted me telepathically. I try to stay linked to everyone's minds so that I can always hear them when they need me since I'm pretty much useless otherwise. Once she contacted me, I linked us with everyone else and she told us what was going on. Caty-that's the red head-was close, so she walked. Rae-the raven haired girl-and Gabi, the brunette, live on Larson street like me, and Gabi's already seventeen, so she drove us here. We don't live _far_ as you know, but Gabi must've broken a hundred laws to get us here as fast as she did."

"Ellie could only buy you guys five minutes before I went out there myself," Jason said, grinning slightly, making Alyssa's heart beat a little faster.

Jason was hot, and Alyssa always had a _huge_ crush on him. He used to be able to make her swoon. Now the only person that could do that was James.

Alyssa really wished James was here right now. He could always make her feel better, and he was one hell of a fighter. Any member of Team GRACE would be good to have right now, especially Sage. But Ellie said there were only three, so Alyssa didn't call anyone else and left her cell phone with her sword in the rush. Rae wasn't awake yet, so her first mission was to wake Rae up so they wouldn't waste time once Gabi reached Rae's house. She could speak on other people's minds now, but not willingly. Like James, Sage, Chris, and Josh had all heard Alyssa in their hands, but it was all accidental.

"What did you mean by mental, emotional and physical link?" Jason asked suddenly.

"Well, the mental link is when I kind of hook up our minds together so we can all communicate with each other telepathically. Anyone can communicate with me telepathically anytime they want, but I need to set up a link for other people to be able to do it. And as my powers got stronger, I was able set up emotional and physical links too. Emotional is like…if I'm not careful, everyone feel one person's emotions. Usually the person with the strongest emotion. So if Ellie is depressed, Rae is happy, and I'm scared, and I set up a link and I'm not being careful, whoever has the strongest emotion will spread it to everyone else."

"That's a burden."

"It can be. But once, Gabi had link with Caty and Ellie while she was trying to ask someone out. She got nervous, so Caty imagined how confident she felt when she was debating or something and gave that confidence to Gabi."

"Wow. That's one amazing power. And what about the physical link?"

"Like the emotional link, I can only do that accidentally, and I have to be careful. We had to battle monsters just like this on Halloween and Gabi got a massive headache, and Caty and I felt it too."

"Why only you three?"

"Gabi, Caty, and I all have psychic powers, and Gabi got the headache because she was overusing her psychic power, so we think she only spread it to the other psychic members of the group."

"Does this only work with the five of you?"

"It used to, but since I got stronger, I can read and speak in other people's minds too."

"Maybe there is a way you can help after all. Why don't you set up one of those physical links with the monsters and maybe they'll all feel the pain when one of them gets hurt."

"But Jase, I can barely set up a physical link on purpose with the other guardians. I couldn't possibly do it with people who aren't guardians."

"Ellie didn't tell me what you guys were doing at The Silver Dragon, but she always raved about you. She said she never knew you were so strong and she's never met a more perseverant person."

"That's a pretty impressive word for Ellie," Alyssa joked.

"I caught her reading the dictionary the other day. I think that's because of your influence. But anyway, going by what Ellie says, if anyone can do this, you can."

"Ellie's my friend. Of course she's going to think highly of me."

"The only problem with you is that you lack confidence. But I think the adrenaline rush you'll get from wanting to help your friends will help."

Alyssa sighed. "Okay. But you have to stay here. Ellie would never forgive me if I let come back upstairs."

"I promise," Jason said.

"You're crossing your fingers behind your back, aren't you?"

"I really haven't changed that much," Jason grinned, making Alyssa's heart skip a beat.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, come on. But stay in a corner and be quiet so they don't notice you, okay?"

"Swear," Jason said, putting his hands up in surrender.

The pair ran upstairs and surveyed the girls' progress.

There were only two monsters left in the hall, but it seemed the monsters from Jason's room were spilling into the hall. That was good. If they got all the monsters together, the guardians could fight together.

"This diffusion thing would've been nice to know about before," Gabi said as boulder she launched at a monster crumbled into dust.

"Gabi, you're ruining my roof. We can't afford to get that fixed!" Ellie cried. "And we live in the top floor of an apartment complex. Our landlord will have our heads! And Mom's gonna kill me!"

"Not really the time Drama Freak," Gabi replied.

"Speaking of you mother, how is she not awake?" Alyssa whispered to Jason.

"She's not home."

"Ellie told me if the master bedroom door is closed, your mother is asleep."

"I closed the door," Jason replied. "I forgot to tell Ellie, but Mom got a new job yesterday, at a bar. She works late."

"A bar. But Ellie said your mother's an alcoholic. Is that really a good idea?"

"I think paying bills is a good idea," Jason said bluntly.

Before Alyssa could respond, she and Jason stepped back as seventeen monsters stepped into the hall.

"That's more that we started with," Alyssa groaned.

Caty followed the monsters out. Rae followed a few seconds later, shouting, "I closed the portal guys!"

"Good. Now kill them!" Gabi yelled.

"Guys, hurt them as much as you possibly can!" Alyssa yelled.

Gabi launched vines at one of the monsters. Alyssa concentrated to set up a link. The monster diffused Gabi's attack and began to laugh. The other monsters laughed too.

"Ooops. Emotional link," Alyssa said softly.

Rae launched a ball of lightning at one. Alyssa tried again. The monster that got hit roared in pain, but nothing happened to the other monsters. Rae hit the monster again, killing him.

Caty summoned water from the large plants downstairs, the small trees upstairs, the trees that she could reach outside thanks to the hole in the roof, and the hanging roses on the ceiling. She used it create a huge wave and drown two of the monsters.

Alyssa concentrated again and this time, four other monsters coughed and gagged. Caty killed the two monsters and the link was broken, but three of the four Alyssa linked passed out, and one even died.

"That was great Caty!" Rae complimented.

"Thanks. But that's gonna be all the water for a while. I needed to take it from the plants. I can create it anymore. We're getting weaker."

"The guardians only succeed when they are together. Without even one of them, they are weaker and their power is diminished. Since my mom took my powers away and I can't change, the others get weaker as time passes," Alyssa explained. "Already Caty can't produce water. Soon Rae's lighting balls will be little bolts, Ellie will get downgraded from creating tornadoes to air blasts, and Gabi's boulders and vines will be pebbles and roots."

"It seemed like your link worked."

"Yeah, but I already feel like fainting. By the time I get enough strength to try that again, the girls will be too weak for it to mean anything."

"So what do we do?" Jason asked.

Alyssa frowned, then cried, "Guys, use the hole in the roof to create a storm!"

Rae, Caty, and Ellie tried, but were too weak to create more than a little rain cloud that didn't even produce any rain.

Rae felt a sharp pain in her chest. She knew what that meant. She threw a ball of lighting at a monster. It hurt the monster, but not much. It was a small ball.

"Great," she muttered.

"What now?" Gabi moaned.

Alyssa shifted from foot to foot nervously and heard a jingling in her pocket. She remembered Gabi gave Alyssa her car keys to hold. Alyssa was officially seventeen, and she didn't have her license yet, but this was an emergency.

"I'm going to get help!" Alyssa cried. "Hold them off as long as you can. I'll get Sage and Josh."

Rae nodded, not seeing anything else they can do. Since Ellie said there were only three, they'd decided not to wake up Sage and Josh, but not they needed them..

"You have your car, right Jase?" Alyssa asked.

Jason nodded.

"Okay, the monsters are blocking the stairs, so we'll climb down the fire escape from your window. I need you drive to The Silver Dragon and knock on the side door. When someone opens it, tell whoever it is that the guardians are in trouble and they need the Regents."

Jason nodded and followed Alyssa to his room. To Alyssa's immense relief, she saw someone flying outside the window and nearly laughed.

"Never mind," she said. "Jase, open the window."

Jason, though freaked out by the white winged, appearance changing woman outside his window, opened it and Angel flew through.

"Thank you for letting me in," she said in her echo-y voice. "Although I could've just teleported myself in."

"I'm sure you could," Alyssa agreed. "The others are in the hall.

"Looks like you could use some help," Angel said, flying into the hall just as the Heart started to defuse from Rae's body.

"You'd be right," Rae said. "Guys, on the ground!"

Everyone landed and changed back not even a second later.

Angel handled the other monsters, disintegrating them in a couple of minutes.

"That's the second time you've saved us from those things," Alyssa said. "Thank you."

"As I said before, no thanks necessary," Angel said. "It is my sworn duty to do everything in my power to help Queen Elyon, and right now, that means helping the guardians."

"Are you going to tell us who you are now?" Gabi asked.

"I am the Angel of Magic," Angel said, making everyone groan.

Before anyone could say anything, Angel used her magic to fix Ellie's roof, and revitalize the plants Caty killed when she stole their water. Then, she disappeared in a flash.

"We're never going to get more than that from her, are we?" Caty sighed.

"At least she fixed our roof!" Ellie said.

Everyone else rolled their eyes. Ellie turned to face Jason, who looked awestruck at Angel's magic.

"Jase, I'm sure you have a lot of questions-" she started.

"You have no idea," Jason replied. "But thanks to Alyssa, I know some."

"Well, I'll answer them soon," Ellie said.

Alyssa, realizing Ellie was keeping something silent, read her mind and saw what Ellie wanted was to ask Taranee to make some of that 'forgetting potion' Josh told them about tomorrow at Alyssa's birthday party.

"Ellie, no," Alyssa said sternly. Ellie would be so much happier with Jason knowing.

"No what?" Jason asked.

"Ellie's worried about the danger you'll be in because you know about GRACE…that's what we call ourselves by the way. So she wants to make you forget."

"What?"

"Lyssa, it's the only way. Eva may be the Heart of Earth, but her powers belong to the Regents right now, so no one will go after her. When James found out, we taught him to fight. Caty doesn't care about Lili."

"Hey!" Caty cried. She cared about Lili a lot. She contemplated asking Taranee to make Lili forget several times. However, everyone ignored her.

"Jason doesn't have time to learn how to fight and Kasson will go after him to get to me, not to mention whatever evil thing takes over Kandrakar."

"Normally, I would agree," Rae said, "but ever since we found out about the prophecy, I think it's better this way. What if he's part of it?"

"All the more reason for him to forget. He can't be a part of what he doesn't know about, right?"

"Wrong," Caty said. "It's a prophecy. Whatever it says will happen, will happen no matter what."

"If he gets captured or something, it'll be less terrifying if he knows about GRACE at least," Alyssa said.

"Ellie," Jason said, "I don't what the prophecy is or anything, but I promise I'll be okay. How can I not be? I have you to keep me safe. You're a hero El, and that's not something I want to forget. I believe everything happens for a reason, and I know you believe that too. So my finding out is for a reason. You need to let it be."

Ellie opened her mouth to protest, but looking into Jason's pleading eyes, she caved.

"Fine," she said, "but for the record, I don't like this.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Well? What did you think? I want to apologize for the long wait. Until Joel introduced himself, I wasn't motivated to write. It was boring to write, and will probably be boring to read (for me at least) when I go back and edit. Hope it's not boring for you! Anyway, it took me days to get to the point where Joel introduced himself, but I wrote the rest in three days. I won't be able to put this up til tomorrow since I still have to write you shout-outs and edit, and if I don't go to bed now, I won't get up for class tomorrow, but it'll probably be up by tomorrow night if not earlier. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I already started the next chapter so it won't be as long of a wait, I promise! Review guys!**


	24. A Messed Up Family Tree

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm back! I hope this wasn't too long of a wait. I got blocked in the middle of the chapter, but it didn't take too long to get ideas again. It took me a bit longer to compose shout outs this time, but hopefully I did a good job on those and this chapter. Enjoy! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: I did model the title of this chapter after the title of that movie, but I'll be honest: I've never seen When Harry Met Sally. It's on my list though. I've heard it's one of the more romantic romcoms, and my best friend and I want to have a day when we watch that, along with Love, Actually, and Sleepless in Seattle. Well, actually, there are new developments with Jake and the GRACE secret in this chapter. It'll be a little longer before the group looks at the stuff they got from Irma's, but soon. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Emily: I keep telling you, if you want to be first, review right after the chapter is posted. You're usually at my house when I do it anyway, and if you're not, I text you. You waited two days. I'm surprised you're not further down! Well, that's who Greg was modeled after, lol. You'd be right about the 'trouble.' That'll be revealed eventually. I can tell you if you really want to know though. Well, tone down the sarcasm, you'll see! You won't have to wait for long. That's this chapter! Totally thought of you when I wrote about that. Haha, I'm glad you make that connection. Hope you like the other half you haven't read yet.**

**SilvenArrow: I have noticed that, and I'm glad you liked that. I'm glad you liked that I showcased their powers. The stuff they found will be opened eventually, but for now, the guardians have a couple other problems to deal with. And I don't want to give too much away, but everything else you put in your review will be addressed in this chapter.**

**WaterAmulet: I'm debating whether or not to have Lainey find out what Rae and the others did, or if she'll be a background character from now on. I'm learning towards the former option since I planned out that scene already. I'm glad you're excited, but after this chapter, the girls have a couple things that are more important to deal with first, so it'll be a couple chapters til they look into that stuff. The potion will come into play soon, if everything goes according to plan. Sometimes my stories and characters go in a completely different direction without telling me first, lol. Funnily enough, I'd already written something about Eva by the time I read your review. Super ironic. Anyway, I will get to that. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Taylor: It'll be another couple chapters before the team opens the stuff they found at Irma's. You'll see why at the end of this chapter. And I guess you'll like what happens with Jake this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Misa: You will have to wait a little bit to find out more about what the girls found unfortunately. There are going to be some more pressing issues they have to deal with right now. You'll see what happens with the sister secret in this chapter. I hope that'll ease your tension a little. I want other people to find out, but I don't like how fast it's happening. I planned to have Jason find out first, then wrote about someone seeing the Halloween battle, so having Lili find out blindsided me as well as my readers. And someone finds out in this chapter too, someone I didn't want finding out til much later, but it couldn't be helped, so I have a plan for him. Hope you like this chapter, and what I'll come up with in the future!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Sunday morning, Bree rushed into The Silver Dragon in a panic. Josh was behind the bar, cleaning glasses when he spotted her.

"Hey Bree. Where's the fire?" he asked.

"Where's Gabi?" she replied.

"In the back, why?"

"Lana and Kelli are headed here. You know how all four of us usually come in for a Shirley Temple Saturday mornings? We couldn't do it yesterday, so they're coming today."

"So?"

"_So_, they don't know Gabi works here. Haven't you ever noticed she never had a shift whenever any of the cheerleaders were here besides me? If this gets out, Gabi will be humiliated."

"Why is working here so bad?"

"Not just here. Anywhere. Gabi is head cheerleader, which gives her power over the others during practice and at competitions. But her power over them outside of all things cheerleading comes from her other things. She's beautiful, but so is Lana. She's smart, but Lana has that too. She knows how to treat everyone like they're something special, and she knows how to reduce someone to tears in a matter of seconds. But those are things Lana can do as well. The thing that separates them is money."

"Money?"

"There are several different characteristics one needs to be popular. Her position as head cheerleader give her leadership, her looks give her beauty, her grades, though they aren't the best, are better than most of us, and they give her smarts. She knows how to be charming and how to be scary. And her money gave her power. Until now. Her dad's not paying for things anymore. She needs to earn her own money, which means the power she once had when she was living off her dad's money, like the rest of us, is gone. Lana is the richest of the cheerleaders after Gabi, and when she finds out Gabi needs to work for money, Lana will be more powerful than her and could take over the squad."

"That's ridiculous," Josh declared. "You guys put too much importance on the most superficial, more outrageous things here."

"As opposed to where you're from? And where is that exactly Josh?"

Josh, panicked, pointed straight out.

"I assume you're trying to point to the West?" Bree asked, remembering he used to live in California.

Josh nodded.

"Well, unfortunately for you, that's North." She reached over the counter and pointed his arm to the left. "That's West."

"Sure, on a compass or a map, left is traditionally West," Josh agreed, "but directionally, straight out is West."

"How do you know that?"

"Cuz it gets really bright around sunset time."

Bree laughed. "But really though," she said. "Where are you from? Gabi said California, but I don't believe that. Sage adjusted pretty well, but you still act really strange, like she's ready to immerse herself in a new culture and you're stuck in your ways. It's like you guys are from an entirely different country."

'Or an entirely different world,' Josh thought.

"Maybe things are just done differently in California."

"But I stay in Cali for a month every Summer. I have family there. It seems about the same. The people there are a little more snobbish and a little bit dumber, but that's about the only difference."

Before Josh could come up with anything to say to that, Gabi turned up, holding two boxes of new beer glasses. Josh took them and unloaded them as Bree spoke to Gabi.

"Lana and Kelli are on their way _here_? _Now_?" Gabi squealed.

"Right now it looks like," Josh said, nodding to where the two girls stood. It looked like they still hadn't spotted Gabi, so she ducked under the counter.

"What are you going to do?" Josh whisperred.

"Not be seen," Gabi hissed back. "Now shut up before people wonder why you're talking to the ground."

"They're going to be wondering why the ground is answering," Josh muttered, but looked up.

Gabi took off her apron and hat and stuffed them in the cupboard space Hay Lin gave the employees to store their coats, bags, and keys.

Sage, who'd been helping out in the kitchen, greeted Lana, Kelli, and Bree, told Josh she was going to Caty's house for a bit, pretended not to see Gabi on the ground to maintain Gabi's cover, and left.

"Hi Josh," Gabi heard Lana's sickly sweet voice say as she and Kelli approached the bar. "Do you know if Chris is here?"

"Upstairs. His shift doesn't start for another hour," Josh said. "Can I help you guys out?"

Kelli giggled and said, "You can sure help _me_."

Gabi rolled her eyes in disgust. Kelli was one the many girls on her squad to fall for Josh. In fact, besdies Bree, who was offically dating Dalton, and Lana, who would always be after Chris, every girl on the squad, juniors and sophomores alike, had crushes on Josh. Even some senior girls liked him. Unfortunately for the seniors, all the hottest guys were in the junior class.

"We were hoping to get Shirley Temples," Lana explained, "and Chris makes them the best."

"Oh, Gabi knows how Chris makes them," Josh said.

Bree gave Josh a death glare and he froze, realizing what he'd just said.

"But Chris said he'd only ever give Silver Dragon employees his secret recipe," Lana said, frowning.

"He made an exception for Gabi," Bree said.

"Why?"

"Because…" Bree wasn't sure how to finish.

"That's not what happened," Josh said, trying to redeem himself. "I gave her the recipe after Chris gave it to me. He wrote it down and every time she asked for a Shirley Temple, I had her look at the recipe and help me. She memorized it, but I still don't remember perfectly. I wans't going to tell Chris that she knew, but he found out."

"How does Chris feel about that?" Lana asked.

"Just another thing for him to be mad at," Josh said. "We've been fighting you see."

Gabi could almost see the swoon worthy smile he was giving the girls.

"Well in that case, maybe you could get Gabi to make them for us," Lana said. "Considering she's behind the counter."

"What would make you say that?" Josh asked as Gabi silently cursed. Of course Lana would figure that out. Josh, to his credit though, seemed to be a really good liar.

"Well, you keep shifting your eyes to the ground, Bree has a nervous look on her face, I don't really see why she'd be here without Gabi since those two are practically attached at the hip, and don't think I didn't notice you talking to the ground earlier."

"Well, aren't you quite the keen observer," Gabi said, rising. Josh was impressed. She looked perfect, not like she'd been doing expo in a hot, busy restaurant kitchen for three hours.

"Well Gabi, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you _work_ here," Lana said in mock surprise.

"And why were you on the floor? Is that your job here? Cleaning the floor tiles?" Kelli taunted.

"Me? _Work_?" Gabi laughed. "What possible reason could I have for getting a job? I'm _Daniel Shay's_ daughter. He's the richest man in town."

"Maybe so," Lana agreed. "But what possible reason could you have for being on the floor?"

"I didn't want Sage to see," Gabi lied smoothly.

"Didn't want Sage to see what?" Kelli asked, confused.

"This," Gabi replied smirking. Then, she grabbed Josh's shirt, pulled her towards him, and kissed him senseless.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Okay, that boy must attract boys like honey attracts bees," Alyssa declared.

Sage laughed. "You're right about that." Then her expression changed. "I miss his sarcasm."

"We'll find him. We'll find all of them," Alyssa promised.

It was Sunday night and time for Alyssa's birthday party. So far, GRACE, minus Gabi (aka RACE), and Sage were the only ones present. Rae had brought over some of Silena's photo albums, scrapbooks, and journals to see if they could find any information about what happened between the guardians, but so far, no luck. They did however find a photo album filled with pictures of Silena, Elyon, Cornelia, and Frank together back when they were in college. They found another album with the four of them plus Caleb and Drake and were currently looking through an album filled with pictures of Cornelia, Elyon, and Silena's families.

There were a few from when Silena and Frank were still together, baby pictures of each child every couple had, and family portraits of them all. Sage had tried to skip over all the pictures of her family, but paused when she came across a protrait of her whole family.

Alyssa, Ellie, Caty, and Rae had all paused when they saw her oldest brother Cameron, who was a year younger than them, and hot!

"So then who's that little cutie pie?" Alyssa asked, pointing a little girl with brown hair in pigtails and blue eyes.

"My littlest sister Alexa. She was three in that picture, but she's five now. Back then, Alexa had a cold, which is why her nose is red, and every time she sneezed, she'd start flying, so it took forever for Frank to take this picture."

"My dad took this?" Rae asked.

Sage nodded. "It was on my fifteenth birthday and he always visits for my birthday."

_"And yet he missed half of _my_ birthdays," _Rae said in Alyssa's head.

Alyssa shifted uncomfortably.

"Have you asked Sage?" Caty asked Rae.

"Asked her what?"

"What you asked Josh that day at our sleepover."

"Oh…Sage, do you know if my dad was cheating on my mom? With someone from Meridian?"

"I don't think so," Sage said. "If he was, then Mom and Cornelia didn't know, because they would've told Silena."

"Yeah, that's what Josh said too. It's just, I thought the reason my parents got divorced was because my dad was cheating, cuz he would disappear and stuff, but I recently realized he was probably going to Meridian when he would disappear, but that wouldn't make my mother mad unless he was cheating with someone there."

"Maybe your father used Meridian as an escape to get away from your mother and that's what made her mad? Like maybe he was getting tired of her. It's sad to think about, but it happens," Caty said.

"Or maybe she was cheating on him," Ellie suggested.

"My mom was with me 24/7 until I was ten. She'd never leave me alone and she always worked from home and we had playpen in every room so I could be close to her no matter what room was in. My parents said I would cry and scream like crazy if my mom took me out of one playpen to put me in another when I was in the middle of playing with a specific toy."

"That takes overprotoective to a new level," Caty teased.

"Just because she leaves me alone now doesn't mean she's any less overprotective," Rae groaned.

Ellie joined in with everyone's laughter, but was secretly envious. An overprotective mother was better than a cruel one.

"Wait," Alyssa said suddenly, looking back at the picture. "You have three brothers, Cam, Phil, and Shane, and a sister Alexa. I recognize your mom, and I'm guessing that blond guy is your father. So who's that redheaded girl?" Alyssa pointed to a girl with long red hair and green eyes standing behind Elyon.

"That's my cousin Kylie. Not my _official_ cousin, we're not related or anything, but we're close enough. She, Josh, and I were a trio, and we became a foursome when she started dating Cam. She's sixteen like him, and the daughter of my mom's Meridian best friend, who I call Aunt Hallie. Aunt Hallie isn't magical, but she has magical blood, and Kylie inherited the magic, so she would come over to train with my mom while Mom taught Cam and I."

"And she's in the picture because she's like family?" Alyssa asked.

Sage nodded, then bit her lip. "Her father walked out on her when she was two, and her mother died when she was fifteen. She got sick. Kylie started living with us then."

"Wow, that's so sad," Alyssa said.

Rae frowned. "If she was living with you guys, does that mean she was captured too?"

Sage nodded. "She was in the castle when it was stormed."

"Stormed? How exactly was your family captured?" Caty asked.

"The castle was stormed by Kasson himself, his magical family members, Cassandra, her magical family members, their children, including Piper, and all of Kasson and Cassandra's followers, magical and non-magical alike. I wish I was there to help. It overwhelmed my family."

"If the attack overwhelmed the queen of Meridian and her magical children, then it's probably better you weren't there," Caty said. "I don't see what you could've done."

Alyssa cringed. "Caty, has anyone told you that you're really blunt?"

"What she means is," Rae said, "we're glad you weren't there because we wouldn't want the entire royal family to get captured. Plus we like that you're here to help us out and we love that you're our friend."

Caty's eyes widened. "Oh yeah, that's totally want I meant!" she assured the princess.

Sage smiled. "I know, don't worry about it."

"How powerful is Kylie?" Alyssa wondered..

"Almost as powerful as me. I'd say in a couple of years, she'd surpass my mother anyway."

RACE exchanged worried looks. This was a wild card they didn't expect. There was a line in the prophecy ('They shall be betrayed by one who they call friend') that talked about betrayal. Sure GRACE didn't know Kylie personally, but Sage and Josh did, which made her their ally. And Angel's insistance that she pledges her allegiance to Queen Elyon, as if she was _waiting_ for Elyon to switch sides, wasn't very encouraging either.

At that moment, the bell rang.

"That's Jake!" Rae cried. "Put that stuff away and no more mention of the guardians!"

"As if we need to be reminded," Caty scoffed as Alyssa and Sage stacked the albums and journals in the empty shelf of the living room bookshelf.

Rae rushed to open the door and invited Jake in. He was the only person outside of Team GRACE who was invited, considering Alyssa didn't have any friends before GRACE. She considered inviting Adam, but decided she was still weary of him. She also asked Caty if it was okay to invite Nina and Misha, but Caty said the three of them were still fighting and Alyssa didn't want any tension.

"Hey Lyssa, happy birthday!" Jake greeted, surprising her by giving her a hug. When he pulled away, he handed her his present.

"Thanks," Alyssa smiled, putting it on the coffee table where Caty, Ellie, Rae, and Sage put their presents.

"So who else is coming?" Jake asked.

"Uh, let's see…Gabi, Josh, James, and Chris and Cara Lyndon," Alyssa listed.

"So the rest of The Basement Gang," Jake noted, using the nickname he used for Team GRACE.

"Flattering name sweetie," Rae said dryly. "Really."

"Well what would you rather I call you guys?" Jake challenged. "The Secret Keepers? Oh, or what about 'Snoop in Random People's Houses but Don't Tell the Guy Who Got You Into Said House What You're Looking For or What You Found Club?"

"That's a little long," Ellie giggled.

"Who's the blunt one again?" Caty asked at the same time.

"Still you," Alyssa teased.

Caty rolled her eyes and turned to Jake. "I told you already Jake, Lainey's not a random person. We may not know her, but we know her mother."

"How?"

"She and Alyssa's mom were best friends."

"But she didn't know you. And I hated being party to telling her upsetting news like the fact that Josh's uncle and Alyssa's grandfather are dead."

"Uh, that's Josh's grandfather and Alyssa's uncle," Rae corrected. "And considering you didn't actually say anything, you weren't really party to that."

"You know when else I didn't say anything? When you and Ellie went to go root through Lainey's stuff."

"Actually, we rooted through Irma and Joel's stuff," Ellie said.

"Which is probably worse. They invited you into their home and cooked you lunch and you repaid them by upsetting them, spying on them, and stealing their stuff. And that's something I _was_ party to!"

"If I knew you were gonna start a fight Jake, I wouldn't have invited you," Alyssa cut in. "My birthday, no fighting, no tension."

"You should probably tell that to Chris," Ellie said.

"For one day El, can you put your hatred of Chris aside? For me?" Alyssa begged.

Ellie, Rae, Caty, and even Sage exchanged looks.

"Not exactly what I meant," Ellie said so that Alyssa wouldn't hear.

Suddenly, there was a crash from outside.

"What was that?" Ellie asked as Caty jumped.

"That would be Gabi, destroying my yard," Alyssa sighed.

"She drove to your house?" Caty asked. "She lives on the other end of the street. Seriously, how lazy can you get?"

"Harvey drove me," Rae said.

"Well your mom is neurotic. Gabi's dad doesn't care if she walks home in the dark."

"And you're _not_ the blunt one?" Alyssa asked as the doorbell rang.

Caty glared at her.

"I'll get it!" Ellie cried excitedly, like a little kid. She ran to the door and opened it. Gabi and Josh walked in.

"So this is the inside of Classless-a's house," Gabi said. "Not bad."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Alyssa said dryly. "Thanks," she added as the two handed her their gifts.

"So where's your boyfriend?" Gabi asked.

"He's coming with Chris and Cara," Alyssa said. Then she lowered her voice. "He really wanted to learn archery so he's been training with Cara."

Gabi nodded. "Maybe I should too," she replied softly. "Useful skill and all."

Alyssa nodded and led the Earth guardian and Rebel second-in-command to her living room, putting their gifts on the now overflowing coffee table.

Josh and Jake nodded at each other. Their friendship had been on the rocks since Jake and Rae became official. Rae finally picked up on Josh's crush on her and was very careful not to talk about her first date with Jake (which is pretty much _all_ Rae had been talking about for the whole weekend) when Josh was around.

"Gabi, where's the stuff we got at Irma's? I thought we were going to look at it tonight?" Ellie asked the Earth guardian softly. "After Jake leaves?"

"I had to hide it Luc's room because I've started to notice Eva's been snooping in my room. But Luc wasn't home when Josh and I left, and he always locks his door from the inside before he goes anywhere so I couldn't get in. I don't understand it. He needs to use a screwdriver to unlock the door and get back in."

"That's an odd habit," Caty said.

"I know. And he won't tell me _why_ he does that. It's the one secret between us. Well, that and GRACE."

"Why does he think Eva keeps calling you a witch?" Alyssa asked, joining the conversation.

"He has no clue what's going on. Dad and Sienna are scared. At first they thought she was playing a game or something, but now I think they think she's on the verge of a mental break."

"And that makes you gleeful? You're a terrible older sister!" Ellie said, but she was half laughing. By this point, everyone knew Gabi was a great sister to Luc, but only Caty, who'd been to Gabi's house several times already, had ever seen it.

"We should make that potion for her," Alyssa said. "You know, the one Josh was talking about that makes people forget? So far it's been okay. James joined the team when he found out. Caty says Lili can be trusted. Jason doesn't want to forget. But Eva…we were worried about what her knowledge could do to us, but now it seems like she could get herself into trouble."

"Don't you think Josh and I talked about that?" Gabi snapped. "He doesn't know how to make it and no one wants to be the one to ask your mom."

"Then I'll ask her. She said I can't be a guardian anymore. She can't honestly think that you guys would stop talking to me about GRACE though," Alyssa said.

"Fine. Do that," Gabi said. "I need a drink." She walked into the kitchen.

Caty frowned and followed her. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Gabi grabbed a sprite from the drink cooler. "Not really."

"What's wrong?"

Gabi told her about what happened with Josh that morning. "Now of course that was just my way of getting Lana and Kelli off my back, but I'm still _really_ into Josh so…"

"You liked it," Caty finished.

"A lot. And I thought that he liked it too."

"How do you know he didn't?"

"Caty, when I kiss a guy, they can barely look at me after. The guys who know I only kissed them for fun to lead them on, the guys who know they don't have a chance in hell with me…well they almost shrivel up when I look their way again. And guys like Josh, guys I would actually date…they still get all nervous and blushy when I look at them. But Josh…he looks straight at me, cool as a cucumber. He doesn't care. He didn't like it."

"I don't think that's true. Maybe you don't have that effect on _all _guys. Like Jake…he didn't act that way."

"We were already dating the first time we kissed. That's different."

"Have you thought about talking to him about it?"

"That's super tacky," Gabi replied, wrinkling her nose.

Caty rolled her eyes and shrugged. Then she frowned. "Wait, you kiss guys just to lead them on?"

"Not anymore," Gabi defended, then realized Caty was disgusted, but in awe.

"I can't believe you can kiss any guy whenever you want while I can't even talk to one I don't like!" she cried.

"You've been doing really well," Gabi said.

"Because you're telling me what to say. One day, I'm gonna be in a situation where I can't reach you. Probably during a date, if he ever gets the courage to ask me out again, and then where will I be?"

"Then start small and work your way up," Gabi advised.

"What?"

"From tomorrow, I'm going to help you less and less until you can have a proper conversation with Brian all on your own. You'll feel a lot better when you don't need to rely on me anymore."

"Do you seriously not remember how it went the last time I tried to flirt with him on my own?"

"How could I forget?" Gabi laughed. "But you know, you don't need words to flirt. I could teach you my look."

"Your…what?"

"There's this great sultry, sexy look I use to get shy guys to blush and confident guys to walk up to me and ask for a date without any pleasantries at all. It works like a charm. I'll teach you the look. It's really simple. You just need to let the eye movement down. Then you can let the clothes and the make-up do all the work for you."

"I don't know if I'm comfortable doing that."

"You say that about everything I tell you to do."

"Because you make me do things I don't want to do."

"Well it's working isn't it?" Gabi challenged.

Caty opened her mouth to argue before realizing she was right. She sighed. "Fine," she relented.

Gabi smirked.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"But I think if Trey switches positions with Axton, the team will do much better. Trey doesn't care what position he plays, so he'll be fine with shooting guard, and Axton wanted point guard in the first place," Jake was saying. "I don't know why Coach didn't give him that spot in the first place."

"Uh huh, yeah," Josh replied, shooting Rae, who was across the room with Alyssa, Ellie, and Sage a 'Help!' look.

Rae just giggled and turned back to the girls. Her way of saying, 'You're on your own.'

Josh bit the inside of his cheek, a nervous habit of his. He loved basketball, he really did. And he was good at it. But whenever any member of the team wanted to talk basketball with him, he avoided it because he still didn't understand the game. All he knew was, you pass the ball to your teammates, you try to get it into the net, and you can't pick up the ball and run-you have to bounce it. It took him this long to learn that running with the ball was called travelling and bouncing it was called dribbling.

He couldn't believe that after all his careful avoidance and all his satisfying bullshit responses, Jake had caught him in an honest to goodness basketball conversation. Josh knew he had to change the subject and fast. Looking up, he saw Caty and Gabi in the kitchen and had an idea. He had to talk about this with somebody anyway.

"So, when you kissed Gabi-" he started before Jake interrupted him.

"Really? You want to have this conversation?"

"I just need help."

"Help with what? Are you telling me you want to kiss my ex?"

"I'm telling you she kissed me this morning. Actually, we full on made out. It wasn't real or anything. She kissed me as a cover."

"A cover for what?"

Josh tried to explain the story as best as he could. He still didn't fully understand, but Jake seemed to.

"Okay, so then it probably didn't mean anything."

"But I _thought_ she liked me," Josh complained.

"Wait, did you _want_ it to mean something?"

"I…I don't know. I just…how can she just kiss me and act like it was no big deal?"

"That's just Gabi," Jake said. "Anyway, even if she does like you, she wouldn't go after you because of Sage."

"What about Sage?"

Jake paused. Josh didn't know Sage liked him? What was he supposed to say now?

"Uh, you know, because, um…because Sage doesn't want Gabi to date you?"

"Since when does she get to decide who I can and can't date?" Josh muttered.

"Um…"

"You know come to think about it, Gabi told Lana and Kelli the reason she was hiding behind the counter was because she didn't want _Sage_ to see her kiss me. And after it happened, she called Sage to tell her about it. When I asked why, she said it was so Lana and Kelli won't tell Sage to try and turn her against Gabi. I didn't really see why it would upset Sage but…"

Jake sighed. This was a mess. Now Josh thought his best friend wanted to dictate his life.

"I think you should analyze how you feel about Gabi. If you do like her, Sage isn't gonna stand in the way of that. And if you don't…well then there's no problem."

"But why would Sage not want me to date Gabi?"

"I don't know!" Jake cried, wishing he could have any conversation besides this one.

Josh seemed to have gone back to the kiss. "Maybe I wasn't a good kisser."

"I think we're done with this conversation," Jake said.

"What if she did like me and then she didn't like the kiss so now she doesn't like me?"

"Do you want her to like you?"

"I don't know!"

"Did you like the kiss?" Jake sighed.

"I…yeah."

"I think you have your answer then."

Josh sighed and looked at Gabi. He had his answer. But he didn't like it one bit.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Fifteen minutes later, Rae went over to the boys to see what they were talking so intently about.

Jake looked at the glass in her hand, which was empty except for ice.

"Refill?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. Um-"

"Coke, I know," Jake finished for her. "You never drink anything else."

Rae gave him a quick peck on the cheek, even though Josh was right in front of her. "Thanks."

When Jake was out of earshot, Josh looked at Rae urgently. "So did you talk to Chris?"

"Yeah."

"And…?"

"And he said he won't tell, but he's not happy about it."

"Funny how his happiness doesn't really concern me," Josh replied, making Rae roll her eyes.

"You know Josh, I happen to actually like Chris and I didn't love having him mad at me. He doesn't get why Alyssa's best friend won't tell her."

"He doesn't need to get it. It isn't the right time."

"And when is the right time? Are you ever going to tell her?"

"Depends."

"On…?"

"On if I need to or not."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means it's my secret and I'll decide when to tell her."

Rae groaned in frustration as Jake came back and handed her the now full cup. Josh walked away.

"What's wrong?" Jake asked.

"Nothing. Just…Josh really know how to pick a fight, you know?"

"Oh trust me, I know. All too well."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Chris, Cara, and James had just arrived when Ellie gathered the guardians together. Chris and Cara put their presents on the coffee table and went to talk to Sage, understanding the girls were dealing with GRACE business. James walked up to them and gave Alyssa a kiss before handing her his present.

"Thank you," Alyssa said sweetly, "but can you do me a favor? Ellie has something to tell GRACE, and we can tell all of you later in the night, but can you keep Jake busy? He's already really suspicious."

"Sure," James said. He added his present to the ever growing pile on the coffee table, told the Lyndons what was going on, and headed over to Jake. He'd never actually talked to Jake one on one before. In fact, before he and Alyssa became official less than a week ago, he'd never talked to Jake at all. Hopefully his relationship with Jake wouldn't be as odd as the one Josh had with Sheffield's Golden Boy.

"Okay Ellie, what's going on?" Rae asked.

"I just remembered something guys. From that dream I had a week and a half before the Halloween Dance. I didn't say anything about it then because I didn't understand it, and by the time I _could_ understand it, I'd forgotten about it. But anyway…the boy who was talking to Kasson gave him something. Something he stole from Hay Lin. That's why I thought the boy had to be on the team. Not only had he seen our practices, but he had access to Hay Lin's house. And I think Hay Lin would've told us if it's missing, so I don't think she knows it's gone."

"What did he give Kasson?" Caty asked.

"A book. Kasson said the pages were blank, but the boy said the words would appear with the power of a Heart. Any Heart. And Kasson captured Elyon and she's the Heart of Meridian, so her power can reveal the words."

"Why is this book so important?" Gabi asked.

"From what I can remember from the dream, I think the book has The Thousand Year Prophecy written in it. Kasson and the boy seemed to think it was an advantage to have the prophecy before us."

"Why would that be an advantage?" Alyssa asked.

"It wouldn't," Rae said. "The advantage isn't _knowing_ the prophecy before us. It's _deciphering_ it before us."

"Do you think Kasson can do that?" Caty asked.

"I don't know," Alyssa said. "If we were right in our theories, then Kasson is part of the prophecy. Will he figure that out?"

"Will he figure out that the prophecy says he needs to help us? Doubtful," Gabi said.

"Even so, this is important," Rae said. "If this boy handed Kasson a blank _book_, then it must hold more than just the prophecy. We need to talk to Hay Lin, and tell her that it's missing so she can tell us what else is in the book."

The girls all nodded.

"Should we call her now?" Alyssa asked.

"Hay Lin is out of town remember? That's why we didn't have guardian training today. She and Eric went to some restaurant convention," Gabi said. "They'll be back tomorrow. We can ask her at guardian training."

"Anyway, we should have one night where we can just enjoy ourselves," Ellie said,

The other girls agreed and headed back to the rest of the group, ready to start the party.

"So what exactly are we doing Classless-a?" Gabi asked, her tone mocking. "I've always wanted to see what kind of party a loser throws."

"Funny, I've never wanted to see what kind of party a cheerleader throws," Alyssa taunted back.

"Remind me, who was it that said she didn't want any _tension_ at her party?" Caty teased.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright. I invited everyone because you're all important to me. I haven't actually had friends for a really long time and now I'm really happy that I have so many, even if it was the strangest of circumstances that brought some of us together. After all, I never thought my group of friends would be a rebooted version of The Breakfast Club."

Everyone laughed at that, especially Gabi and Rae, who appreciated it the most.

"I'm turning seventeen today. Actually, since it's 6:47, I'm already seventeen. I was born at 6:36pm. And I didn't really plan anything. We can pretty much do whatever we want. I just wanted to celebrate with all the people who have added something to my life and made me happier. Not to be all mushy or anything. My parents are arriving with the food at 7:30, so why don't we play a game while we're waiting."

"Let's play Full Disclosure!" Gabi suggested.

"No!" RACE cried together.

"Everyone here already played that game, except Jake. It was stupid," Josh said.

"Only because none of you did it right. I mean, what kind of secret is 'I am addicted to chocolate.'"

"A true one," Cara said, since it was her secret.

"It's not a _real_ secret. You're addicted to chocolate? So what? So is everyone!" Gabi cried.

"Wait, what's Full Disclosure?" Jake asked.

"A _really_ stupid game," Rae assured him, taking his hand.

"And this is a _really_ stupid party," Gabi said.

"No one's making you stay," Rae said.

"Tension," Alyssa mumbled.

"Okay, new rule. From now on Gabi, you only talk when you can improve the silence," Ellie said, making everyone laugh.

In the end, the group ended up playing charades. Gabi called the game 'lame, childish, dumb, and, oh since we have an odd number of people, unfair.'

"Gabi. You. Silence. Not improving," Ellie said.

Gabi glared at the air guardian, but shut up. Alyssa decided to play on both teams. In the end, they had so much fun that they finished dinner as fast as they could so they could continue the game.

At 9:30, John went up to bed and Taranee was called away for some emergency judge thing. Nigel went with her. Alyssa knew her parents would want her to wait for them before they lit the candles for the cake, but by 10:30, no one could wait any longer.

Rae and Chris used 17 orange candles to make a big 'A' on the cake, and put one next to it for good luck.

"Isn't it funny how if Alyssa still had her powers, she'd be the one lighting her own candles?" Rae said as she lit each one with a lighter.

"We'll get them back for her," Chris said.

"Yeah? Do you have a plan?"

"No…but I'll think of something."

Rae rolled her eyes, but let a hopeful smile spread across her face as she called for everyone to gather around. Alyssa blew out her candles, everyone sang, even though Gabi rolled her eyes through the whole thing.

For a few minutes, everyone sat around eating cake. It was amazing. Taranee made it herself and she was an excellent cook. The cake was a double layer chocolate cake with whipped cream and strawberries between the two layers and buttercream frosting on top. Everyone went back for seconds and thirds.

"I don't think my mom expected the cake to go so fast," Alyssa joked as the boys, who were still hungry after a third piece, went back for fourths.

"We're done now," Jake promised. He, Josh, and Chris went to go sit down by the others. James was still taking his fourth piece.

Alyssa opened one of the cabinets to take out the cake lid to preserve the rest of it. She grabbed the cake lid and piece of paper came flying out.

Curious, Alyssa placed the lid on the counter and grabbed the paper. It looked like a letter; she didn't recognize the handwriting, but it was addressed to Taranee.

Before GRACE, Alyssa would've put the letter away immediately because reading other people's letters was wrong. But after being a part of GRACE, hearing about a dream that suggested there was a traitor in their midst, reading a prophecy that suggested one of their friends would turn on them, and snooping and stealing from a person they only knew _of_, she didn't think anything of reading the letter.

James placed the lid over the cake and looked at Alyssa curiously.

"What's that?"

"A letter written to my mom, six years ago _today_. But I think it's unpleasant. The person wrote 'Taranee' at the top instead of like, 'Dear Taranee.'"

"What does it say?"

"Let's see."

Alyssa put it on the island, poured herself a glass of water, and the two looked at the letter.

**November 9****th**** 2005**

**Taranee,**

** For the last name, I do **_**not**_** care how sorry you are! You cheated on your husband with mine and I will never forgive you for that. I don't know how you can live with yourself, especially since you are passing off the daughter you had with my husband as your husband's. She's eleven today. Are you ever going to tell him? Or her? How do you live with the fact that you **_**erased**_** her memories of her brother? Josh is heartbroken and doesn't understand why his father would ever do this. My son has to go through this because of you! We're all paying for your mistake. You ruined my family. I hope you're happy. And I hope I never see you again.**

**-Cornelia**

James looked at Alyssa in shock. Alyssa didn't look up from the letter.

What? Her mother…cheated on her father…with Caleb. She wasn't Nigel's daughter. She was Caleb's. And that made Josh her…brother.

Alyssa looked over to where Josh-her _brother_-was sitting. No way. This wasn't possible. How did that even make sense? Her eyes were just like Nigel's. No one in Caleb's family had eyes like that.

But then…

That explained why Josh knew her so well after just a couple of months. How they got along so well. How they talked to each other so easily.

Josh always acted like her knew her mother. He always seemed to be keeping secrets. He always wanted to be with her and protect her. He acted _so_ brotherly with her. And then there was that conversation in the library a couple weeks ago. She was having a hard time reaching a book, so Josh, being so tall, got it for her and he used that nickname.

_"Here Aly."_

_ "Thanks. How do you know that name?"_

_ "What?"_

_ "You just called me Aly. That's an old nickname of mine. I'm not even sure who used it anymore, but it was from so long ago. How do you know it?"_

_ "I don't. I called you Alyssa."_

_ "No you didn't. You called me Aly."_

_ "I have no idea what you're talking about."_

_ "Really, no idea? Even though you said it so easily, as if you knew me my entire life or something?"_

He knew. He _knew_ this entire time and he _lied_ about it.

_"I do not recall this…_Alyssa."

And she let it go. But he _lied_. She must've seemed like a fool!

She dropped the glass she was holding in shock.

Everyone looked up at the noise.

"Lyssa, you okay?" Josh asked as he and the GRACE girls stood up.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice hard.

"What?"

"Who are you?" she repeated, her voice louder this time.

It was clear she was talking to Josh, but no one moved a muscle, wondering what was going on.

"Well? Are you deaf? Answer me!" Alyssa shrieked.

"What are you talking about?" Josh asked weakly, desperately trying to calm his sister down. "I'm Josh!"

It took Rae a split second to understand what was happening. "Josh!" she gasped out, trying to warn him.

"Ohhh," Gabi moaned, sinking to the floor.

"Gabi, are you-oh!" Caty gasped, joining the Earth guardian.

"No! I want you to admit it!" Alyssa screamed, her anger rising.

Ellie and Rae moaned, sinking to the floor. Their hearts were beating out of their chest, their ears were ringing, and their blood was boiling. They felt unimaginable rage and pain.

"Rae! Are you alright?" Jake asked, immediately rushing to her side. She didn't answer. She couldn't.

"What…what's happening?" Ellie managed.

"She's angry. And hurt. It's an emotional link," Rae said brokenly.

"Alyssa, please stop!" Caty begged.

Alyssa looked back at them, then took a deep breath. Immediately the pain lessened. The girls managed to sit up.

"Admit _what_?" Josh asked, but it was clear he now realized what Alyssa was getting at. He needed to steer her off track. He couldn't do this now. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"_Stop lying to me!"_ Alyssa shrieked.

Immediately the room got about forty degrees hotter. Gabi noticed it first. Being the Earth guardian, she was sensitive to changes in her environment.

"Is it me or is it hotter in here?" she asked.

Caty tried to answer, but choked on the heat.

"Do…something," Ellie begged the water guardian.

Caty wanted to ask what she could do, but couldn't speak. Then she realized if the fire guardian could make things hotter, the water guardian should be able to cool things down. But she didn't know how to do that.

Alyssa seemed fine. She probably thrived on heat. Everyone else was already sweating. She needed to do something.

Caty concentrated and tried to think of cold weather and snow. Ice skating, skiing, snowboarding. Winter Olympics. Snow angels and snowball fights and forts.

It was working. She could feel it cooling down a little. She kept going.

Ice water, the Himalaya Mountains, big, puffy coats. Vermont, Switzerland, Aspen.

It was getting even better! She thought and concentrated harder.

New Zealand, getting snowed in, shivering. First snow of the year. Frost. Snowmen. Snowflakes. Sleigh rides and hail storms. Snow days and Christmas vacation.

"Ahh," Ellie sighed. The temperature in the room was back to normal.

"Nice job Ice Queen," Gabi whispered jokingly, and Caty smiled, despite the situation.

"Alyssa, just calm down," Josh begged.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Alyssa yelled. "You _hid_ this from me. You knew this whole time and you stood there and _lied_ to me!"

"What the hell's going on?" Jake asked, looking from his girlfriend to James to the other guardians to where Sage and Lyndons sat, looking extremely uncomfortable. It seemed everyone knew what was going on _but_ him.

"You'll see," James sighed. He looked at the letter again and couldn't help but feel angry at Taranee and Josh. How could they have kept this from Alyssa? Didn't they think about how she'd feel when she found out? Or was it their goal to keep it from her forever? Clearly Josh was still trying to avoid this.

"You lied to me that day when you told me you didn't call me Aly. You lied to me when you told me you didn't know my mother. You lied to me about _everything_!" Alyssa cried.

"Not again," Caty moaned as the emotional link started up again.

Suddenly, the temperature dropped forty degrees. It didn't help that winds started up everywhere.

"Cold Caty!" Gabi cried.

"Ellie!" Rae complained.

"I'm sorry! This is what happens when I'm angry."

Rae understood. Alyssa's emotional link flared up rage in the others, and their powers were out of whack. As if it wasn't bad enough that the winds were blasting, causing papers, napkins, plates, and cups to fly around, Gabi's telekinesis started up, lifting heavier things like soda cans, books, and utensils. In the next minute, electricity crackled around Rae's hands.

"Whoa!" Jake cried, inching away from her.

"We have to break the connection!" Gabi yelled over the winds that were getting louder.

"Alyssa!" Caty screamed, but it was useless.

Chris got up, let out a yell, and turned into Shagon. Jake let out a yell too, of terror. Shagon blasted a laser between Alyssa and Josh. Alyssa took another deep breath and the temperature rose again. The winds stopped, the flying objects set themselves down, and the electricity disappeared. Shagon turned back into Chris.

Everyone in the room let out sighs of relief. Alyssa however, was still in a rage.

"You just stood there and pretended to be my friend and lied _right to my face_! I'm your…your…"

"Sister," Josh finished. "Yeah. You're my sister."

Alyssa just stared at him, not knowing what to say now that he admitted it.

"Lyssa? Please say something," Josh begged.

"You lied to me," she repeated weakly. "You're my…my…"

"Brother," Josh supplied. A smile played on his lips. "It's not a bad word Lyssa."

"Stop that! Stop smiling!" Alyssa screamed. "So what, you knew about my mother and your father?"

"Yeah."

"And you knew me before this GRACE stuff?"

"Yes."

"Why don't I remember it?"

"Alyssa, there's a reason I didn't tell you-"

"Shut _up_! Will you just _answer my questions_? Can you do that? Can you, for _once,_ since you got here, _just be freaking HONEST_!"

Gabi stood up, unable to see Josh being yelled at.

"Calm down Classless-a and lose Bitchcroft!" she snapped. "This is _not_ Josh's fault!"

Alyssa turned to her, a confused look on her face. Then, realization set in. "You knew," she said softly. Then she turned back to Josh, angrier than before. "_She knew_?!_ She knew who you were and I didn't_?!"

"Yeah, I knew," Gabi said, still trying to protect Josh. "But so what? This doesn't change anything. You're still Alyssa, he's still Josh. You were always related. The only difference is that now, you know about it."

Alyssa just stared at her, so Gabi kept going. Maybe she getting through to her.

"You should be happy you have an older brother. I miss mine like crazy. Yours is right in front of you."

Alyssa kept quiet.

"I know he kept it from you, but at least you know now. You've been kept out of the loop long enough. Now you know too."

"_Too_? _What_ loop?" Alyssa asked, angry again. Gabi realized her mistake. Why did she say that?

"Nice job Gabs," Caty muttered.

"Who else? Who else knew?"

"Hay Lin knew. And Eric. And my family and your mom," Josh began listing.

"Shut up, you know that's not what I mean. Who _in this room_ knew?"

She looked around. Caty, not really wanting to speak, raised her hand. Ellie followed suit. She turned around to see Sage, Chris, and Cara give her an answer by not meeting her gaze. James shrugged, and Jake looked confused, so Alyssa's eyes landed on Rae. She looked away.

"You knew too," Alyssa said softly.

"Yeah. But…I _wanted_ tell you," Rae said desperately.

"So you all knew."

"Alyssa, I _couldn't_ tell you," Josh plead.

"But you could tell everyone else?" she screamed.

"Lyssa, please-"

"Shut up Josh! I _never_ want to see you again.

"Alyssa, you don't mean-"

"_Yes I do_! I don't want to see any of you again. Every single one of you knew. You all had _every _opportunity to tell me and _none_ of you said a word. What kind of friends are you? What kind of _people_ are you?"

"I wanted to tell you Lyss, really," Chris begged. "Rae said I shouldn't."

Alyssa turned to Rae who stiffened, and immediately pointed at Ellie. It wasn't very leader-like to point fingers, but in actuality, it _was_ Ellie's idea.

"Ellie told me to tell Chris not to," she said.

"I didn't want you to get hurt," Ellie said meekly.

"Well, you saw how that worked out didn't you?" Alyssa said sarcastically.

"Cut the bitchitude Classless-a," Gabi snapped. That was the wrong thing to say.

"I'm done with all of you," Alyssa said, her voice deceptively calm. "From now on, we don't associate, we don't talk, we don't even look at each other."

"But…what about GRACE?" Ellie asked.

"Not my problem."

"What about our friendship?" Caty asked.

"What friendship?" Alyssa replied coldly.

"Alyssa, no. We're best friends," Rae begged, tears streaming down her face.

"You just proved to me that was never true."

"Aly, come on," Josh tried the old nickname.

Alyssa's anger flared up again. "Get out of my house all of you!" she screamed.

"Alyssa-" Josh tried one more time.

"GET OUT!"

Everyone got up, grabbed their stuff, and filed out. Alyssa grabbed James' arm and held him back. He was the only one that didn't know. Didn't keep secrets. Didn't lie or betray her.

When Cara, the last person out the door, shut it after her, Alyssa collapsed into James' arms and cried like she'd never cried before.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Guys, that was intense," Ellie said, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"So our plan to keep it from her worked," Chris bit out angrily. He glared at Ellie. He should've known it was her idea.

Josh sighed and rubbed his face miserably. Sage took his hand comfortingly. Rae cried silently. Everyone else looked haunted.

"Not to steal attention away from this whole revelation, but someone want to tell me what was with Chris turning into an angel, things flying around the room, and the electricity around my girlfriend's hands?" Jake broke in suddenly.

Everyone looked at him, forgetting for a moment he wasn't part of Team GRACE.

They all looked at each other for several moments, not knowing what to do. It was Cara who finally broke the silence.

"Uh oh."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The brown haired boy sighed as it started to storm. Why it was always storming in this world, he didn't know. All he knew was, his father loved sending him on the days it was raining.

He went up to the cages nervously. He didn't like being near all that power. He was the oldest girl they'd captured when they invaded the Meridian palace. As he went over to the teenage girl he'd grown fond of, the blond haired woman, once a powerful queen, growled protectively.

The boy opened the cage to let the girl out. She crawled out, stood up, and gave him a small smile, not wanting the woman or her brothers to see. They weren't supposed to be friends.

The boy led her to the edge of a cliff where they wouldn't be seen where his sister was supposed to be waiting.

"She's late?" the girl asked, her eyebrows raised. "She wants to take my power and she's _late_?"

The boy chuckled. "Sometimes she'd a real brat. But we let it go. Mom's not nice to her."

"And so you make allowances wherever you can? That really doesn't sound like you Dean."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"You're usually a jerk," the girl said.

"I'm not a jerk to you Kylie," Dean replied, making Kylie roll her eyes.

"Are you ever gonna tell me your real name?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Why are you sure Dean isn't my real name?"

"Because you hesitated before you told me your name when I asked," Kylie said.

"Well, aren't you smart?"

"You better believe it!"

The pair laughed and sat down as they waited.

Dean wondered how he developed a friendship with the girl next to him. Just a few months ago, his father, Prince Kasson of Eldantia, had his family and his army storm the palace of Queen Elyon of Meridian, who used to be a good friend of his father's. They captured the entire family; Elyon, her husband Drake, and their three sons and two daughters. Kylie was the oldest child, and the most powerful so Dean's sister, Piper, had been using her own special gift of syphoning magic to take Kylie's powers. Piper had to do this every month because the power returned to Kylie every 30 days.

The cages the Meridian royalty was kept in blocked magic, and so did the braces they were forced to wear on their arms and legs. Dean felt an immediate attraction to Kylie and took her out of the cage the very first day they were captured.

At first, Kylie was extremely rude, struggling in his grasp and spitting on him or biting him every chance she got. But after a week or so, she calmed down and the two actually had a conversation. A very awkward, angry conversation, but a conversation just the same. And somehow, that gave way to a friendship.

Dean had never found someone he could be so honest with. He didn't have very many friends back in Eldantia. Because of the way he and his siblings were always bullied by one parent of the other, it was always them against the world, something none of the other children in Eldantia wanted to mess with. To them, the Durange siblings had each other, and that was enough. So when Dean became friends with Kylie, he finally had someone outside of his family to talk to. And Kylie, who never felt like she really fit in with the people she lived with, talked to Dean just as honestly as he did with her. It was a strange but strong friendship.

Of course Kylie hated when Piper stole her magic. Not only did it make her feel powerless, but while Piper touched her, it hurt like hell. But she dealt with it because she had a feeling Dean's wasn't as into the capture as the rest of his family was. Maybe eventually, he'd let them go and help them take Meridian back. So she was going to hold out until that day.

Piper finally met them at the cliff, stopping the conversation Kylie and Dean were in the middle of. Kylie stood and held her hands out for Piper to take. The faster she got this over with, the faster the pain would subside.

Piper took Kylie's hands and Kylie began to shake and cry out in pain as she had before. Dean looked away, unable to watch. His mother always thought Piper's powers were disgraceful, but he always thought she could do more damage than any of them. While Piper touched a magician or sorcerer, they were in indescribable pain and could not break free. And while he always saw the advantages of that before, he couldn't take it when Kylie was the one writhing and screaming in pain.

He couldn't take any of it. Piper's syphoning was only the beginning. He didn't like confining his first and only friend in a cage. He didn't like making her feel powerless, feeding her morsels, only letting her drink water when she was the brink of chronic dehydration. She was so beautiful and strong when they first captured her and she put up one hell of a fight. He was disgusted at himself that he took part in bringing down a girl like that. He couldn't do for much longer.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Whew, that was kind of intense! So what did you think? Because of the intensity of this chapter, the next chapter is going to mostly fun, save for the serious air it'll have since Alyssa's fighting with pretty much everyone. **

**Big things I want to point out:**

**It was not my intention to have Jake find out, but while I wrote out the scene, I realized even in my head, he was there was for this; I just never thought about it. Up til the first temperature change, I could've gotten away with it, but the second emotional link was too much to ignore, so I just threw caution away and had Chris change into Shagon. But don't worry, it won't be so easy for him to get an actual answer about what he saw.**

**I wanted to put the letter in fancy cursive, but that wouldn't show up on fanfiction, so I just bolded it.**

**The conversation where Josh uses the name Aly was supposed to be in a previous chapter and Alyssa was supposed to remember it in chunks in this chapter, but I forgot to put it in, so I had to explain the back story and do it the way I did it here.**

**But anyway, I did my best. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Review!**


	25. Aftermath of a Secret

**A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you for all the reviews on chapter 23. This chapter is a lot like chapter 10 in that it barely deals with the guardians except for one part in the middle. It's mainly day to day stuff since the girls now have to deal with Jake knows about GRACE and Alyssa being mad at all of them. I hope you enjoy.**

**And yes, I did change all the chapter names. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while, and I might change some of them again, or change some of the ones that I didn't change, but don't worry; it's only the names that changed, not the content.**

**Anyway, here are your shout outs!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: Yes, on a whim! No, I'm totally kidding. I changed them because I've always wanted to. I never liked the old names, as you well know. I didn't want them to have a completely cute first kiss like Rae/Jake and Alyssa/James cuz it's overdone in this story, plus I wasn't sure how to end that thing with Lana and Kelli, so that's what I came up with. You'll learn more about the book in this chapter. Don't worry, I have a solution for Jake. I have a big twist with that Dean/Kylie friendship; the kind of twist that's totally me. I'm surprised you're being so responsible with our homework! But you can see I wrote more. And I know you like it!**

**Taylor: I wanted to finally stop the one-sidedness of Gabi and Josh's relationship since my goal right now **_**is**_** to put them together. It was stupid to lie, but they all just wanted to protect Alyssa, and of course, to some extent, themselves. I'm glad you liked the part at the end. I am sorry to say however, that Jake knowing won't last long, as you'll see in this chapter. I'm sorry, but Jake finding out wasn't part of my plans, so I have to rectify the situation. I hope you like the rest of the chapter though! **

**SilvenArrow: Good catch on that. There will be a little more on that this chapter, but the reason he's not happy won't be explained for another few chapters. Unfortunately, I can't tell you if Dean is referenced in the prophecy or not. I will tell you there's a big reveal involving Dean. I hope you like this chapter!**

**Shay: I love Josh, I think he's hilarious! He's probably my favorite character, but that could be because he's the one that has the most personality. I feel like most of the others, besides maybe Gabi, are just blobs who say things that are supposed to allude to their personality, but don't really. Characterization is not my strong suit. Neither is being concise. Unfortunately, Jake will not know for long. I didn't want him finding out that early, or in that way, so I'm going to have him forget. I'm sorry! But he will know eventually. He'll find out again. It's just not the right time right now. The part with Dean and Kylie seemed to be a fan favorite. I can't wait to write more about Dean. Hope you like this chapter.**

**Misa: I put Jake and Rae and Alyssa and James together already, so I had to move on to the next couple lol. I don't about soon, but it'll definitely get fixed. Slowly though. Alyssa won't forgive everyone at once. Jake actually won't know for long. He wasn't supposed to find out yet, so he'll forget, then find out again at a later time. I'm glad you liked the Kylie and Dean part. I hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: I'll admit, Josh and Gabi will be slow going, but it'll get there. I'm still considering putting Gabi with Jake. Don't be fooled with what it looks like now. This story still has a long way to go. And yes Jake knows, but he doesn't for long. There are a lot of big reveals surrounding Dean and Kylie, so stay tuned for that. Hope you like this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Hey Misha! Wait up!" Brian called Monday morning after the first bell rang.

Misha stopped in the hallway and turned around, waiting for Brian to catch up. Once he did, she continued on her way to her locker.

"What do you want?" she asked, clearly uninterested. While Nina was always sweet to him, Misha barely gave Brian the time of day. Brian chose not to let it embarrass him.

"I need your help with Caty," Brian said.

"My help?" Misha asked, opening her locker and grabbing the books she needed.

"Yeah. You're best friends with her. We went to the dance together, but she hasn't really talked to me since then."

"She talks to you every day."

"But not about anything important. We don't tell each other anything. She's just sort of flirty."

"And…?"

"I want to get closer to her. The way she is with Tony."

Misha didn't say anything. She closed her locker and closed her shoulder bag.

"I thought she was into me, but she spends most of her time with Tony or Jake."

"Then I guess she's not into you," Misha smirked.

Brian's face fell.

Misha started toward the pre-calc classroom. Brian fell into step with her, since they were going to the same place anyway. "I was hoping you could help me change that. You know, give me some advice?"

Misha huffed. His eyes were so hopefully she didn't want to let him down, but she also had to resist the urge to slap him. In the back of her mind, she knew Caty flirting with Brian was _her_ idea, but right now all her brain was saying was why should Brian work so hard to get a girl who was only after him so she could get a good character evaluation?

"Well?" Brian asked.

Misha furrowed her eyebrows in thought, and suddenly she smiled. She had the perfect idea.

"You know what Brian? I think I know just the thing."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Come on Rae, you can't be serious," Josh complained the next morning as he ran to catch up with his girlfriend on their way to calculus.

"Well I am."

"Chris Lyndon turned into an angel, things were flying around, the temperature kept fluxuating, and you expect me to believe that was nothing?"

"Because it _was_ nothing."

"I know what I saw, and what I saw _wasn't_ nothing. This has something to do with The Basement Gang, doesn't it?"

"Jake, in the course of fifteen minutes, I lost my best friend. I don't have time for this, okay?"

"No, it's not okay! Rae, you've kept your secret for long enough. I demand to know what it is."

"Oh, you _demand_, do you?" Rae snarled. "You can't _demand_ anything. I'm your girlfriend Jake, not your puppy."

"That's not what I meant. But as my girlfriend, shouldn't you trust me with whatever secrets you have?"

"I _do_ trust you. That doesn't mean I have to tell you anything. This isn't a game of Full Disclosure."

"I still don't know what that is. What I do know is we're in a relationship, and the name of the game is full disclosure."

"Jake…" Rae stopped, then got an idea. "Okay babe, tell you what. My mind is consumed with what happened with Alyssa yesterday so I really can't do this now. But how about you come over tomorrow afternoon, and I'll explain everything then?"

Jake smiled. "Yeah, okay. Definitely. I don't want to cause you any additional stress!"

Rae smiled back, but instantly felt bad about lying to Jake. He was so sweet to her yesterday. The others looked to Rae when Jake asked about what had happened at Alyssa's house. She was leader, and she got to choose whether or not people got the whole story or not. Besides, Jake was Rae's boyfriend. But Rae was crying too hard to say anything.

Jake put his arm around her and walked with her the ten foot distance from Alyssa's house to Rae's own. He didn't lean in to kiss her. He knew she was upset. But he did give her a hug and Rae didn't let go for a long time. He was happy to give the comfort.

Jake deserved the truth. He'd been so good about not prying until he saw something he couldn't ignore. But Rae had never cared about someone the way she cared about Jake, and the truth would only put him in danger, and she could _not_ risk that. So that meant she had to pay Taranee a visit that afternoon.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"You _kissed_ her?" Rae asked.

"Well, technically, she kissed me," Josh corrected.

"But still, there was a kiss. With Gabi?"

"Yeah."

"But…why did you have to _kiss_ her?" Rae moaned.

"Sorry, I didn't really realize Gabi grabbing me and making out with me would cause you so much distress," Josh said rolling his eyes as Jake joined the pair at their lunch table.

It was an empty table. Ellie was sitting with her own friends, Caty had a meeting of something or the other, and Alyssa was avoiding all of them and spending lunch either in the library or the art studio with James. Josh and Rae took comfort in being with each other, but neither were eager to talk about what happened the previous night, so Josh blurted out the first non-Alyssa related thing he could think of, which just happened to be, 'I made out with Gabi yesterday.'

"I think it's good Lana and Kelli bought it," Jake weighed in.

"Well no one asked you," Rae snapped.

"What's the big deal?" Josh asked.

"The big deal is, it's _Gabi_."

"Who I thought you liked somewhat," Josh said.

"Somewhat being the operative word."

Josh rolled his eyes.

"Did you like it?"

"Well…yeah."

"But why? And I swear to God if you say 'because she's hot' I will electrocute you!"

"Is that something you can do?" Jake asked.

Rae nodded.

Josh sighed. "She _is_ hot, but that's not why I liked the kiss."

"Okay, never mind, I don't want to hear anymore!" Rae cried. "I wonder how Sage feels about this."

"Why does everyone say it's going to have an effect on Sage?" Josh wondered.

"You're kidding, right?"

"…No."

Rae and Jake exchanged looks. Then the raven haired girl sighed. "Okay, look…I really shouldn't be telling you this, but I think I better so no one gets hurt. Sage likes you."

For a minute, Josh just stared at Rae. "What do you mean 'likes'?" he finally asked.

"Like, thinks you're hot-would love to go on a date with you-hates every girl the flirts with you or that you like-wants you to be her boyfriend likes," Rae clarified. As she said this, she wondered if Sage secretly hated her, or if she hadn't picked up on Josh's crush.

Josh just laughed. "You're insane," he said.

"You seriously haven't noticed?" Jake asked.

"You're on this too?" Josh groaned.

"Only because it's true," Rae insisted.

"Sage is my best friend," Josh said. "There's no way-"

"Gabi said you said you used to like her. So if that's true, why is it so hard to believe that she could like you?"

"I just never…do you think she liked me at the same time I liked her? What if we had gone out? We could've had something really special. Now we'll never know!"

"Why can't you go out with her now?" Jake asked.

"Because I don't like her anymore."

"Which means…" Jake prompted, but Josh just gave him a blank look.

Rae sighed. "Josh, what Jake is trying to say is, even if you had gone out with Sage, you guys would've broken up by now since you don't like her anymore. Going out with her wouldn't have changed that."

Josh sighed. "Okay, but now what? I can't go out with anyone as long as she likes me."

"What kind of stupid philosophy is that? Sage wants you to be happy, and if that's with someone else, she'll understand," Rae said.

"But Gabi would never go out with me because Sage is her friend."

"You want to go out with Gabi?" Rae asked.

"I mean, I don't know for sure but-"

"You can't! It's Gabi Shay!"

"Well New Girl, I'm glad you know my name," Gabi said, walking by their table. "Now, who can't do what?"

"Uh…Josh can't…take you on! In a full fight!" Rae covered quickly.

"You got that right. I'd knock you out in two seconds flat," Gabi said haughtily before walking away.

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Wow, nice save," he said sarcastically.

"She bought it, didn't she?" Jake pointed out.

Josh just rolled his eyes, looking up at the cheerleader table. Gabi sat back down at her place between Bree and Sage and smiled at the Meridian princess who gave her a smile back. They were practically best friends! There was no way Gabi would go out with him.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Taranee was surprised to see Rae at the door, but welcomed her in. No matter how much she hated that her daughter's best was friend was the leader of the guardians, she didn't hate Rae. Rae was not only the first friend Alyssa had in over six years, but she was fiercely loyal, which was something Taranee admired. Will was the same way.  
"Rae," she said, stepping aside to Rae could come in. "Alyssa isn't here. She has work today."  
"Oh," Rae said, disappointment evident on her face.  
Taranee frowned. Why was Rae unaware of Alyssa's work schedule?  
"Well, that's okay. I need to talk to you as well."  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah. Um, I know you're reluctant to help out with guardian stuff, but you do have the magical objects and we need one."  
"Which one?" Taranee asked, her tone changing from warm to annoyed.  
"Josh said something about an herb that makes people forget things and we don't seem to be very good at keeping our guardianship a secret."  
Taranee's face betrayed a hint of a smile. "I understand. Come with me."  
Rae followed Taranee into the kitchen. Taranee took out a ziploc bag from the cabinet the Amulet of Aurameres was in before it gained a new place around Taranee's neck. The bag had several stalks of what looked like orange parsley.  
"This is called the Memory Flower," Taranee said, taking out a stalk. "It's really easy to use. All you have to do is grind it into powder, and put a teaspoon in someone's drink. The easiest way to grind it is with a rolling pin. Once you slip in into the drink, wait for them to take a sip. That's all it takes. Then you just have to tell the person what to forget."  
"Really?"  
Taranee nodded. "Like...remember when you saw me talking to the toaster Saturday night? Forget that."  
"But finding out about GRACE-uh, that's we call ourselves; even without Alyssa, we didn't have the heart to change the name-is a bigger memory."  
"That's okay. Just tell the person to forget about GRACE."  
"Well, my boyfriend, Jake…" Rae paused and smiled as she always did when she saw Jake or thought about Jake or even just said his name. "Jake is the person I want to give this Memory Flower to. And I want him to forget about GRACE, but something else sort of important happened at the party that I don't want him to forget, but he only found out about GRACE because of that."  
"That's fine too. You can say, remember when we had our first kiss and the curtains caught on fire? Remember the kiss, but forget the fire."  
"What does that feel like to them? Does the memory of the kiss just last longer or do they have a huge blank in their memory?"  
"The memory of the fire will just disappear as if it never was. Their memories jump from the kiss to the next memory they remember. So if you guys kissed, the curtains caught on fire, and then you kissed him again, he'll only remember the kisses."  
Rae nodded.  
Taranee took out another ziploc bag. "This is already ground Memory Flower. It doesn't expire or go bad, so just keep some of that in a safe place so you'll always have it."  
"Thank you so much. Do you want me to help ground what you have now?"  
"That would be very helpful," Taranee said, taking out two rolling pins and two cutting boards. The two women got to work.  
"Your boyfriend...Jake. Are you in love with him?"  
"We've only been going out a little while," Rae said blushing. "One week exactly. But I think I could fall in love with him. On our first date, we talked about when we first realized we liked each other. We both liked each other for a while before we started going out. I don't think either of us realized it at first. He had a girlfriend and I was determined not to fall for a guy who seemed so perfect." Rae laughed a little. "But I couldn't deny if for long, and he realized as soon as he broke up with his girlfriend he stopped liking her when he met me."  
"It's great to have that," Taranee said. "But be careful. Irma, the old water guardian, Hay Lin, and I all had an extremely difficult time keeping WITCH a secret from our boyfriends. They nearly broke up with us before we told them." "I know. Hay Lin told us. But I don't want him to know. Ellie was attacked a little after midnight Sunday morning."  
"Is she alright?" Taranee gasped.  
Rae nodded, and told her the story, replacing the part where Ellie and Alyssa used telepathy to contact the others with a lie in which Ellie used her cell phone to contact Gabi, who picked up Rae without Alyssa. She also told Taranee the girls explained the guardian thing to Jason after the fight, and didn't mention Alyssa's physical link attack.  
"But I noticed something," Rae said when she finished the story. "The monsters that attacked her and the portal they came out of were in her brother's room. In fact, when Ellie wasn't even home when the monsters first came through the portal. I don't think they were after Ellie. I think they may have been after Jason. As far as I know, Jason has no significance in the life of GRACE except that he's related to a guardian. I think the monsters may be after people close to the guardians, and Jake isn't just close to me. He's friends with all of us...he's a common factor in all our lives. He could be in danger if he knows about us."  
"I understand where you're coming from," Taranee nodded. "I do wonder why it seems like you girls are in so much more danger than we were. We didn't get attacked randomly like Ellie did. None of the attacks we faced and battles we were in at the beginning were senseless. They were all a way for Phobos to complete another part of his ultimate plan, which was to steal Elyon's powers."  
"There's a reason we get attacked randomly. We don't get along well, which is probably why we were so terrible with our powers in the beginning. But we're doing much better in the friendship department now." Rae paused, realizing because of yesterday, that wasn't exactly true, but continued. "And because of that, we're gaining more control and getting more powerful. Our enemies want to wipe us out before we get strong because we're Thousand Year Guardians and-"

"Wait, wait. You're _what_?"

"Oh, uh…" Before Rae knew it, she told Taranee everything. She told her about every battle, every training session, and everything she knew about Thousand Year Guardians and the prophecy, carefully replacing everything that had to do with Alyssa after Taranee took her powers with a lie. It felt good to open up to someone who wasn't directly a part of Team GRACE, but understood the guardian thing.

"We learned a lot from the journals of previous Thousand Year Guardians," Rae said, "and a few of them had their friends of family members kidnapped or even killed. I can't let the same thing happen to Jake."

"I completely understand," Taranee said. At this point, the pair were seated at the kitchen island, drinking tea Taranee had prepared. Rae hated it, but hid it by taking sips when Taranee looked away so the African American woman wouldn't see the Keeper's grimace. Taranee finally caught her though, when Rae was telling her about who else knew about GRACE and how they found out.

"You don't like the tea, do you?" she asked good naturedly.

Rae blushed. "I'm just not a big fan of tea. My mom gets all different types of teas hoping she'd eventually find something I like, but no such luck."

Taranee laughed. "It's not everyone's…er, cup of tea, for lack of a better phrase." She got up and opened up the fridge. "What would you like instead?"

"Oh no, that's okay, I'll drink this!" Rae cried immediately.

"Don't be silly. I wouldn't dream of making you drink something you don't like."

"Well…coke is my favorite."

Taranee gave the teenager a can of coke. "So you're the reason the coke keeps disappearing."

Rae blushed again. "Sorry," she said.

Taranee laughed. "No, I'd much rather you be the one drinking it than my husband. I don't advocate for soda, but Nigel insists we buy some."

"Alyssa told me his band was featured in a coke commercial," Rae nodded. "And that's why you buy coke, and you'd feel better if Alyssa or John drank some because you don't want Mr. Ashcroft to drink so much coke, but Alyssa prefers Sierra Mist and John likes Fanta better, so they only drink coke when you're out of their favorite sodas."

Taranee laughed. "That's right. You certainly know my daughter well."

"I liked getting to know her," Rae said.

It was at that moment that Alyssa walked in. When she saw Rae, her eyes widened and a glare made it's way on to her face.

"What is _she_ doing here?" she spat at her mother.

Taranee flinched, as if she knew Alyssa was going to use that tone with her.

"_Rae_ came to see me," Taranee replied, surprising Rae. Why didn't she admonish Alyssa for her rudeness?

"Get out of my house!" Alyssa commanded.

"Okay. I just wanted…are…can we talk Lyssa? Please?" Rae begged.

"No! Just get out!" Alyssa snarled. Then she ran upstairs to her room.

Rae couldn't look at Taranee. What would she think? But surprisingly, all Taranee did was sigh. "I thought you might've had a fight," she said.

"You did?"

"When Nigel and I came home last night, everyone was gone except James. Nigel wasn't thrilled that she was alone in the house with her boyfriend, but when she said everyone left because it was a school night and James stayed to keep her company until we came home, he calmed down. James left and Nigel went to check on John. Then he got a phone call. All that kept him busy for enough time that I could talk to Alyssa. I could tell she was lying about why everyone left."

"What did she tell you?"

"Not much," Taranee said. "All I got was that she got in a big fight with all her other guests."

"It's a messed up situation," Rae said dodgily, not wanting to tell the helpful woman that the reason her daughter was so angry was because of her mother's past.

"I figured," Taranee nodded. "She hasn't been in the best mood. We're hoping it passes before we lose our patience with her attitude."

"I hope so too. She won't even look at me, which is difficult since we sit next to each other in every class."

Taranee cracked a smile. "I like you Rae. I don't want her to lose you as a friend."

"And I don't want to lose her," Rae said, finishing up her coke. Glancing at the microwave, she saw it was 6:30. Guardian training started in half an hour. "I have to go now Mrs. Ashcroft, but thank you for everything."

"It was my pleasure. Truly," Taranee said honestly. She quite enjoyed Rae's company, and although she didn't particularly enjoy talking about the guardians at first, she had to admit, she got quite into all of the new information she'd been fed (except for the part about the prophecy mentioning Alyssa directly), and was glad Rae felt close enough to her to vent.

Rae smiled, grabbed the Memory Flower powder, her stuff, and left.

Taranee smiled after her, thinking about everything they discussed. So far, it sounded like GRACE had everything under control thanks to this Angel of Magic person, but what if Elyon really did get brainwashed and switched sides? Where would they be then? Now more than ever, Taranee was torn on where she stood with the guardian thing. Sure they'd be more powerful if she gave Alyssa her powers back, but the monsters were attacking the girls' homes.

Back when she was a guardian, Nerissa's Knights of Darkness went after Irma's mother, Cornelia's sister, Will's mother, Hay Lin's grandmother, and Taranee's brother. The last thing she wanted were these creatures Rae described going after her family, and she definitely did not want Alyssa to be part of a team that may one day have to face someone who could disintegrate monsters with just a look. But Rae had said they were Thousand Year Guardians. If she didn't give Alyssa back her powers…what did that mean for the known worlds?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

No, Josh did not want to go out with Gabi. Sure, she was hot, but she was not the kind of girl he ever saw himself with. He saw himself with someone funny, and helpful, and loyal, and take charge…like Rae.

Okay, so Gabi was funny, but insultingly funny, which wasn't the same thing as Rae's sarcastic funny. Although, without the venomous tone that she used to use with everyone, her insults weren't so hurtful anymore. Now she was just regular funny.

And yeah, she was helpful. She always worked til close, never complained when Hay Lin asked her to do something, and helped out the other employees even during her break. And she had loyalty spare when it came to Luc or Bree. And she was take charge. It was an innate characteristic. So technically, she was the kind of girl Josh could see himself with. But the girl Josh _wanted_ to be with.

He knew Gabi was into him. Everyone said so. And he read that about her before anyone even told him because he was so good at reading people. Yes, there was the Sage problem, but he wasn't sure how much of an obstacle that was. Right now, with Gabi thinking Josh just wanted to be friends, she'd never date him. But if she figured out he liked her too, she would ask Sage's permission, Sage, being Sage, would give it to her, it would all be over for him. So what he needed to do was make her lose interest. And he knew just how to do it too.

His plan started when Gabi came in for work that afternoon. Hay Lin had pushed guardian training back. She and Eric weren't going to be back until 6, so guardian training wouldn't start until 7. Gabi and Josh were working until then.

"Four hours is a really stupid shift," Gabi said as she put on her apron and hat. "Usually I get five hours."

"Anything to avoid that _horrible_ family of yours that cares for you and provides you with food and a place to live," Josh said sarcastically. "How dare they, right?"

"What's with you?" Gabi asked. Josh just shrugged.

"Do you know if Alyssa's coming today?" Gabi asked after a few minutes of silence.

Josh looked at her surprised. He hadn't expected her to ask that. "Um, no, I don't. I have no idea."

"It sounded like she didn't care about the guardians anymore yesterday," Gabi said. "Maybe it's better that way."

"Why would you say that?" Josh asked sharply.

Gabi looked at him in surprise. "Well, I thought you'd be happy. You're the one who says you wish she didn't have to learn to fight because you're afraid she'd get hurt. If she doesn't come, she doesn't train."

"You guys are weak enough as it is," Josh grumbled, not wanting to concede. "Her presence gives you more power, even if she can't do anything. Without her there, you guys are going to be even weaker."

"Great," Gabi said sarcastically. So far, their battles have not been encouraging. Both of the big battles Gabi had been in, the one at the dance and the one at Ellie's house, had gone terribly. At first it was okay, but then the Heart timed out, they lost their powers, and if it wasn't for Angel, they wouldn't be alive right now. How were they supposed to save Kandrakar-and all the other known worlds-if they couldn't stay in guardian form for more than half an hour at a time? How were they supposed to save Earth? How were they supposed to save…Luc?

"We need to get her powers back."

"What?"

"Alyssa's! We need to get Alyssa's powers back. She can't stay mad at us forever. At the very least, she'll forgive Rae. And she's the one whose always been all about duty and stuff. She'll come back. And when she does, we need to get her powers back or there's no point for any of this. This training, this practicing. It's all for nothing if we're GRCE instead of GRACE," Gabi said.

Josh nodded. This was not going the way he planned at all! His plan was to be an unresponsive jerk, but Gabi was being nice and genuine. The universe clearly hated him.

It was an hour later when Josh finally got to put his plan into action. Ellie and Caty came in and ordered pork dumplings for a snack. Gabi was coming out of the kitchen with the plate of dumplings and Jamie was going into the kitchen with a stack of empty dishes. They crashed into each other. Immediately, Jamie hunched over, trying to save his stack. Nothing fell. However, Gabi's dumplings landed on the floor.

"Oh no!" Gabi cried. "I'm _so_ sorry!"

"It's alright, it's fine," Jamie assured her with a smile. "I didn't drop anything. Do you want help cleaning up though?"

Gabi managed a weak smile. "No, that's okay, it's my fault."

Jamie nodded, and went on into the kitchen. Gabi looked up at Josh and smiled. "Thank God these are for Ellie and Caty or I'd really be in trouble!"

"It's your own fault," Josh said. "Why were you coming out of the kitchen through in 'In' door?"

"I've done it before, and that's never happened."

"There's a reason there's an 'In' and 'Out' door. You were being stupid."

Gabi gave him a confused look. "It's…it's just a plate of dumplings."

"That's not the point," Josh replied.

Three kids walked in and Josh went to go seat them.

"Seating isn't your side work today!" Gabi called. "It's mine."

"Yeah, well clearly you're too incompetent to even handle a plate of dumplings, so I'm definitely not trusting you with actual people," Josh replied.

Gabi wasn't the only one surprised. Anna and Stella gaped at Josh.

"Someone's in a mood," Cara said.

That wasn't the last of it however. Josh picked on Gabi all through her shift, talking to her like a baby, calling out to her not to mess up as she carried drinks to her tables, and starting to put her orders into the computer "in case she messed up."

To her credit, Gabi just stood there and took it. She didn't say a word. Anyone could see she was annoyed. Anna, Cara, and Stella kept glaring at Josh and muttering insults when he walked by while Chris and Jamie comforted Gabi. She just smiled and didn't fight back at all. Everyone knew this wasn't like Gabi at all, but let it go. Why cause drama?

Rae, Sage, and James walked in at five to 7. They sat with Ellie and Caty, who were doing their homework. At 7 sharp, Chris, Cara, Josh, and Gabi clocked out, and the nine kids went downstairs.

"Where's Alyssa?" Hay Lin asked.

"She's not coming," James spoke up.

"Frankly, I'm surprised you're here," Caty said.

James shrugged. "I'm still a part of the team. Alyssa said I could come, and I would've regardless. Even if she wants to be done, she's still a guardian and she's still in as much danger as the rest of us. As long as I keep training, I can protect her."

Rae smiled. James was such a good guy. She was glad Alyssa had him when she felt like she had no one else.

"Wait, done? What happened? Why isn't she coming?" Hay Lin asked, panic and confusing lacing her voice.

The team looked at each other awkwardly. It was Gabi who decided to break the news. "You know how Josh and Alyssa are half siblings?" she asked slowly.

Hay Lin nodded, suddenly realizing where this was going. By the time the team was done with the whole story, Hay Lin looked like she was the verge of a panic attack.

"We have other things to worry about," Rae said once Chris and Cara had calmed their mother down. "Ellie, tell her about your dream."

Ellie explained to Hay Lin the part of her dream about the book.

"So do you know what that book could be?" Rae asked.

Hay Lin nodded. "That book isn't really that important. It details every adventure the previous group of guardians had. It automatically records every adventure the guardians have once the Keeper touches the first page with the Heart. But it only shows the adventures of the previous group of guardians, and will do so until new guardians have been chosen. So, while WITCH were guardians, it showed CHYKN's adventures, and it continued to do so until you guys were chosen. I should've shown you the book long ago. Once you used the Heart on it Rae, it would've shown you WITCH's adventures. When the next group of guardians are chosen, it'll show your adventures."

"But the boy said the Thousand Year Prophecy is in it," Ellie said.

"Yes, well the book contains all the Thousand Year Prophecies, each of which can only be revealed when the Thousand Year Guardians are chosen."

"Wait," Caty said. "So…the scroll, which we have, erases the old prophecy and records the new prophecy when new Thousand Year Guardians are chosen, but this book contains _all_ of them?"

"Yes, but Kasson cannot see it. It's true any Heart, including the Heart of Meridian, can reveal to him the current Thousand Year Prophecy, but only the Heart of Kandrakar can reveal WITCH's adventures and the previous prophecies."

Caty nodded, relieved. She wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling knowing the previous prophecies would give Kasson an advantage.

"Man, all this stuff is exhausting to explain. You guys are so different from other guardians. I mean, ignoring the fact that you are Thousand Year Guardians, you're the only group I know of that have had to deal with traitors and thieves."

"Some of the other Thousand Year Guardians have had to deal with that," Gabi spoke up. "At least, that's what it says in their journals."

"But you guys are different from them too," Hay Lin said.

"How so?" Rae asked.

"Well, for one thing, a lot of guardian groups were already friends. For another thing, and this is a good thing for you guys, no other group had so much help. Right off the bat you guys had three extra helpers with the regents, and you guys got Josh and Sage just a few days later."

"That's true. We have a big team here," Rae said smiling.

"And we're all pretty much friends," Ellie pointed out. "Alyssa's not too happy with us, but hopefully she'll come around."

"There is one thing that worries me though," Hay Lin said. "You guys have been guardians for over two months now, and you've only been to Meridian once, and you've only battled four times…and that's only some of you. Alyssa and Gabi have both only been in three battles since Gabi didn't go to Meridian and Alyssa didn't help with the monster that is probably Cedric's son."

"Is that…bad?" Caty asked.

"Well, when we were guardians, we went to Meridian at least once a week. And just like with your group, Meridian was fighting a war against a tyrannical ruler. Caleb used to find portals and jump through to find us whenever he needed help."

"What kind of help?" Rae asked.

"Well, if he needed to free some of his men that got captured or if they needed extra man power for a battle."

"But those things aren't happening anymore," Josh pointed out. "There is a rebel army and Dad is still the leader, but they haven't taken any action yet. They need a plan first, and they've got spies, but Kasson's good at keeping secrets. None of our spies have gotten any useful information. Phobos may have been a dangerous sorcerer, but he was lazy and liked to have his minions do his dirty work while he sat on throne and brooded."

"Well, he was also plotting ways to get the guardians out of the way," Hay Lin reminded.

"Okay, yeah, sure, whatever. The point is, his minions were all powerful monsters, but nothing the rebel army couldn't handle. We got beaten a lot, but we also won some battles, and there were very few battles in which we came out with nothing. We always got something, at least a little information or some food or weapons even in the battles we lost. But Kasson's minions are mostly magical. They've either got magic, or they've got magical attributes."

"Or magical weapons," Caty said suddenly. "Like…those monsters we faced on Halloween, the same ones that showed up at Ellie's house. They had these clubs, and they could diffuse our attacks with them."

"Right," Josh said. "So GRACE hasn't been to Meridian because the rebel army hasn't done anything so they don't need help from the guardians."

"You know what's funny?" Rae asked.

"Oooh, a joke?" Ellie asked excitedly.

Gabi and Caty gave her 'Serisouly?' looks.

"Not ha-ha funny," Rae said. "At the time that Alyssa, Ellie, and I went to Meridian, Kasson didn't even know that new guardians had surfaced. He still thought WITCH were the guardians. So why did we get attacked?"

"I never realized, but you're right," Caty recalled. "We were all talking about how Kasson doesn't know that there are new guardians, and how he's going to go after the old guardians. A few minutes later, the monsters came at us, and it was clear they were targeting me."

"What does all of that mean?" Rae wondered.

"It means Kasson already knew. We were wrong in thinking he didn't know about us," Gabi said.

"Yes, I know!" Rae snapped. "I meant, _how_?"

"The traitor?" Ellie guessed.

"And who is that supposed to be exactly?" Caty asked. "And don't say Holden Marshall."

"I wasn't going to," Ellie defended. "I wondered…" Ellie looked at Josh. "Josh, is it at all possible that Jilly or Julia…?"

"Are you accusing my sisters of being traitors?" Josh asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Ellie, why do you automatically think someone in Josh's family is a traitor?" Gabi asked. "Besides, we know the spy is a boy thanks to your dream, and Jilly and Julia are girls. And he said that he's close to us. Even if he's not close to all of us, he has to have a relationship to at least one of us."

"Most likely Rae. She _is_ the Keeper," James piped up.

"Okay, don't bite my head off," Chris said, "but is it at all possible that it's Jake?"

"My boyfriend is _not_ the spy!" Rae denied.

"But when you think about it, it _does_ kind of make sense," Cara said. "He was dating Gabi and was friends with both Ellie and Caty."

"But he wasn't close with Alyssa, and he and Caty got in a huge fight last year," Rae protested.

"And we've known Jake all our lives," Ellie reminded.

"Who's to say the traitor wasn't placed here since our birth?" Cara challenged. "It could be someone you've known all your life."

"It's _not_ Jake," Rae said again, "but that is definitely a possibility. That the spy could've been here all our lives. He could be someone who has been in school with you since you guys started at the Heatherfield elementary."

"Before that," Gabi said. "Most of us were all put in the same day care since we were two."

"We need to consider the possibility that it could be any of the male friends we've acquired over the years," Caty said. She looked Rae dead in the eye. "And that includes Jake."

Rae looked away, knowing she was right. Rae was the leader. She couldn't afford to let anything cloud her judgment.

"So what are we supposed to do? Stalk our friends?" Gabi asked sarcastically.

"We could use truth serum," Josh suggested. "It's like the herb we used for the forgetting potion, but it's a truth potion instead."

"But the herb for that is hard to come by. Not even Taranee has that herb," Hay Lin said. "I will go to Kandrakar tomorrow and see if I can get some from the Oracle. For now, we must train. Any other questions?"

"Just one. Have you found out anything about Angel yet?" Rae asked.

When the group told Hay Lin about the Angel of Magic, she told them she'd never heard of her before, but promised to do some research.

"Unfortunately, no," Hay Lin said. "Have you guys encountered her since Halloween?"

"Yesterday actually," Rae said. She told Hay Lin about the battle at Ellie's house, including the fact that Jason knows about GRACE and how Alyssa took down a couple monsters with her physical link. Hay Lin seemed impressed, saying Alyssa's powers were progressing much faster than she expected.

"Much faster than your powers in fact," she said.

"Why is that?" Caty asked.

"It's because she lost her elemental power," Hay Lin said. "She only has the telepathic power to deal with, and it is far easier to harness one power than two. Because she no longer has control over fire, her telepathy is progressing faster."

"Is that good or bad?"

"It's good that her telepathy is becoming more of an offensive power, because as long as she doesn't have her elemental power, she is the weakest link. She doesn't have the fighting skills of any of the warriors on the team," Hay Lin said.

"So that means, even if we can get her power over fire back," Caty said, "it'll be weaker than our elemental powers."

"Unfortunately," Hay Lin confirmed.

"So we need to work fast. The faster we get them back, the stronger they'll be for when we face the enemy that takes over Kandrakar," Gabi said.

"Actually," Rae said, "I think I may have made some progress in that area." She explained the conversation she had with Taranee. "It wasn't my intention to manipulate her or anything. I just really enjoyed talking to her. But I think I may have caused her to think about giving Alyssa her powers back."

"That's great!" Ellie cried.

"But it doesn't help us at all if Alyssa won't come back," Gabi pointed out.

"Then that's your task," Hay Lin said. "Make up with Alyssa. If she's friends with even just one of you, she'll come back. She has a stronger sense of duty than the rest of you."

The team nodded, not sure whether they should be insulted by the duty comment or not.

"As for Angel, I'll see what I can find out. I'll ask the Oracle about her too, see if he has any information," Hay Lin said. "Not, let's get to training!"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

It was 9:40 when Team GRACE finished training. Gary and Ben, the closers, smiled at Gabi and Josh as they headed upstairs with everyone else. Chris and Cara went up to the house, and everyone else left. Gabi sat the counter and waited for Josh to join her, but he just stood in the middle of the restaurant, his arms folded.

"The usual?" Ben asked.

Gabi nodded, then looked at Josh.

"Josh? Are you gonna stand there all night?" Gabi asked.

"Only until we go home," Josh replied.

Gabi frowned. It was their tradition to have drinks-usually Gabi would ask for a Shirley Temple and Josh would ask for a chocolate or strawberry milkshake-after guardian training.

"O-kay. Never mind then Ben. 86 the drinks."

Ben nodded. Gary leaned forward. "What's with him?" he asked.

Gabi shrugged. "He's been a bad mood all day," she replied.

"His face is gonna freeze in that glare," Ben joked.

Gabi bit back a laugh. "Will I see you guys tomorrow?" she asked hopefully. Even though she barely noticed any of her co-workers in school before, once she started working at The Silver Dragon, she grew close to them, and even hung out with them at Sheffield. She was always excited to see them at work, even though they were in different cliques. Stella wasn't a big deal. She was one of Gabi's cheerleaders. And Jamie was a jock who played football and baseball. But Ben was an art geek, Anna was into glee club, and Gary hung out with the nerds in Brian's sub-group.

"Yeah, I have a shift at the same time you do tomorrow," Gary said.

"I don't work again til Thursday," Ben said. "Did you know Ms. Lin-Lyndon scheduled every day this week?"

Gabi bit back a laugh (it was so weird hearing Hay Lin referred to so formally) before replying, "I'm scheduled every day every week. I _like_ being at work."

"_Why_?" Ben asked.

Gabi shrugged as she hopped off the bar stool. "It beats being at home. See you guys!"

"Bye!" both guys called back. They turned to say good bye to Josh too, but thought better of it when his glare intensified.

"Hey look," Gabi said, "I know you're really upset about Alyssa, but don't take it out on me. Just talk to me. I can help."

"Help?" Josh laughed. "Doubt it."

"Maybe I can't _help_ really," Gabi conceded. "But I'm not the enemy here. Are you mad because I told Alyssa that everyone else knew about you being family? Because I'm really sorry about that. It was an accident, I swear!"

"Yeah, I know. I'm not mad about that," Josh said.

"Then what?"

"I'm not mad about anything?"

"Then why are you being such a jerk to me?"

"Maybe I just don't _like_ you!"

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Now I know _that's_ not true."

"And how can you be sure of that?"

"Because if you didn't like me, you wouldn't have been nice to me at all."

"It's a new development," Josh muttered.

"Just tell me what's really wrong," Gabi begged.

"Shut up," Josh replied.

"What's your problem Josh?" Gabi snapped.

Josh turned to her with a ferocious glare on his face. "_You're_ my problem. You've _always_ been my problem. I'm sorry you don't _believe_ that I don't like you, but it's true. I don't want anything to do with you…_ever_!"

Gabi gasped, taken aback. He sounded so serious, as if he actually meant it.

"But why?"

"Why? Let's see…you're annoying. You're obnoxious. You're a blabbermouth. You're shallow and pretentious, egocentric, lazy…and a straight up bitch," Josh replied.

Gabi's heart physically hurt with every new insult.

"And it's too much for me. I can't say why anyone would want to hang around you. All I know is, I can't take it anymore. I'm done. I'm done with you. I…I…I hate you!"

That did it. Gabi's heart shattered. He hated her? What had she done to make him suddenly hate her? Or maybe he'd felt this way all along. Forget being a couple. He didn't even want to be her _friend_. How could she have messed up so badly? Did he really feel this way since the start? Sure they fought a lot at the beginning, but hadn't they become friends? Weren't they close? Maybe it was all in her head. Or it was all an act Josh put up. Either way, it didn't matter. There was nothing she could do now. The way Josh looked at her, it was clear she couldn't repair their friendship.

Josh bit his lip-a nervous habit he shared with Alyssa- and looked away. He hadn't meant to say that. It wasn't true. He didn't hate Gabi at all. But he couldn't take it back now or else she'd never believe he didn't want to be around her. He felt terrible though, and extremely guilty. He was supposed to be a jerk, not a downright cruel douchebag.

The rest of the walk was silent, except for one moment when Gabi's phone beeped. She looked at it and muttered to herself, "It's the second week of November." Josh had no idea what that meant, so he pretended not to hear.

When the pair reached Gabi's door, she took out the key, inserted it in the key hole, but didn't turn it.

"Hey," she said.

Josh turned to look at her, but didn't say anything.

"I don't know what brought this hatred and anger on," she said, "but don't act like this in front of my brother. The last thing I want is him to hate the one steady male figure in his life because he's being mean to his sister."

Josh looked at her, still not saying anything, silently agreeing to her request.

Ever since Michael had left for school, the only male figure in his life was Daniel. With the crazy hours Daniel worked, he was never around. Once Michael was eighteen and started college, he'd be away for six to eight weeks at a time, and would only come home for two days before taking off again. It had been this way for three years. Gabi and Luc missed him like crazy, but understood he needed time away. But this left Luc without a present male figure for three years. Josh had changed that.

"And however you feel about me," Gabi continued, her words taking a hard edge, "none of it translates to Luc in any way. The minute I hear you say a word against him, you're stay at my house ends…along with your life."

Josh raised his eyebrows. "My life?" he repeated.

"You hate me, right? So why should I extend any curtesy towards you?"

"Letting me live is a curtesy?"

"Letting you live if you're anything less than angelic to Luc is a curtesy," Gabi corrected. She turned the key and the pair stepped in.

Josh headed to his own room, slightly haunted. And he knew he was completely screwed. He wanted to stop liking Gabi, but her recent display of affection towards her brother, the very thing that attracted Josh to Gabi in the first place, just made him like her more.

Josh sighed. He wans't going to get over this girl easily.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie stared at her plate, feeling completely awkward and out of place. Rae had explained that when she'd gone to see Alyssa earlier that day, Alyssa screamed at her to get out. Ellie decided she'd try her own luck. Alyssa was the one who opened the door for Ellie, and when she saw the air guardian, she told her to get out as well, but before she could yell at her when Ellie didn't comply, Taranee saw her and invited her to stay for dinner.

Alyssa had glared at her mother, but didn't say anything. Ellie knew she couldn't be a coward. They had to try their best to get Alyssa to forgive them. As Hay Lin had said, she'd come back to GRACE if she was just friends with one of them. So Ellie accepted the invitation, even though that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Are you okay honey?" Taranee asked after an hour of unbearable silence. "You've hardly eaten a thing."

"I'm not hungry," Alyssa replied. Ellie cringed at her cold tone.

"Lissie, are you sick?" John asked, using his own special nickname for his sister.

"No," Alyssa said curtly.

John frowned. Ever since this morning, Alyssa had been short with everyone. She'd been in a very bad mood, and he had no idea what had caused it.

"Lissie," he said slowly, "you're not mad at me, are you?"

Alyssa managed to put the tiniest of smiles on her face, which made Ellie and her parents sigh with relief. It may be a small smile, but it was something. They were glad she finally smiled.

"At you? Never," Alyssa assured her brother, making him smile as well.

"Are you mad at _someone_ sweetie?" Taranee asked, noticing the way Alyssa answered her brother indicated that she was in fact angry at someone.

Ellie cringed again, not wanting to be present for this conversation.

"You," Alyssa replied.

"Us? But why?" Nigel asked, surprised.

"Not you…just Mom," Alyssa replied.

"Why is that?" Taranee asked.

"You really don't know?" Alyssa asked.

"Not unless you tell me," Taranee agreed, trying to lighten the mood. Her attempt didn't work. Alyssa glared at her with an intensity the previous fire guardian had never seen before.

"Mom," Alyssa said, "you are a despicable human being."

'I _really_ should not be here for this,' Ellie thought.

Taranee gasped, John looked at his sister as if he was seeing her for the first time, and Nigel was angry.

"Alyssa!" he yelled. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you will not speak to your mother that way."

"Some mother. Keeping secrets. You're a liar Mom, and your cruelty knows no bounds, as you have proven. Have you thought about what this was going to do to _him_?" Alyssa looked at Nigel.

Taranee started at her daughter, uncomprehending, wondering why Alyssa had pure fury in her eyes. Ellie was wondering how she could get up from the table and leave quietly.

"Alyssa, you will show your parents some respect," Nigel demanded.

"Why should I show respect to a mother who doesn't respect her own daughter and husband?" Alyssa screamed back, rising. "And as for showing my father some respect…well maybe I will once I see him again."

Everything suddenly clicked into place and Taranee understood. She looked at Ellie, who looked away, severely uncomfortable. Taranee looked back at her daughter and Ellie saw now, all eyes were on Alyssa. Ellie quickly got up and grabbed her stuff from the sofa.

"Alyssa!" she gasped. "I…"

"You what? What were you going to say Mom? Sorry? Do you think that's going to be enough? My entire life has been a lie!"

"It hasn't! I'm still your mother! Just let me explain!"

"How can you possibly justify this?" Alyssa shrieked, scaring her brother. "You may still be my mother, but that's the worst fate I can imagine for myself."

Taranee rose as well. Ellie turned to leave, but immediately felt the crushing pain she'd felt the day before when Alyssa was yelling at Josh. The physical link was back.

"Lyss..a…please stop," she groaned, but her voice was so weak and quiet that no one heard her. She felt the temperature begin to rise, just as it had the day before, and then Ellie's power began acting up. It wasn't as bad this time…nothing was really flying around except the napkins on the dinner table and the papers on the coffee table, but the winds were picking up and blowing against the Ashcrofts.

"Please Alyssa," Taranee begged, ignoring the winds, not sure if she was asking for forgiveness or a chance to clarify.

John cried out in terror. Of course. He didn't know anything about the guardians. Taranee and Nigel were just trying to figure out what was going on, so they didn't care about the winds.

"John, maybe you should head upstairs," Nigel suggested, as he also got up from the table.

John nodded and ran upstairs.

"Taranee, what is going on?" Nigel asked.

"I…Nigel, I…"

"Go ahead Mom, tell him," Alyssa taunted.

Taranee kept quiet.

"Did you think you could hide this forever? Did you think I wouldn't find out? And what about Dad? Or should I just call him Nigel now? Did you think _he'd_ never find out?"

"Find out what? What's going on?" Nigel asked. Then he looked at the air guardians. "I'm losing breath here."

"Alyssa!" Ellie cried, her voice stronger. "Stop!"

Alyssa took a few deep breaths and calmed down. The temperature went down and the winds stopped.

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. "This seems like a family thing, so I'm just gonna go…yeah…" She left in a hurry, leaving her ex-best friend with her family.

"Okay. Does someone want to explain to me what's happening here?" Nigel asked.

"Sure. Allow me," Alyssa said venomously. "You married an unfaithful, good for nothing bitch who does nothing but keep secrets and condemn the world to danger, all so she can _act_ like she's protecting her daughter, but all she's really doing is being selfish and trying to protect her secrets so she won't get caught and can continue living her peaceful, picture perfect life."

"Alyssa!" Taranee yelled, losing her patience. "That is not what has been going on!"

"Really?" Alyssa yelled. Then she stared fiercely at her mother and said, _"Can you hear me Mom?"_

Taranee stared at her daughter in shock before nodding. So Alyssa was taking this conversation into their minds.

_"What are you saying then Mom? Are you saying you _didn't _cheat on Dad with one of his best friends? With the husband of one of _your_ best friends? Are you saying Josh _isn't_ my brother? Are you saying you haven't hid this from me my entire life? That part of the reason you didn't let me be a guardian is so that your dirty little secrets won't come out? Are you saying you _didn't_ separate me from my own _brother_ and erase my memories to protect _yourself_?! Is that what you're trying to say Mom?"_

"Honey…" Taranee said out loud, her voice weak.

"I don't know what you think you can say to make this better," Alyssa said. She stomped upstairs, leaving a confused Nigel and an anguished Taranee behind.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Sounds like some confrontation," James said to his girlfriend the next day. It was lunch time, and they were holed up in the library. Alyssa was looking for a couple of books she needed for the Historical Scandal APUSH essay Mrs. Taylor had assigned the previous day. She was giving them the period to work on the essay today, and unlike most students, who used the internet first, Alyssa liked to use book sources first. Mrs. Taylor said they needed five sources, and one of them had to be a print source.

"Ellie looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her," Alyssa said. "That was at least enjoyable."

James gave her a disapproving look. "Alyssa…"

"You can't seriously be defending her."

"I am. She's your best friend."

"She hasn't talked to me for over six years."

"Yet she's the girl you were so desperate to help just a week ago at the dance."

Alyssa sighed. "That's before I knew she was keeping such a big secret from me."

"She was the last person on the team to know," James said. "And she only kept it from you because she thought it would hurt you more to know. You have to give her some credit for that."

"I guess she's the one I'm least mad at. She was misguided in her actions, but she had my best interests at heart," Alyssa agreed. "But what about everyone else? Rae is supposed to be my _best_ friend. So was Josh come to think of it. I know he told her first and neither of them told me. Caty was supposed to be my friend, but she didn't say a word either. I'm most surprised at Chris for not saying anything."

"Well, Chris wanted to give Josh a chance to tell you himself. He thought it would be best if you heard it from him. But he gave Josh an ultimatum to either tell you by your birthday or he will."

"Why didn't he then?"

"Rae convinced him not to. It wasn't her idea, but Ellie begged Rae to convince Chris to keep quiet. Rae didn't like it, but Josh agreed with Ellie."

"Chris shouldn't have agreed to keep quiet and Rae shouldn't have agreed to talk to him. If I hadn't found that letter, none of them would've said a word and I still wouldn't know!"

The librarian, Ms. Bentley, put a finger to her lips.

"Josh wouldn't have been able to keep it from you forever," James said, his voice considerably softer.

"He would've tried. And so would my mom!"

"You called her unfaithful yesterday. Do you think your dad picked up on that?"

"Who knows?" Alyssa shrugged. "Whatever backlash she gets, she deserves."

"And what about you Lyssa? Did you think about what it would do to you if your parents suffer a fallout?"

"I don't want to see my dad being loving and devoted to a woman who cheated on him and had a child with another man that she raised as if she had her with her husband."

"Your mother will be devastated. She made a bad choice, yes, but your father is the man she loves. The one she expected to stay with forever."

"No one stays forever James. You told me that."

"Well then, I was wrong. I'm here with you now and I want to stay forever. And guess what? Your friends on Team GRACE do too. I'm not saying you'll be friends with them forever, but Rae and Josh? Those are people you need in your life. Rae knew about your social status and didn't care at all. She became your friend and stood up for you within two days. She knows everything about you. And Josh is your brother…he's _family_. You don't turn your back on family."

"Tell _that_ to Josh. Tell that to my _mom_!"

"Shhh!" Ms. Bentley shushed.

"Alyssa, stop! You're not being fair!"

"Like hiding my true family is being fair! Where do they get off-

"All they wanted was to protect you. If they hurt you in the process, then they're sorry, but that was not their intention. I understand why you're mad, but you can't turn your back on all of them."

"Isn't that what they did?"

"Not at all!"

Ms. Bentley shushed them yet again. This time, the mild mannered woman had a glare on her face. Alyssa and James both shot her apologetic looks before returning to their conversation.

"Why are you standing up for them? I thought you were supposed to be on _my_ side!" Alyssa whisper-yelled.

"I _am_ on your side. Always. That doesn't mean I can see things from their perspective. I want you to be happy Alyssa, and I know you're not happy this way. Fighting with all your friends."

"None of them were true friends if they thought keeping my truth from me was a good idea."

"None of them thought keeping the truth from you was a good idea, except Ellie," James said.

"How exactly do you know this?"

"I ran into Rae and Sage on my way to guardian training yesterday," James shrugged.

"They all made the wrong decision," Alyssa said.

"So, what, you're just done with them? For good?"

"For good," Alyssa confirmed

"That's harsh."

"So is keeping secrets."

"Alyssa, Rae is your best friend. You can't be done with her. Chris was your friend even after Ellie and Adam were gone. Josh always takes care of you. Caty and Ellie hold you in the highest regard, and even Gabi doesn't _tease_ you anymore."

Ms. Bentley pointedly cleared her throat.

James gave her an apologetic smile.

Alyssa stood on her toes, trying to reach a book on the top shelf.

"Like I care about any of that," she said to James.

James frowned, fed up with Alyssa's attitude.

"Fine then. Maybe you're right. Maybe you should be done with them!" he cried, reaching up and grabbing the book for the fire guardian.

Alyssa took the book and said, "Well, I'm glad we reached an understanding."

James bristled, frustrated.

"Alyssa, you're going about this all wrong!"

"Be _quiet_ or get out!" Ms. Bentley snapped.

"Sorry," Alyssa said. She grabbed another book.

"Fine! Abandon them!" James said, not lowering his voice any. "But remember that makes you no better than Ellie and Adam."

"For the last time, Ellie did not _abandon_ me. We got in a fight!"

"Why are you defending her if you don't care?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"They're your friends!" James cried.

"That's it! Out, both of you!" Ms. Bentley ordered.

Alyssa was startled. She'd never gotten in trouble before. Now she was getting kicked out of a library.

James smiled as Ms. Bentley, walked up to her desk, and said something in low tones. Ms. Bentley seemed surprised, smiled back, and motioned for Alyssa to carry on. James walked back to his girlfriend.

"You just charmed a faculty member!" Alyssa whisper-screeched.

"So?"

"So, that…that has to be against the rules!"

"I got her to let us stay, didn't I?"

Alyssa opened her mouth to protest, then realized he was right.

He grabbed a book about Warren Harding for his own essay about Teapot Dome. With the book came _All the President's Men_, perfect for Alyssa since her essay was about the Watergate Scandal. James gave her the book.

"Thanks," Alyssa said smiling. "You know, you don't _have_ to spend your lunches here with me. If you're hungry, or you're tired of Ms. Bentley shushing us, you can go to the cafeteria."

"I _want_ to be here with you," James said.

Alyssa smiled again, giving James a peck on the cheek. "So, once and for all, what's your take on this? You think I should forgive them, or leave them?"

"I think you should do what makes you happy. I think you'd be happier if you forgive them, but if you think you'd be happier without them, then please, by all means, abandon them."

Alyssa looked into James' eyes and was startled. He'd spent twenty minutes trying to convince her to forgive her friends, and sarcastically telling her to abandon them. Even this time, his voice told her he didn't really support the decision to abandon her friends, but when she looked into his eyes, she saw something else. She could be imagining it, but his eyes were practically forcing her to leave her friends. They were stone cold and she was completely unnerved.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hey guys. Sorry this took a little longer, but I had a lot to cover in this chapter and it made me feel a bit overwhelmed. In the end, I didn't even cover anything I wanted to cover. I slowed down at the part where Rae and Jake are telling Josh about Sage's crush, but I'd already written Taranee and Rae's conversation, so I tried to speed it up to get this out for you guys, so I hope you like it!**


	26. The Cookie Jar

**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm so incredibly sorry for the long wait! I had a bunch of final projects/exams for the last of my summer classes this week, so most of my time and energy went to that. But I promise, that kind of wait won't be a regular thing. I'm glad everyone took such an interest in chapter 24. I hope this chapter will prove just as interesting. This chapter will mainly be a "non-guardian business" chapter until the end. Hope you guys like it!**

**Before the shouts outs, I would like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to mavlovesblu and theskyseemsblue for following this story. I lost a follower this week, but I also gained two new ones. It's always hard to lose a reader, but I'm happy to see I have new fans consistently coming in. **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**SilvenArrow: I'm glad you liked it so much! I agree, Ellie being there was odd, but I realized as I was writing the scene that in my head, there were heavy winds and everyone had to shout to be heard, so I went back in and added Ellie into the scene when I edited. Everyone is worried about James' strange look in the last scene, and I'm going to say the same thing to everyone: there's nothing to worry about with that boy. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Emily: Why is placing so important to you? Why do you have to be first? And if it's so important to be first, then just review right after I post the chapter. You're always here when I do, on your own laptop. Oh Misha's gonna be a total bitch! Of course now you like Josh because's he's such a douche! And everything he said were all things he thought about her when he first met her, things that aren't really true anymore. Nigel will know eventually, don't worry. Hope you like this chapter. REVIEW!**

**Shay: Misha's full of evil plans, isn't she? Don't worry, he will find out again, and his memory won't be erased a second time. Everything about Josh will be revealed in a few chapters. For now, Taranee will hide it, but Nigel will find out eventually. I'm glad you liked the library humor. I wouldn't worry too much about James if I were you. Hope you like this chapter!**

**WaterAmulet: Don't worry, even if Rae and Jake do break up, it won't be anytime soon. That being said, I have a feeling you won't like the first part of this chapter very much. I didn't expect to write a conversation between Taranee and Rae. It kind of just happened, and I had to keep it. Haha, creep moment? I like that description. But don't worry about James. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Misa: As you know, I can't comment on the final comments, but I can tell you, I do have some romance planned for Ellie. I'm just not sure how to work it in just yet. I like the idea of Rae and Taranee having a close relationship as well. As for Alyssa and Rae…Alyssa's not going to forgive everyone at once. Ellie and Chris will be among the first members of Team GRACE she forgives, and unfortunately, Josh and Rae will be the last. You'll find out more about the Angel of Magic eventually, but I want her true identity to be hidden for as long as possible. They would be cute, but Josh has a reason for not wanting to like her. It will be explained in the next few chapters. Nigel will know eventually, just not yet. And I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about James right now. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: I'm so glad you liked it. Yes, James is hiding something. You're the first person that picked up on that fact. Everyone else just wondered what was going on. But even though I admit he's hiding something, I'm going to tell you what I told everyone else: there's really no need to worry about James. Hope you like this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next morning, the entirety of the Shay house was up early…well, the entirety except for Luc, who could sleep through an Earthquake. In fact, he had once.

Gabi was in the kitchen, making coffee when Josh walked in. The pair ignored each other as Josh, who absolutely _hated_ coffee, made himself some hot chocolate.

Eva came in next, looking groggy.

"Morning Josh," she mumbled sleepily, hopping up on one of the stools in front of the island. Ever since Josh first came to stay with the Shays, Eva had a huge kiddie crush on him.

"Hey Ev. Are you sure you should be up? You look ready to fall back asleep."

"But if I try, I won't be able to," she said.

Gabi rolled her eyes as she grabbed a mug from the cupboard.

"It's the second week of November," Eva said to her step sister, a malicious edge to her voice.

"I know," Gabi said stiffly.

"You know what that means? It means it's Lucifer's birthday soon."

"For the last time Eva, you do _not_ address my brother by his full name," Gabi said. "And don't you _dare_ talk about Luc's birthday!"

Eva shrieked and hid behind Daniel who had just walked in. "She's gonna kill me!" Eva cried, as she did every time Gabi got mad at her. Gabi couldn't understand why, if Eva was truly scared her, she kept making her angry.

"Gabrielle, stop scaring your sister," Daniel said sternly. "I don't know what you did to have her believe you're a witch, but-"

"I didn't do anything! She's just insane," Gabi replied. "And she is _not_ my sister!"

"Daddy!" Eva whimpered.

At the same time, Josh accidentally bumped into Gabi on his way to the cabinet. The pair looked at each other for a minute before Josh continued on.

"Are you not going to apologize?" Gabi asked.

"Sorry," Josh muttered, grabbing a mug.

"How heartfelt," Gabi said sarcastically.

"Cuz you deserve it," Josh replied, just as sarcastic.

"I do!"

"Cuz you're such a nice person!"

"Need I remind you who worked all your shifts for two weeks to get you off on Halloween night?"

"How long are you going to hold _that_ over my head?"

"I wasn't going to at all until now!"

"Gabrielle, is there enough coffee for me?" Daniel asked, sensing a fight was going to break out.

Gabi sighed and grabbed another mug, placed it in front of her father, and poured him some coffee.

"Some for Sienna too," Daniel ordered, and Gabi repeated the action just as the step-monster entered the kitchen.

"Thank you Gabrielle," Sienna said. Ever since she and Gabi had that talk about why Gabi chose _not_ to go by Elena, Sienna had taken special care to remember to call her Gabrielle. Gabi appreciated that, though she'd never admit it.

The family made polite small talk for half an hour, but anyone could tell it was strained. Daniel was the only one on good terms with everyone in the family, and Josh and Gabi's new friction made it very awkward.

Finally, Luc joined everyone. His presence put a genuine smile on Gabi's face.

"Morning buddy, how'd you sleep?" she asked.

"Good. How was your day yesterday?"

"Sucky because I barely got to see you at all," Gabi responded.

Daniel smiled. One of his favorite things in the word was the way Gabi and Luc interacted. It was much the same way Michael interacted with both Gabi and Luc. He knew a lot of siblings fought-he himself fought with his own siblings when he was younger-so he counted himself lucky his kids were not like that. He could rest easy because he knew his kids always had each other.

"So want some breakfast little man?" Josh asked.

"Just cereal," Luc said. "Lucky charms."

Josh and Gabi both went for the cereal. When they realized the other would get it, they both went to grab a bowl.

"Just get the cereal," Josh snapped.

Gabi bit back a response, remembering she didn't want to let Luc know she and Josh were fighting.

"So I need you to give me a list of your friends, full names and numbers," Gabi said.

"Okay. It's gonna be about thirty people."

Gabi grabbed a notebook and wrote down 'Preliminary Number of Guests: 30.'

"Sounds good. And what are you really into this year?"

"Superheroes, especially the Flash."

Gabi made a mental note to get Caty to ask Dorkzilla who on Earth the Flash was before nodding, and writing it down.

So Luc wanted a superhero themed party and wanted to invite thirty people.

"Cake?"

"I want a cookie cake this year."

"And dinner?"

"Just pizza is good."

"Time?"

This went on for a while, until Gabi and Josh had to go to school. Josh walked to Rae's house as he did every day. Gabi got driven by Walter. They picked up Bree on the way. Bree was chattering excitedly about new cheerleading uniforms (Traci and Gabi decided they should design their own uniforms this year and picked Bree and Lili to head up the project), but quickly realized Gabi wasn't paying attention, too busy staring at her notebook. By the time the pair reached school and took their seats on the steps, Gabi had freaked herself out.

Sage arrived soon after, with Josh and Rae, who headed inside, and smiled at the pair. She greeted Gabi, who didn't reply. Sage gave Bree a questioning look, who just shrugged, and the two settled into their own conversation.

"It's getting too cold for this," Bree shivered as a few more cheerleaders started to arrive. "When are we going to relocate inside?"

"The week of Thanksgiving Break, like always," Missy said when it became clear Gabi wasn't going to answer.

"Where do we relocate to?" Sage asked. "Hopefully somewhere inside!"

Bree laughed. "Yeah. You know that little alcove by the science wing? That's our inside spot until the first day of Spring."

"The science wing is as cold as it is outside!" Lili complained.

"Well, the only other acceptable place is the Senior Y by the Social Studies wing," Carrie said. "But that's where Traci and the senior cheerleaders hang out. Gabi's the only one allowed to hang out there cuz she's on Varsity."

"But we'll get to be there next year," Bree sang.

"Provided you make it back on the team," Lana teased as she and Kelli arrived.

"If anyone's for sure making the team, it's Bree," Stella said rolling her eyes.

Bree was probably more talented than Gabi when it came to cheerleading, and the only reason she wasn't co-captain or on Varsity was because she didn't want either position. She didn't love it as much as Gabi. She was excited for next year though, when she and Gabi would be co-captains of Varsity.

In another twenty minutes, all the girls were too cold and decided to go inside. As Gabi began to get stuff out of her locker, Jake walked up to her.

"What do you want?" Bree asked.

Jake ignored her and looked at Gabi. "Can we talk?" he asked.

"Not now," Gabi replied. She closed her locker, looked at her notebook again, and sighed.

Bree grabbed it out of her hands.

"Hey!" Gabi cried.

"Preliminary Number of Guests: 30," Bree read. "Theme: Superheroes. Cake: cookie cake. What is this? Is this…it's the second week of November. This is for Luc's birthday, isn't it?"

Gabi nodded. "I'm just trying to do my best."

Luc's birthday was also the same day Gabi's mother died. But Gabi, being the good big sister she was, refused to let anyone dwell on that on Luc's special day. The last thing Luc deserved was to think of his birthday as a bad day, so every year, Gabi planned a huge birthday party for Luc. That way, Luc would have too much fun to realize the day he was born was also the day his family lost the Shay matriarch, and the rest of the family would be too busy to dwell on the fact as well. But it always put a lot of pressure on Gabi, because she was worried if she didn't pull of a perfect party, Luc would feel bad about taking Gabi and Michael's mother away.

"You always do great," Jake said, and for once, Bree didn't even bite his head off for saying something.

Gabi sighed. "I don't even know anything about the theme. What the hell am I supposed to do? Who the hell is the Flash?"

"The fastest man alive," Jake said.

Both girls gave him a weird look.

"I like superheroes," Jake defended.

"Oh right," Gabi remembered. "He has this huge bookshelf in his room filled with comic books."

Bree giggled. "Seriously?"

Jake grinned. "Guilty pleasure."

"You're such an everyman!"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"For the class president it is," Bree agreed, then realized she was supposed to mad at Jake, and glared at him.

"Are streamers too young or girly?" Gabi wondered aloud, not really talking to Bree or Jake.

"Not if you do them right," Jake said. "If you can get red, white, and yellow streamers and like braid them together, that'll be perfect. That's the color of the Flash's super suit."

"Super what?" Bree asked. "Never mind. I don't want too much nerdiness in my brain."

"Hey!" Jake cried indignantly.

"Cookie cake. Where can I get that? Can I bake that? But I can't bake!" Gabi cried, her volume rising with each word. "I'm going to cry!"

"Not here you're not," Bree said, grabbing Gabi's arm and dragging her into the nearest empty classroom. Jake followed them.

"You're gonna do great. You always do," he said soothingly. "Remember last year?"

Bree smiled at that. "Luc had a blast last year!" she cried. "All your family could come and you got bouncy castle because he's in love with those, and the theme was…what was it?"

"Assassin's Creed. It was Luc's favorite video game at the time," Gabi said.

"Right. So you'll make this party just as great. Is Michael coming home?"

"I wish. He wanted to try, but he has budget meetings and stuff," Gabi said.

"Does he have an internship?" Jake asked.

"He's treasurer of a bunch of clubs," Bree explained. "Apparently it's a really hard job to be college treasurer of anything, and he has three treasurer jobs of regular clubs, plus he's the Student Government treasurer."

Jake whistled. That was impressive. Michael was always that way. When he was still at Sheffield, he was number one and class rank and played six different sports. He was good guy and a great brother. Michael was the kind of guy everyone else aspired to be.

"I have to cut school," Gabi said suddenly.

"What?" Bree asked.

"Cut school," Gabi repeated. "If I want to buy everything, I need to cut school today."

"Okay," Bree said. "I'll come with you."

"Me too," Jake said.

"No," Bree argued. "You should stay here. Go be with your girlfriend. We don't want you with us."

"But-" Jake started.

"Let him come," Gabi interjected. "I don't care. Let's just go before anyone can see that we're here."

Bree nodded and the three hurried out to the parking lot.

"Shit," Gabi said. "I got driven by Walter. My car's not here." Since she was the only one who was seventeen, she was the only one old enough to drive, and the only one who had a car.

"Don't you have Traci's key?" Bree asked.

"I'm supposed to ask before I take her car."

"Just fill up her tank before you bring it back here," Jake suggested.

"Yeah, that'll work," Gabi said as the trio headed to Traci's car. Traci's father bought it for her, but all of Varsity paid for gas and insurance. In return for their contributions, Traci let any Varsity girl use the car as long as they asked.

"Okay," Jake said as they headed out off campus. "There's this great party store dedicated especially to comic and video game decorations. It's right across the street from Veggie Heaven."

Gabi nodded and headed in that direction. Bree grabbed her phone and called the school, dialing *67 first.

"Hello, my name is Sienna Carson," Bree said. "I'm calling to let you know my step daughter Gabrielle Shay won't be in school today. She's sick."

The woman Bree was talking to said something.

"Of course. Gabi has Algebra 2 first today, with Mr. Goode."

The lady said something else.

"Thank you," Bree said, hanging up.

"You do a great Sienna," Gabi said.

"Well thank you," Bree said. She looked behind her. "You next Jake."

Jake called the school pretending to be his dad, then Bree called again, pretending to be her own mother. To minimize suspicion, Jake said he was out for a college visit and Bree said she had a doctor's appointment.

Once that was taken care of, Gabi sped up, Bree turned on the radio, and the three relaxed into their mental health day.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie slammed her head down on the lunch table. Milly squealed at the noise and Jade gave her a strange look.

"El, what are you _doing_?" she asked. "Are you alright?"

"Do I _look_ alright?" Ellie snapped.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked.

"Nothing."

Jade's face scrunched up in confusion. "But you just said-"

"I mean nothing I can really tell you about. Alyssa and I got into a fight, but I can't tell you what it was about."

"Then tell us the story around it," Milly suggested.

"Okay…Um, so, Josh Hart was keeping a big secret from Alyssa. Something about her family that he knew-"

"How does he know anything about Lyssa's family?" Adam interrupted.

"His mother and her mother were best friends," Ellie said. "Anyway, he didn't tell her, but he told everyone else."

"Everyone else as in…?" Jade asked.

"As in Rae, Caty, Gabi, me, Chris and Cara Lyndon, and Sage Martin," Ellie said. "And then at Alyssa's birthday party on Sunday, she found out and she got mad at Josh, and then she got angry at all of us because we all knew the secret and didn't tell her."

"I have noticed that Cla-uh, _Alyssa_-hasn't been hanging out with Rae, Jake, and Josh," Milly said.

Ellie nodded. "Alyssa ignores all of us and spends lunch in the library or the art studio with James. And you know how we all hang out after school?"

"The tutor circle thing?" Jade asked. GRACE decided Caty's excuse was better than any of the ones they'd come up with, and now they all used it.

Ellie nodded. "She didn't come yesterday, and she probably won't come for a while. James came though. He said Alyssa was okay with it."

"He didn't know the secret?" Adam asked.

"No, thank goodness. At least she has _someone_ she can trust. You know, I didn't want this secret to come out because I thought it would hurt her hear it, but forcing everyone to keep it a secret hurt her anyway. I feel awful!"

"It's not your fault," Milly said. "Your heart was in the right place."

Jade and Adam nodded. Ellie just groaned.

"I have never seen someone look _that_ depressed before," Jade commented, nodding at Rae and Josh, who were eating a table with Caty and Chris.

"They were both best friends with Alyssa," Ellie said. She sighed. "Guys, I hate to do this, but do you mind if I go eat with them today? I want to see if we can come up with a plan to get Alyssa to talk to us again."

"Sure, go for it. We don't mind. We're not a cult," Milly said. "You don't have to hang out with us and only us."

Ellie knew that was an allusion to Caty's group. Ellie had told her friends Nina and Misha were basically shunning Caty because they didn't want her hanging out with kids outside of their clique.

Ellie smiled gratefully and went over to sit by her other friends.

"Hey guys," she said glumly.

"Hey El. How's it going?" Caty asked.

"Well…I went over to Alyssa's for dinner yesterday," Ellie said.

Immediately, all eyes were on her.

"What happened?" Josh asked.

"She let you in?" Rae asked.

"What did she say?" Caty wondered.

"Did you make any progress?" Chris questioned.

"Not at all!" Ellie cried. She told the group what happened yesterday.

"So she confronted Taranee," Josh mused. "I wonder if she's going to tell Nigel what happened."

"Alyssa practically revealed the whole story. I don't think Taranee has much of a choice," Chris pointed out.

"What does it matter?" Rae burst out. "All I want to know is how to get Alyssa back. I miss my best friend."

"I told you we should've told her. You guys were all _cowards_," Chris spat, surprising everyone at the table. Where the mild mannered guy they all knew? He usually wasn't even angry when he spoke to Ellie.

"What's done is done," Caty said firmly. "What we need to do now is figure out a plan going forward. How do we get Alyssa to forgive and trust us?"

"I think our only option is hoping James convinces her we're worth it," Rae said glumly.

"No. We are not putting our faith in _that_ guy," Josh declared.

"I agree," Chris said immediately.

"_That_ guy is our best bet," Ellie snapped. "I get that you guys are protective of her, but you need to back off of James. Right now, he's the only one she trusts. I don't know about you guys, but I'm glad she has someone she feels like she can rely on."

Caty and Rae nodded, and Josh and Chris rolled their eyes, looking put out.

Lana and Kelli passed by their table at that point. Lana couldn't help but make a comment at the table of three losers (mixed in with two hot guys) who all looked like they were coming back from a funeral.

"Who died?" she snickered.

"We _really_ don't need your commentary bitch," Ellie muttered.

Lana raised an eyebrow. "You'll want to watch your language around me Drama Freak," she said coldly.

"Why?" Rae asked. "In case you forgot, your leader is _friends_ with Ellie now."

Lana rolled her eyes. "That doesn't make her invincible," she snapped. She looked at Ellie. "Don't step out of line Kramer. We still own this school."

Caty glared at the girl. In the next second, her cranberry juice exploded all over her Gianni Versace dress. Some of it also got on Kelli's sweater which Rae recognized as something from her mother's new winter line.

The entire Team GRACE table burst into laughter, as did several other tables in the vicinity, including the cheerleaders.

Lana screamed. "This dress is Versace!" she cried. "And it's _brand new_!"

"This was my only Silena Shane piece this year," Kelli whimpered.

"You poor girls," Caty said, sarcastic concern in her voice.

Both girls glared at her before rushing out of the cafeteria.

"Nice Caty," Ellie said.

"I had to do something. No one threatens you and gets away with it," Caty replied, slapping high fives with the air guardian.

Rae marveled at the two girls. She'd just now realized how close Caty and Ellie had gotten. Their friendship grew stronger once the water guardian was abandoned by her old friends. And come to think of it, the whole reason Caty had a fight with Nina and Misha was _because_ of how they were judging her new friends, mainly Ellie. Rae smiled. She knew Ellie missed Alyssa, and she was glad the air guardian had someone on the team she had gotten close with while she was rebuilding her lost friendship with Alyssa.

After that, the group moved on to lighter topics. Caty's trick had put them in a better mood, and none of them wanted to go back to being depressed. They'd talk about getting Alyssa back at guardian training. For now, they decided to focus on being happy for a little while longer.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So can you use vines to squeeze someone to death?" Jake asked as he and Gabi waited patiently at the bakery.

"I suppose," Gabi replied. "But I've never tried. That's disgusting. We let Rae do most of the killing."

"Did you just call her Rae?"

"Don't get used to it," Gabi replied.

Jake smiled. "So can you telekinetically get a gun to go off?"

"Only if the gun is in my line of vision."

"What if there's a house with a gun in it? Could you telekinetically get it?"

"Not if I don't know where it is or what the inside of the house looks like," Gabi replied. "It's telekinesis Jake, not _magic_."

"But Sage had magic, right? So can she do that?"

"I guess, if conjuring up a gun is part of one of the magical skill sets she learned," Gabi said, getting a head ache.

Gabi, Bree, and Jake had taken care of most of the party supplies that morning. The trio had gotten lunch, bought a few more last minute things, then went over Gabi's list again. Bree decided to go to the stationary store to grab invitations. Jake said he'd go to the bakery across the street to talk about the cake. He knew the owner, so he could get pretty much whatever kind of cake he wanted for free. Gabi decided to go with him. Since they were alone, Jake started to bombard her with questions about GRACE. He started by asking Gabi what everyone's powers were. He seemed really interested in knowing what each person could do with their powers. Gabi decided there was no harm in telling him since Rae was going to make him forget that afternoon anyway, but no she was getting annoyed. He was like a little kid!

"You guys are like superheroes!" Jake cried. "It's awesome."

"Oh yeah. Cuz fighting ugly looking monsters and saving worlds is exactly what I wanted to do with my life," Gabi said sarcastically.

"So what is the world you have to save like?" Jake asked. "What was it called again?"

"Meridian," Gabi said. She decided telling Jake about the prophecy and all the worlds would be too complicated so she told him there was only one alternate world, Meridian, and said their mission was simply to defeat Kasson and save Elyon, the true queen. "And you should really ask your girlfriend."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"Because Rae's the leader," Gabi said. "Technically, she gets to decide who gets to know about us and what they get to know."

"I'm her boyfriend. She's going to tell me everything," Jake said.

'Don't bet on it,' Gabi thought.

"Hey listen," Jake said, and suddenly his voice was serious. "I want to apologize."

"The questions aren't _that_ annoying," Gabi assured him.

Jake rolled his eyes. "You know that's not want I mean. I mean, I'm sorry for thinking it was you who wrote the "Poor Little Rich Girl" article. I know you better than that, and I don't why I believed you'd be capable of something so awful."

"I _am_," Gabi said. "I didn't write the article, but I can be just as awful. Even more so at times."

"No, you just _think_ you are," Jake argued. "You are a much better person than you allow yourself to be."

'The last time someone told me that, he turned around and bit my head off a week later,' Gabi thought bitterly.

"No. You're wrong about me."

"I'm _not_. You go out of your way to make sure Luc is safe and taken care of. You won't let anyone say _one word_ against Bree. You were protective like that of me too. You're smart and funny and fierce."

"That's different from being a good person."

"You _are_ a good person. You're sweet and protective and loyal."

"I'm _not_ sweet."

"You are to Bree and your brothers. You welcomed Sage and Josh right away. You were my sweetest girlfriend."

"I was your _only_ girlfriend," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. The other girls Jake dated didn't count as _girlfriends_. "Anyway, I know who and what I really am. I'm loud and demanding and I play favorites. I can't keep my rude comments to myself."

Jake opened his mouth to say something, but Gabi didn't let him.

"I'm judgmental and a freak!"

"What? No you're not! Who told you that?"

Gabi raised her eyebrows. "You did…when you broke up with me."

Jake went red. "Oh. Yeah. Look, I know I was really mean to you. I wanted to apologize for that too. I should've found a way to talk privately and I should've been gentle. And I don't think you're a freak. Yes, you were a little judgmental back then, but you've really changed this year."

"Not a lot," Gabi sighed. "I'm still annoying and obnoxious. And I'm a blabbermouth. I'm shallow and pretentious, and I'm egocentric, lazy, and a bitch. People hate me."

"What people?"

"The person that said that I'm annoying and obnoxious and all that stuff."

"Who said that?" Jake asked, looking angry.

Gabi cringed. If she said Josh, he'd probably go pulverize him. So she just shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"It matters to me."

"Let it go Jake. It doesn't matter who said it. All that matters is that it's all true."

"It's not. You're not that person!"

Gabi laughed. "Really? Which Gabi Shay do you know?"

"The real one," Jake said, his tone more serious than Gabi had ever heard it. "You have flaws. So what? So does everyone? But I've never met someone as sincere as you or as independent or strong. You're incredible Gabi, and you just need to believe it."

Gabi finally smiled, and she could feel herself blushing.

"Thanks Jake," she said finally. For the first time since her fight with Josh, she felt okay again.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"You have clay in you're here," James said.

"Shut up. _You_ have clay in _your_ hair!" Alyssa snapped before realizing that didn't make any sense and she wasn't even sure what it was James said. "Wait, what?"

James laughed. "You have clay," he repeated, "in your hair. You know, the gray stuff."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know what clay is," she sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just distracted."

"Working on your sculpture?"

"Yeah. I'm working really hard."

"I can tell," James said. "What are you working on anyway?" He leaned over to get a peek at Alyssa's sculpture.

She squealed and covered her current sculpture with her hands, but forgot to cover up her already finished pieces. There were two of them. They were triangles with rounded edges and symbols carved onto them. One of them had a triangle with one edge missing. The only had two incomplete semicircles.

"Aren't those the symbols for the guardian of fire and the guardian of quintessence?" James asked.

"No!" Alyssa cried, blushing furiously.

James gently removed Alyssa's hands from the sculpture she was covering. It was another curved triangle, and carved on it was a sideways 'e.' "And that's the symbol of the air guardian." He grinned at her.

"Oh stop smiling!" Alyssa snapped. Then she sighed. "I had this idea, before the fight, that I'd make each girl a necklace with their element symbol on it. I'm not sure if Gabi would wear it, or even like it, but I think the others would've appreciated it."

"They will," James said.

"Would've. I'm obviously not doing it anymore," Alyssa said stiffly.

"Right. Which is why you're still working on them," James said sarcastically.

Alyssa glared at him and he gave her a playful smile back, which immediately softened Alyssa's glare. She never could stay mad at James. It was impossible to be mad at that face.

The previous day in the library, Alyssa was unnerved by James, but after he walked her to APUSH, the feeling pretty much went away and Alyssa was sure the look in his eyes was a trick of the light.

Now it was Wednesday afternoon and they had finished their shifts at Lange Clayhouse. Employees had free reign over the clay, so once Alyssa clocked out, she'd decided to work on her latest sculpture. James, who wasn't much on an artist, played around with the clay a bit, then decided to work on homework instead.

"I think you should make them all anyway," James said.

Alyssa nodded slowly. The two stayed for another half hour while Alyssa finished the rest of the symbols. She put them in her work cubby so she could put them in the kiln the next day. The James took Alyssa to Applebee's. Alyssa decided she wanted to go out for dinner every day that week, both to avoid her family as much as she could, and because she and James had only been out on one _actual_ date since they got together. James was only too happy to oblige.

As the pair waited for their drinks, Alyssa got out a pen from her bad and wrote some numbers are on her napkin. James grabbed it and read the numbers out loud.

"2392038…what's that?"

"That was the code that Irma used for her lock pad in her house where we found the journal and stuff. When Rae told me the code, I wrote it down in case we need it, and since then, the number's been stuck in my head, as if something's trying to tell me that it's important in some way."

"Well, maybe it's a code. I mean…like maybe the numbers actually mean something," James suggested.

"Yeah, but like what?"

"What if each number corresponds to a letter in the alphabet?"

"I thought of that, but if that's the case, the letters I come up with are 'B-C-I-B-C-H, and those letters don't spell anything, even if you rearrange them."

"That's only six letters. The code has seven numbers," James pointed out.

"One of the numbers is zero," Alyssa replied. "Then I tried pairing the numbers together, and ended up with W-C, because one of the pairs was '92', and then there was one number left over."

"Wait," James said. "What's the eighth letter of the alphabet?"

"H," Alyssa replied.

James looked thoughtful. "W-C-H," he said, and his eyes lit up. "What if…okay, split them up this way. 23, 9, 20, 3, 8. Then what do you get?"

"Um, W-I-T-C-H…witch!" Alyssa exclaimed.

"So Irma set her pass code as WITCH," James said.

"How come I didn't figure that out?" Alyssa wondered.

"Maybe you didn't want to," James replied.

Alyssa was silent.

"This proves Irma wants to see the other girls," James went on.

"Unless we're reading too much into this," Alyssa said. "Besides, who cares? Even if I was still friends with Team GRACE, we can't get WITCH together knowing what we do. Mom and Cornelia would probably tear each other's throats out."

James winced. "Right. And you guys still haven't found Will anyway."

"So I guess that's that," Alyssa said.

James frowned, but didn't bring up the topic again. On their way home, Alyssa realized she forgot her backpack at work, so James drove them to Lange's Clayhouse. It was 9:30 when they got there and Mrs. Lange was just about to close up. She gave Alyssa the key when she saw them

"Go ahead and grab your stuff dear," she said warmly. "Just lock up, and you can give me this key back when you come in tomorrow."

"Thanks Mrs. Lange. Good night," Alyssa said. She and James went into the back room where Alyssa's backpack was. She made a move toward it when she heard a familiar staticky noise. She turned around to see a portal opening.

"Oh my God," she said as James grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

Only one monster came out. It didn't look like anything Alyssa had seen before. It had green skin, carried a sword and shield, and wore ripped blue shorts. It had shot red hair and was drooling. The portal closed behind it.

The monster looked between James and Alyssa. Then it immediately lunged toward the fire guardian. She squealed and _just_ managed to dodge it's sword.

"Alyssa!" James cried in worry. He looked around and jumped on one the tables to grab Mr. Lange's prized katana that he hung on the wall.

"James, we're not supposed to touch that!" Alyssa cried.

"Really not an issue right now Lyss," James replied, jumping in front of his girlfriend and blocking the monster's sword.

"What is it _doing_ here?" Alyssa asked.

"No clue. But the portal closed, so we need to kill it."

"Do you think you can?"

"Definitely," James replied. In the next second, the monster used his shield to block James swing, then cut James left shoulder.

James cried out in pain, but lunged again. The monster pushed James. James fell and lost his grip on his sword. The monster grabbed it.

"Shit," James groaned.

"Are you okay?" Alyssa asked frantically, unable to take her eyes of his bleeding shoulder.

"Run," James whispered.

"What?"

"He doesn't care about me. He's after _you_. Run!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Alyssa shrieked. Then she jumped up and moved to the left to avoid the monster's sword.

"A…lyss…a," James groaned, sitting up. He crawled over to his girlfriend, and kicked the monster in the stomach. He was knocked down.

"James, without a sword, you can't kill this thing," Alyssa said.

"And without your powers, you can't. So what do you propose we do?"

Alyssa was at a loss.

"We need the others," James said.

Alyssa sighed, knowing he was right. Before she could try to contact Rae, the monster lunged at James with his sword. Alyssa squealed and jumped in front of him. Immediately, the monster retracted his sword, and tried to stop himself. He ended up tripping over his own feet.

"He wants you, but he doesn't want to kill you," James realized.

"I wonder why," Alyssa said, getting to her feet. James followed suit.

The monster got up and lunged at Alyssa, his arms outstretched, as if to grab her. Alyssa got out of the way and the monster ran into the wall. He dropped Mr. Lange's katana, and James grabbed it. The two engaged in a sword fight.

Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief and to her absolute confusion, she saw smoke coming out of her mouth. What the hell? Alyssa remembered her mom saying something on the video Hay Lin showed them. The breath of fire. It's something she'd get as her powers got stronger. She had to let out a huge breath, and fire would come out of her mouth. But Alyssa didn't have her powers anymore. She figured the breath of fire was a moot point. Maybe she could use it though.

'I could _really_ use some good luck,' Alyssa thought. She faced the monster.

"James, out of the way!" she screamed.

If James was confused, he didn't show it. Like he did with Rae, he immediately got out of the monster's way. The monster turned to face Alyssa.

Alyssa took a huge breath and let it out. To her delight, fire came out of her mouth and hit the monster. He was burned alive.

James stared at Alyssa as she finally stopped. "Lyssa, did you just…"

"Breathe fire?" she finished for her boyfriend. "Yeah."

"Cool."

The pair lay down, breathing hard. Within seconds, they were both laughing. Ten minutes later, they cleaned up the ash, Alyssa, patched up James' arm with the first aid kid, they put Mr. Lange's katana back on the wall, and locked up.

"Now what?" James asked.

"As much as I don't want to, we need to go talk to my mom," Alyssa said. "I thought being an ex-guardian would keep me safe, but that's clearly not the case. If I want to stay safe, I need my powers back."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

It was 11:30 when Rae got home that night. Since Nina and Misha had basically turned their backs on Caty and Alyssa had abandoned them, it Rae and Caty were left to do their biology project on their own. That day in class though, when their group was supposed to present, they realized they came in with three different projects-one that Caty and Rae had done, one that Nina and Misha had done, and one that Alyssa had done on her own.

Their teacher allowed them a one day extension, and the girls had to put their projects together. That had been a hard task since no one was talking to anyone else. Finally, Caty had lost it and demanded they work together. Since no one had seen Caty lose her temper, the four other girls were scared into being civil to each other in order to make an A-worthy project. Hopefully, their presentation would go off without a hitch as well.

Sage was at Gabi's, hanging out with Josh. Rae had half a mind to go to Gabi's to hang out with Josh as well, but she really wanted to go to spy on Gabi. Gabi had ditched school that day, and Bree and Jake went with her. Now, the two girls and Jake were going to hang out at Gabi's all night. Why was her boyfriend hanging out with his ex? It wasn't that Rae didn't trust Jake. She did. And she trusted Gabi too. Or at least, she trusted that Gabi liked Josh (even though those two seemed to currently be in a fight), but she was still uneasy about the whole thing. But she didn't want to seem like an insecure girlfriend, and she also had a feeling going to Gabi's house as Josh's guest would be the same thing as inviting herself over, so she had no chance.

Jake did stop by Rae's house that afternoon, at which point she gave him a drink with some Memory Flower powder in it and managed to successfully erase his memory of all things GRACE related, but made sure he remembered the big reveal and everything else that happened at the party. She felt a physical pain as she erased the memory of the boy she was sure to fall in love with, but she kept telling herself she was doing this for him and his safety. It didn't make her feel any better.

Rae walked into the kitchen, where Silena was drinking some coffee at the kitchen island. She checked the clock when Rae got in. "Even 11:30 is early for you," she said. "Are you and Alyssa still fighting?"

Rae sighed and nodded. "It doesn't look like the end is near. When we worked on our project tonight, she spent the whole time talking to Misha and Nina and the three of them didn't even look at us."

"How did you do your project then?"

"I was the liaison, put in the middle. Nina and Misha were still talking to me, Alyssa was talking to them, and I was talking to Caty."

"That's awfully complicated," Silena frowned.

"Tell me about it," Rae replied, hopping up on one of the stools. She reached for the cookie jar, but Silena grabbed it and put it up on the top shelf before handing Rae a plate of cookies she had put on the counter.

Rae rolled her eyes and grabbed one.

"I'm sure you and Alyssa will fix things soon," Silena said reassuringly. "A friendship like yours doesn't just disappear."

"Thanks mom," Rae smiled. "Why are you drinking coffee this late at night?"

"I have a meeting with a client in a few minutes. She resides in India, so it's noon her time right now. I need the coffee if I want to stay awake, this meeting is probably going to run for a few hours."

"Mom, I could never do your job," Rae declared, making Silena laugh.

In a few minutes, Silena went to her bedroom to talk to her client, leaving Rae alone. Rae reached out for another cookie, then stopped. She looked up at the cookie jar Silena put on the shelf.

Rae had wondered about that jar for a long time. Silena had several cookie jars in her kitchen, all of them filled with different types of cookies. But that one jar was off limits. Rae had thought it was some weird quirk of her mother's-Silena was pretty superstitious at times-and just accepted it. But ever since Rae found out that Silena and Frank knew about Meridian, she'd found a reason to be suspicious of a majority of the things Silena did. What was in that cookie jar that it was so off limits?

It wasn't as if Rae had never tried to open it. She had. She'd always dragged chairs in front of the cupboards when her mom was out or asleep to try and see what her mother was hiding from her. But every time she tried to open the jar, it wouldn't. No matter how much she pulled, the lid would not budge. Rae used to just let it go, thinking the jar probably held bills or private letters. But she was beginning to realize that if things like cookie jars didn't open, then maybe magic was involved.

Rae took out the heart, and, making sure her mother's room door was closed, whispered, "Guardians…me…unite!"

She felt the familiar surge of power and said, "Quintessence!"

Using her wings, she flew up to the high shelf (that really wasn't that high considering everyone else in the house could reach it) and grabbed the cookie jar. She grabbed the lid and pulled. It came off so easily that Rae actually banged her elbow against the shelf.

"Ow! Shit!" she yelled.

"Rae!" Silena cried, her voice panic ridden.

"I'm okay Mom!" Rae cried hurriedly before her mother could come out of her room and see Rae in guardian form with the off limits cookie jar in her arms.

Silena, luckily, stayed in her room. Her meeting must've been starting.

Looking inside the cookie jar, Rae saw, to her immense disappointment, it was empty. But she could feel power in it, as if there was something powerful inside the jar at one point, and the residual energy from that power was still in the jar.

Rae frowned. She put the cookie jar down, changed back into human form, and made a mental note to tell Hay Lin about this. Something strange was going on.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Well, I hope you guys liked it! This chapter was actually shorter than most. I expected to end it after Alyssa and James got attacked, but it was too short there for the long wait, so I decided to put in the bit about the cookie jar, which wasn't supposed to be written until the next chapter. I'm pretty excited to get to work on the next chapter, and that will definitely be out sooner than this one! Let me know what you guys think!**


	27. AN: In Some Pain Hiatus

**A/N: Hey everyone! Okay, so bear with me, but this isn't a chapter. It doubles as an important author's note and the shout outs to the chapter 25 reviews.**

**So, my hands and arms have been hurting lately, and I think it's possible I'm getting carpal tunnel. Whatever the case, I don't have a doctor's appointment til Thursday, and in the meantime, both the doctor and my parents have advised me to stop typing. I'm working on chapter 26 whenever my parents are out, but when they are home, they are making sure I'm not typing in case it makes my arms worse (I love being home for the summer)!**

**Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know it'll be a little while before I can get the next chapter out, and I wanted to apologize in advance instead of waiting until I can get chapter 26 out. I don't want to lose readers or followers and I didn't want you guys to think I'm not dedicated to this story because I really am.**

**While I wrote out this author's note, I thought I'd reply to your reviews you at least don't have to wait for those. I'm hoping to finish and publish this before my mother gets home! If anyone reviews after I get this author's note out, I'll give you a shout-out in chapter 26 like normal. **

**Thank you in advance for understanding and being so patient, and thanks for the support and reviews for chapter 26. I want to give a HUGE thank you to StellahhhBella for following this story. You are lucky number 13, lol!**

**Here are the shout outs! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: Very good. That's exactly how you get to be first. Haha, the granola bar fight! I went back and read that when you mentioned it. You're not the only one who loves that fight. But that's exactly the kind of fight Gabi and Josh are in. They will fight more though. And yeah, I'm going to stress that in either chapter 26 or 27, how Bree, Gabi, and Jake used to hang out as a threesome a lot before Gabi and Jake got together. Yeah, I want to start to ****_show_**** the bond between Caty and Ellie instead of just talk about it. That was just the beginning. Caty is going to be the one to discover Ellie's secret, so I need to show how close they are. I don't know to be honest. I had a moment planned out for Gabi and Jake, but much later in the story. The moment in chapter 25 came out of nowhere. Maybe they will end up back together. I like Rae and Jake together too, but I also like Gabi with Jake. Maybe Rae and Josh will get together? Once Alyssa and Rae make up, I'm sure Alyssa would advocate for that. If they grow up and get married, Alyssa and Rae would be sisters lol. Both the necklaces and Irma's passcode spelling WITCH were supposed to be put in the story ****_before_**** Alyssa's fight with everyone, but oh well. It seemed to work out better here anyway. You get to find out about Alyssa and the fire in the next chapter. Rae and Silena had a conversation in third chapter, on their way to The Silver Dragon. You like the next chapter? You mean the one where I had nothing written in the day you reviewed this? Funny. Really.**

**WaterAmulet: I had a feeling you'd freak out. I don't know what to tell you about what I'm doing with Rae, Jake, and Gabi. The triangle will come back, but I don't know the outcome of it. That's ironic that you said that, because I was just telling another reviewer that I want to highlight Caty and Ellie's friendship in the coming chapters because Caty is the one Ellie finally tells about her family. Well, just to remind you, the Oracle is the only one that can give Alyssa her powers back, so that's not what happened, but you'll find out in the next chapter. I'm glad you noticed the way I named the chapter. You're right, the cookie jar is important, but it won't be revealed for a while why it is. I hope you'll like the chapter when it's published.**

**Taylor: You're asking all the right questions! I don't know how the Gabi/Jake/Rae triangle will work out yet, the fire is explained in chapter 26, and the cookie jar will be explained, but not for a while. Hope you like the next chapter!**

**Shay: Yes, I wanted to highlight Jake, Gabi, and Bree as a trio, because they were both really close to Gabi even before she started going out with Jake, so I figure the three of them hung out together a lot before the whole break up mess. I will tell you Caty will make up with Nina and Misha. I'm only telling you this because the three of them get in another fight a little while after they make up, and I'm unsure how that fight will turn out. James and Alyssa are definitely my favorite couple! I'm glad you like them too. The fire will be explained in the coming chapter. I love how my readers notice how I named the chapter. The cookie jar's significance will be explained eventually, but it'll be a while. I hope you enjoy chapter 26 when it comes out though!**

**Misa: The answer to how Alyssa was able to breathe fire will be revealed in the coming chapter. The secret of the cookie jar will take a while, but I think you and my other readers will be able to figure it out by the time I reveal it. I'm glad you said that because Gabi and Jake's moment is like a moment my best friend (who is a guy) and I have, and Gabi and Jake were close. It doesn't ****_have_**** to be romantic. And, don't hold me to this, but I'm pretty sure Alyssa makes up with one member of Team GRACE in the coming chapter. Hope you like it!**

**SilvenArrow: You're not my only reviewer who doesn't like being last. She wants to be THE first every time and gets really annoyed when she's not. She's actually my best friend and neighbor though, so she's usually right next to me as I publish each chapter since she comes over every day and she usually reviews right after I publish the chapter, unless she's feeling lazy or I update at four in the morning after she went home or is asleep. I liked everything that happened with James and Alyssa too. I really enjoy writing about the two of them as couple, just like I enjoy writing about Gabi as a singular character. And good job remembering the Oracle needs to give Alyssa her powers back. You'll find out what happened in the coming chapter. The cookie jar will take a little (okay, a lot) longer to explain, as will the reason behind Caleb and Taranee's affair, and the identity of the Angel of Magic. I hope you like the coming chapter.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**That's it guys! Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter out soon!**


	28. Loosen Up

**A/N: Hey guys! So I'm sure most of you have read the author's note I put in the last chapter. For those of you who didn't, your shout outs are in the author's note. And in case she (or he) missed it, I want to give a HUGE thank you to StellahhhBella for following this story. I didn't get any new reviews, so we'll get right to the story! **

**For those of you interested, luckily, I don't have carpal tunnel, but my doctor told me not to type for a while, and when I do get back to typing, I have to do a few things to make sure my hands and arms don't hurt again (like stop resting my wrists on my laptop as I type).**

**Thanks for understanding! I hope you enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Taranee and Nigel looked up and met each other's eyes as they cleared the table after dinner Wednesday night. Nigel gave Taranee a tense smile, which she returned. Then, they went back to focusing on the plates and dishes on the dining table.

Tense had been the norm for the couple since their daughter's outburst two nights ago. After Alyssa had stormed upstairs, Taranee had burst into tears. It had been a long time since the woman had cried, but she was so distraught seeing the pain her daughter was in that she collapsed on the couch in tears. Nigel had immediately joined her and wrapped her in his arms.

Confusion added to Taranee's distress. How had Alyssa figured out the secret Taranee tried so desperately to hide? The only evidence she had of the affair was an angry letter she'd received from Cornelia, but that letter was hidden in a lockbox she put in her nightstand that resided in her bedroom. Josh knew. Had he told her? Is that why she was mad at Josh? But why was she mad at her other friends? Were the two events even connected? For the first time, Taranee didn't have all the answers.

Every time Taranee started to feel a bit better, she'd remember she was in Nigel's arms and cry harder, realizing eventually, she'd have to tell him what Alyssa knew. But after seeing how upset his wife was, Nigel didn't ask that night, and continued not to pry. But that wouldn't last. Nigel wanted Taranee to tell him herself what was going on, but eventually, he'd get fed up with being kept in the dark, and ask her. It would be like the night he confronted her about her powers all over again. But that night ended in them being closer than ever. This time, it would end in a broken relationship.

It's not like Taranee hadn't tried to tell him before. She had. She just found she couldn't do it. When she first gave birth to Alyssa, she didn't think she could be anyone's baby than Nigel's. For a minute, the thought crossed her mind, which is why she let Nigel pick the baby's name, but she looked exactly like Taranee with Nigel's eyes, so Taranee was sure Alyssa was Nigel's.

She began to suspect when Alyssa started exhibiting traits that were similar to Caleb's. It started when she was four. She bit her lip when she was nervous like Caleb did. She rubbed her eyes with her fists when she was stressed like Caleb did. She ran her hands through her hair when she was concentrating like Caleb did. By the time she was eight, Taranee realized Alyssa was always straightforward and to the point like Caleb was. She was always serious and focused like Caleb was. Taranee knew there was no getting out of this. She had to get a paternity test done.

She secretly got DNA from Caleb, not wanting to tell him exactly what was going on. She saw no point in scaring him if it turned out Alyssa really was Nigel's daughter. However, the results came in, and Taranee's worst fears were confirmed. Alyssa was in fact Caleb's daughter.

Taranee, the only guardian that knew that Caleb and Cornelia permanently moved to Meridian, went to their house to tell Caleb first, not knowing that Josh was listening the whole time. Caleb was horrified and upset, but understood Taranee had to tell him. He asked if she wanted him to come with her to tell Nigel. She said she could do it herself.

However, once she got home, she saw Nigel playing with Alyssa, a look of pure joy in his eyes. Alyssa was doing a personal art project and Nigel threw some gold glitter at her. She squealed in delight and Taranee couldn't bring herself to tell him. She knew the joy would be gone if Nigel realized Alyssa wasn't his daughter. What if she destroyed Alyssa's relationship with him? And of course Taranee didn't want to lose Nigel herself.

She told Caleb she couldn't tell Nigel. Caleb said he wasn't going to tell her what to do, but he still had to tell Cornelia. She was, predictably, furious. She told Taranee she never wanted to see her again, and Taranee fed Nigel a bogus story about why she and Cornelia weren't friends anymore. Josh and Alyssa continued to see each other for three years until Alyssa found out about Taranee and Caleb's tryst when she overheard a conversation between Taranee and Caleb. When she told Josh, she was furious to find out he already knew. She ended her friendship with him, and Taranee cruelly erased her memory.

Looking back, Taranee couldn't believe she'd done that. She couldn't decide what was worse: cheating on Nigel, lying to her entire family for all these years, or erasing her daughter's memory just so she wouldn't get caught. And every time she thought about it, she could find no explanation for why on Earth she would ever cheat on Nigel with anyone, least of all with her best friend's husband. She and Taranee were the last members of WITCH that remained friends and Taranee had ruined that because of one night. That one night had also ruined her relationship with her daughter. And she knew soon enough, she'd have to tell Nigel, and that one night would also ruin her marriage.

Taranee sighed. She should just tell him now. It'd be better if she told him herself than waiting for him to ask her what was going on. She could at least do that for him. But before she could even decide how to start, the door flew open, and Alyssa and James walked in.

Taranee started to smile at the boy. She liked James. He was sweet and clearly adored Alyssa. And he was there to comfort her now that Alyssa had stopped speaking to all her other friends. But the smile instantly dropped off her face when she realized he had red stained guaze on his shoulder.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "James, what happened?"

"We were attacked," Alyssa spat, still unable to talk to her mother without getting angry.

"What?!" Nigel cried. "What do you mean 'attacked'?"

"We were at Lange's," Alyssa said. "I'd forgotten my backpack there and Mrs. Lange was about to close up, so she told me to get my backpack and asked me to close up. Some monster came through a portal and the portal closed after him and he attacked us."

"Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" Taranee asked, a pit in her stomach.

"We're fine," James said.

"Said the boy who got cut with a sword," Alyssa said sarcastically. "The monster hurt James, but I'm okay."

"Come here, let me dress the wound properly," Taranee offered. The pair walked into the kitchen. Taranee removed the gauze, got out the first aid kit, and began to clean out the injury.

"So the attack was Meridian related?" Nigel asked.

"Yeah," Alyssa answered, sitting on one of the island stools.

"Well, how'd you get out of it?"

"James is part of Team GRACE. He was just at guardian practice this afternoon. He knows how to fight already and Sage has been teaching him how to use a sword," Alyssa said. "And Mr. Lange has a katana hanging on the wall in the back room, which is where my backpack and the portal were. So he used it to fight the monster, even though Mr. Lange says we're not allowed to touch it."

"Which I reminded Lyssa wasn't really an issue at the moment considering we were fighting for our lives," James piped up.

"Right, except we weren't," Alyssa said.

"Weren't…what?" Taranee asked.

"Fighting for our lives," Alyssa responded. Her tone was even, but she refused to look at her mother. "We quickly realized the monster was after me, but I guess to capture me or something, because he didn't want to hurt me. He had no problem hurting my boyfriend though."

"I'm not as important as you," James said, only half joking.

"So, what I then realized," Alyssa said, finally looking at her mother, her tone angry, "is that even being an ex-guardian doesn't keep me safe. In fact, it puts me in _more_ danger because without powers, I can't protect myself."

"She has a point," Nigel said softly.

"Lyssa," James said sternly. "Tell them."

"Tell us what? Don't leave anything out sweetheart!" Nigel begged.

Alyssa sighed. "If James hadn't been there, I'd probably be dead," she said. "But I was the one who saved us in the end."

"You mean with a psychic link?" Taranee asked, remembering how physical links sometimes helped save her friends.

"No…with fire."

Taranee frowned, confused. "But how? I have…" She trailed off, but looked at the Amulet that was still around her neck, still glowing orange.

"My breath of fire," Alyssa said. "I could still use that."

"Of course," Taranee breathed.

"Do you know how that was possible Mrs. Ashcroft?" James asked just as Taranee finished bandaging his arm.

Taranee nodded. "Yes. See, I figured that might be possible when I realized Alyssa still had her psychic powers. I developed a theory and once I researched it, I realized I was right."

"Right about what?" Nigel asked. "Why can Alyssa still use her powers?"

"The Keeper is born into the role of being a guardian, but the others are chosen by the Oracle, so their elemental powers aren't innate as the Keeper's is. However, once they become guardians, every power they gain after that is innate," Taranee explained.

"Like my psychic ability," Alyssa said. "Which is why even when you _took_ my powers _away from me_…" Alyssa stopped, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "I kept my psychic ability."

"Right," Taranee sighed. "But there is one guardian in each set whose powers _are_ innate, besides the Keeper. In this group, it's you Alyssa."

Alyssa thought about this and said, "Because…because I was the one chosen for spiritual continuity, right?" Her tone wasn't angry anymore; curiosity had taken over.

"Exactly," Taranee nodded. "So when I took your powers, I couldn't take what was innate in you. Even though the breath of fire requires the power I took from you, it's not an initial power. It's something you learn later, so-"

"It was innate, and I could use it," Alyssa finished in understanding. If her mother had taken away Caty's powers or Ellie's, they still wouldn't be able to use later powers that used their element like making ice or creating hurricanes because the powers weren't innate in them. But since they were in Alyssa, her mother couldn't take away anything she hadn't learned. And as for her second powers, her psychic powers, there's no way Taranee could've taken that away.

"That also explains why you're still able increase temperatures," James said. "And how you heated up your soup at Applebee's today, or how you could touch the kiln tray without burning yourself. Even if the fire part of your powers are taken away, changing temperatures or withstanding extreme heat are later, innate powers."

"Well that's all good and well," Nigel said, "but it was pure luck that Alyssa managed to save herself today. If her breath of fire hadn't surfaced at that moment, James could be dead and Alyssa could've been captured." He looked Taranee in the eye. "I think you know what we have to do."

Taranee nodded. "Tomorrow sweetie, I'll talk you to Kandrakar so the Oracle can restore your powers."

Alyssa's entire face lit up. "Really? Oh Mom, thank you so much, I-" She stopped abruptly when she realized she was supposed to be mad at her mom. No, not _supposed_ to be. She _was_. Her friends kept a secret from her, and that was bad enough, but her mother had lied to her about half her genetics for eleven years of her life, then erased her memory so that she could continue lying about it. How did she justify that?

"James is coming with us," she said, the cold edge coming back.

Taranee nodded. "Sure," she agreed.

"Cool, I've _always_ wanted to go to Kandrakar," James said brightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Which I know makes no sense since I only found out about Kandrakar a few weeks ago."

Alyssa laughed. "Come on, I'll walk you out."

"You sure you're okay Lyss? He didn't hurt you?" James asked as he opened the door.

"I'm _fine_. It's you I'm worried about."

James lifted his right arm. "Good as new," he assured her, but Alyssa caught him wince.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't do that you dummy," she mumbled.

"You say the sweetest things," James replied, making the fire guardian laugh.

James leaned down to kiss her. Nigel, who was watching them, turned away.

"Good night Miss Ashcroft," James said.

"Til tomorrow Mr. Mason," Alyssa replied. As soon as he left, Alyssa glared at her mother and stomped upstairs.

"Why do you let her take that cold tone with you?" Nigel asked his wife.

"Nigel," Taranee sighed. "What I did…what she's mad at me about…it was a terrible thing to do, and she has every right to be angry with me and take that tone with me."

"And…" Nigel said hesitantly. "And..._what_ did you do?"

Taranee sighed. She knew this was coming. "Nigel honey…you better sit down."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next afternoon, Gabi cancelled cheerleading so she could do some major damage control. Now that Rae had the Memory Flower, and it had proved to be successful, Gabi could use it on Eva. Since Eva responded better to Josh than anyone else, Gabi was forced to enlist in Josh's help. The two sat in silence as Walter drove them home.

When they walked through the front door, they saw Eva sitting on the living room floor watching TV and Luc reading on a comic book on the couch.

"Hey buddy, how was school?" Gabi asked Luc.

"Good. I gave everyone my birthday invitations at lunch. Everyone's really excited," Luc said.

"Are _you_ excited?"

"Of course! You always throw me the _best_ parties," Luc said.

"You shouldn't be celebrating that day," Eva muttered, not taking her eyes off the television.

Luc looked at Gabi expectantly, as if waiting for her to kill Eva, but Gabi didn't. She frowned. Eva didn't sound like she was saying anything taunting or insulting. She almost sounded…sad.

"It's not _my_ fault it's the day my mother died," Luc said, realizing Gabi wasn't going to do anything.

"I know," Eva said, her back still to the. Luc looked taken aback at her sincere tone. "But you still shouldn't be celebrating. That day is the reason my mommy married your daddy."

"I thought you were happy our parents got married," Gabi said. "My dad gives you whatever you want."

"But he's still _your_ daddy, not mine," Eva replied.

"But you always act like he's your dad too," Luc said.

"He _is_ my daddy because he married my mommy," Eva said, finally turning around, looking frustrated as she tried to explain. "But I wanted my mommy to marry my _real_ daddy."

Gabi and Luc looked at each other in understanding.

"Why _didn't_ she marry your real dad?" Josh asked, finally participating in the conversation.

"Sienna said she didn't love him," Gabi said.

"That's not true," Eva said matter-of-factly. "She did love him. He didn't love her."

"How do you know?" Luc asked.

Eva opened her mouth to answer, but at that moment, the phone rang. Luc, Gabi, and Eva looked at each other expectantly, each expecting the other two to answer.

"Josh, get the phone," Gabi said finally.

"Wha-? Why me?" he complained.

"Hurry, before it stops ringing!"

"Fine," Josh grumbled, grabbing the cordless from the dining room. "Hello?" There was a pause, then Josh said, "The person's talking really fast about something about golf in the bathroom."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "It's a telemarketer. Hang up."

Josh did so.

"Golf in the bathroom?" Luc asked.

"There's this thing where you can put like a mini gold green in the bathroom and practice your putt while on the toilet."

"What?"

"You haven't seen that infomercial?" Gabi asked.

Luc shook his head.

"What about you?" Gabi looked at Eva. "That TV is like your best friend."

"I don't _watch_ commercials," Eva said, rolling her eyes. Her bratty tone was back.

"My bad," Gabi replied with an eye roll of her own. "Anyone want some hot chocolate?"

"Oh me!" Luc cried.

"Eva, do you want some?" Josh asked.

"Only if you make it," Eva replied.

Gabi rolled her eyes and followed Josh into the kitchen.

"Do you have the memory flower?" Gabi whisper-asked.

"Of course I do! Why would I come home with you if I didn't?"

"You really want to piss of your hostess don't you?" Gabi snapped, still whispering.

"It's your dad's house, not yours, so technically, he's my host."

"What's your deal Josh? You hate me. Okay. Cool. I get it. But why do you have to be such a jerk about it?"

"This is how I act to people I hate!" Josh replied. "I'm not going to be nice to people I don't care about."

"You can hate me all you want, but you can't expect me to believe you don't care," Gabi said. "Because if you really didn't care, you wouldn't work so hard to be so nasty."

Josh just rolled his eyes, clearly unable to think of anything to say. In another five minutes, Gabi called Luc and Eva to the kitchen. It was four o'clock, which was usually when Luc started his homework. That was perfect because Luc would most likely leave Gabi and Josh alone with Eva.

Just as Gabi predicted, Luc grabbed his mug, thanked Gabi, then went to his room.

Eva took a seat and Josh placed the hot chocolate with the memory flower in it in front of her.

"How is it?" he asked after she took a sip.

"Good," Eva replied.

"So Eva," Gabi said, trying to remember Rae's instructions on how to use the flower.

The eight year old turned to face her step sister, wondering why the older girl was actually choosing to talk to her.

"Do you remember that day I drove you to school and you saw a branch come into my room through the window and saw all the brown leaves turn green and then you saw me force the branch out of the window?"

"Is this your confession? You're a witch, right? I'm telling Daddy!" Eva said gleefully as she took a few more sips of her hot chocolate.

"No, actually, I'm telling you to forget that."

"What?"

"Forget that I have powers. Forget what you saw that day," Gabi said, her tone triumphant.

Eva blinked for a few seconds, and looked confused, which is exactly what Rae said Jake did. Then she frowned.

"Are you crazy?" she asked.

"What?" Gabi asked.

"Why would I forget that?" Eva clarified. "Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I'm gonna prove you have powers and then everyone will know you're a freak!"

"But…but…but…" Gabi spluttered.

"You're already half way there anyway," Eva smirked. She grabbed her mug and went back to the living room, turning on the TV again.

"What happened?" Josh wondered.

"Well genius, that was a bust," Gabi replied. "Do you have any ideas that might work?"

"_That_ should've worked."

Gabi groaned.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"If it didn't work on Eva, why did it work on Jake?" Cara asked later that afternoon during guardian practice.

"Are you guys sure it worked on Jake?" Chris asked.

"Definitely," Rae assured him. "We tested him several times."

At this, all eyes were on Hay Lin.

"I have a theory," she said. "I'm not sure, but maybe the reason the memory flower didn't work on Eva is because, even without her powers, she still is the Heart of Earth."

"So what?" Josh asked.

"Maybe the memory flower doesn't work on people with that kind of magic," Hay Lin said.

"It worked on Alyssa," Caty pointed out. Immediately Rae, Chris, and Josh looked like all the happiness had been sucked out of them.

"Sorry," Caty apologized, realizing she shouldn't have mentioned Alyssa. "But it was still a fair point, right?"

"But the memory flower was used on her before she knew about being a guardian and could use her powers," Sage countered.

James shook his head. "No, remember what I told you Taranee said? About Alyssa's powers being innate because she carries on the lineage? She's different from the rest of you." He had told the group about the attack, assured everyone they were alright, and explained how Alyssa was able to breath fire, but didn't tell anyone Alyssa was going to get her powers back in case Taranee changed her mind again.

"Then maybe it's not just _any_ powers," Cara said. "Maybe it's just powerful magic. The Heart of Earth is the most powerful Earth human."

"That's gotta be it," Rae said. "I can't think of any other reason it would work on Jake but not on Eva."

"Great," Gabi muttered. "This kid's on a mission to make me a lab experiment!"

"But she hasn't done anything about it yet. She hasn't told anyone or else we would've heard about it," Rae said.

"But I think she's more determined now," Josh said. "You should've seen her."

"Is there a spell or something you can do Sage?" Caty asked.

"Not in the skill sets I know, but I'll look for something I can learn," Sage said.

Eric came downstairs and called Hay Lin away.

"I'll be right back guys," she said.

When she left, Rae took that opportunity to grill Gabi. "So, wanna tell me why my boyfriend is spending all his free time with you all of a sudden?"

Gabi rolled her eyes. "None of your business New Girl," she replied.

"How is it _not_ my business?"

"Jake's never given a reason not to trust him. Just leave it alone," Caty cautioned. Then she went to go sit by Gabi.

"So what _is_ going on?"

"Jake and Bree are helping me plan a birthday party for Luc. They help me every year, and this year I'm freaking out a little more than usual," Gabi said.

"Why?"

"It's his first birthday since the step monster and the she-devil moved in. I don't want them to say anything to upset him. Sienna would probably do it accidentally, but Eva's practically reveling in the fact that it's almost his birthday."

"I'm sorry, I still don't understand," Caty said.

"My mom died in childbirth, remember? His birthday is the same day she died. I give him an amazing party every year so he doesn't look at his birthday as a bad thing."

"Oh," Caty's eyes were filled with sympathy, but she didn't say anything pitying, which Gabi was grateful for.

"You know, I always invite Bree and Jake. Will you come too?"

"I'd love to," Caty smiled. "When is it?"

"This Saturday, at 3."

"Sounds good to me. Want to invite anyone else on the team?"

"I already invited Sage, so just Ellie."

"El, come here," Caty said.

Ellie, who was talking to Sage and Rae, walked over to the two girls and sat down.

"Gabi's having a birthday party for her brother this Saturday at 3. Want to come?"

Ellie nodded. "Yeah. How old is he turning?"

"Eleven," Gabi said. "He's the first of his friends to do so."

"Like you're the first of your friends to turn seventeen," Caty noted.

Gabi smiled and nodded.

It was five minutes later when Hay Lin came back downstairs. She had her usual smile on her face, but it disappeared when she saw her son, Rae, and Josh looking depressed.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"We just got caught up thinking about Alyssa," Rae sighed.

At the mention of her name, even Ellie's face fell.

Gabi sighed inaudibly. Ever since Josh's secret came out, the entire team had been depressed. She was tired of it. It was time to do something to get everyone's mind off of their missing comrade. And she had the perfect idea.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Your mom is making spaghetti just for me?" Ellie asked Caty excitedly as the girls walked to Caty's house after guardian practice.

"Yup. She likes to make a good impression on my friends. She's known Misha and Nina for so long that she's comfortable enough to display her bedhead around them, but around all my other friends, she and her house has to look perfect, and if she's making dinner, it has to be the guests' favorite."

"What did she serve Sage last week? She doesn't know many Earth foods," Ellie said. "The only exposure she had was the awful Sheffield food."

Caty laughed. "My mom makes great mac and cheese, so we had that."

"Yum. Your mother sounds like she's a good cook."

"She is. She used to make lunch for me every morning so I wouldn't have to buy lunch at Sheffield but ever since she got pregnant, she's been using mornings to read books and magazines on parenting instead."

"Why can't you make your own lunch?" Ellie asked. "I do, when I have time."

"I burn water," Caty replied. "I can't even spread peanut butter onto a piece of bread without it crumbling."

Ellie laughed. "You think that's something you got from your birth parents?"

"Cooking skills aren't hereditary," Caty said matter-of-factly.

"What's hereditary mean?"

"Basically what I mean is, you can't inherit cooking skills."

Ellie nodded and was quiet for a minute before asking, "Have you ever wanted to find your birth parents?"

"Not really," Caty said. "I mean they gave me up. They didn't _want_ me. Jeremy and Iris did. I mean, they weren't even supposed to be my parents. My grandparents were. But Iris and Jeremy _chose_ me. Why would I want to find my birth parents when I have two people who chose to raise me as their own?"

"I get that," Ellie said. "But don't you want to know your _real _parents?"

"They may not be my biological parents, but Iris and Jeremy _are_ my real parents," Caty replied. "I mean, okay, do I want to see my biological parents to see what features I got from them? Sure. But not so badly that I would do all the work to find them. No one knows anything about my bio parents, and I don't want to go _looking_ for them. If it happens, it happens."

"I guess you're right. I mean, you're really lucky. Maybe your real-uh, birth-parents didn't want you, but after that, you got _picked_ to be someone's child. They say you can't choose your family, but your parents did. I bet my mom wishes she had that option."

Caty looked at the air guardian curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

Ellie just smiled. "Nothing. It doesn't really matter." Ellie looked down at her feet.

Caty sighed inaudibly and wondered what was going on with Ellie. It wasn't hard to notice that, despite her being all smiles, having a cheery attitude, and using perky voice, Ellie wasn't happy. She was hiding something, and Caty had a feeling she knew what it was. After all, it wasn't hard to guess. The evidence was on Ellie's body. She always had new scratches and bruises that she claimed were from guardian training, but Caty noticed most of them were fresh, and now, they didn't accidentally hurt each other anymore. It was also clear that no one else knew. Well, maybe not _no one_.

Alyssa had repeatedly claimed that Ellie didn't _drop_ her in fifth grade, but rather the two girls got into a fight that ended their friendship. At first Caty thought Alyssa was just saying that to save face, since the story that Ellie dropped Alyssa had been floating around Sheffield halls for almost seven years. But soon enough, Caty learned Alyssa wasn't that type of person. She didn't care enough to save face. She let everyone think what she want. The reason she was so insistent about Ellie not dropping her was to help people understand Ellie wasn't the bad guy. So now Caty wondered, what actually happened between them?

Caty couldn't even _ask_. There was no way Ellie would say anything, and Alyssa wasn't talking to any of them.

"Who do you think Alyssa will forgive first?" Caty asked. "Rae?"

"Chris," Ellie replied, without missing a beat. "He was the only one that was going to tell her. Even Rae tried to convince Chris to keep quiet. She may not have specifically _wanted_ him to, but she still tried."

"And they were best friends," Caty agreed. "Rae should've been the first one to tell her."

"Maybe not _first_. Josh was the first one to _know_."

"Well he was scared. What did Rae have to be afraid of? If she'd just told Alyssa when she found out, we wouldn't be in this mess. She might've been mad at Josh, but she'd still be friends with the rest of us, she'd still be part of the team, and she would've given Josh a chance to explain."

"Rae said she promised Josh she wouldn't tell _before_ he told her."

"That was stupid."

"What would you have done?"

"I would've told her," Caty said.

"Then why didn't you."

"Honestly? I didn't believe him."

"Even after Rae and Gabi backed up his story?"

"Actually, I believed him at first," Caty said. "It was later that night that I started to doubt his story. When I found out Alyssa and I are related…if Josh is her brother, then he and I are related too. It was so messy."

"And so you chose not to believe it?"

"Yes! If something is messy, it's uncontrollable, and I can't stand uncontrollable. My whole life has been about control. I need that. That's why I warmed to our powers so quickly. Everything else was spinning out of control, and water was the one thing I had control over."

"But Caty, isn't this a happy medium. You had your adoptive family, who chose you, and you had biological family too, who are good friends of yours."

"It was still too complicated. Josh and Alyssa were half siblings, meaning there was an affair, Alyssa knew about the affair, but her memories were erased, and now she didn't know about it…I was too busy trying to sort out what this meant for me to think of Alyssa. I guess if I was so self-involved-"

"What does self-"

"Gabi," Caty defined. "It means selfish, which is Gabi, though I love her."

Ellie laughed, and nodded.

"So, if I wasn't so self-involved, I would've told Alyssa myself."

Ellie nodded. The conversation had come full circle.

"And you?" Caty asking. "Knowing what you know now, if you had a chance to do it all over again, would you have told Alyssa when you found out? Or at least, would you have let Josh tell her that day?"

"I want to say yes," Ellie said, "but no. Even if she does eventually forgive all of us, even if she's _happy_ about having an older brother, she would still suffer the heartbreak of knowing her mother cheated on Nigel, and lied to her and erased her memories. She'd still have the heartbreak of knowing Nigel, her favorite person in the world, isn't really her father. And I bet Caleb and Josh want to involve her in the family. If Josh is her half-brother, then so is Julian, and Jilly and Julia are her half-sisters. But Cornelia would never make her feel welcome."

"She didn't seem so upset with Alyssa's presence when we went to Meridian," Caty pointed out. "You said so yourself."

"Well she must've been acting."

"Why though? Why would she act like she didn't even know who Taranee married, when she knew full well who Taranee was married to, and knew the names of her two kids?"

"Because then we'd know that Taranee and Cornelia stopped being friends for a different reason than what split the other guardians up, and Alyssa would ask questions, right? That's what Rae and Josh were saying anyway," Ellie offered.

Caty sighed. "See? Messy and uncontrollable."

Ellie didn't respond, but she had to agree with Caty. Life would be so much better if everything could be controlled.

"Hey, so, I never really said thank you," Ellie said.

"For what?"

"For exploding Lana's cranberry juice. I know that was your way of sticking up for me, so thanks."

"Ellie, we're friends. I would've said something to her directly, but I thought using my powers would provide better results, which they did."

"I know we're friends, but no one else did anything. Gabi had a muted respect for me, even before GRACE, because I stood up to her. But Lana was never impressed, and no one ever protected me from her."

"Not even Adam?"

"Lana was smart. She knew Adam would stick up for her, so she never said anything against me when he was around. But Jade and Milly were there and they never said a word, even though I stuck for them whenever Gabi or Lana or any of the other cheerleaders insulted them. You're the first person besides Adam to stick up for me and I didn't think you liked me all that much."

"Because I treated you like you're stupid?"

Ellie nodded.

"I was a different person then. I was like Misha and Nina. But I like to think I'm more accepting now. What I used to see as dumb, I now see as fun. And I never knew it before, but you're creative, and crazy confident. You're awesome, and I wish I knew that before. I _do _like you Ellie, a lot. You're basically my best friend. You and Gabi."

"I bet that's something you never expected."

"To be best friends with an actress and the self-obsessed Queen Bitch of our school? Nope. But I never realize that bitch is a sweet girl who only uses the tough exterior to protect herself, and the actress is the sweetest girl I'll ever meet. And she is very smart. Maybe not straight A's, studies hard smart, but smart in the ways that actually count."

Ellie beamed at the water guardian. That was probably one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to her (besides Jason and Adam, who didn't count since one was her protective older brother and the other was in love with her).

Ellie knew things were working out with GRACE. Caty and Gabi were her friends, she was starting to be alright with Rae, she and Chris had cut down on their daily verbal battles, and she and Alyssa were starting to go back to normal (pre-party freakout). But when Alyssa dumped them all and Ellie began to realize, even if that hadn't happened, she'd never really get Alyssa back. Alyssa wasn't Ellie's best friend anymore; she was Rae's. They'd never be able to go back to how they were. But now she realized that was okay. Eventually, Alyssa would forgive them, and Ellie would get her friend back. She wouldn't be Ellie's _best_ friend anymore, but that's okay. Ellie had a new best friend now.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Even after GRACE, Gabi Shay was still the last person Rae expected to see at her door. However, there she was, waiting for Rae Thursday night. When practice was over that afternoon, and Hay Lin had gone back upstairs, Gabi had told GRACE they should all meet at The Silver Dragon around 1am.

Chris protested they couldn't sneak into the restaurant after hours. Gabi pointed out the restaurant was technically their home, so they weren't sneaking in. Chris still protested, saying they weren't allowed to let other people into the restaurant after hours, especially since Hay Lin and Eric had volunteered to be chaperones on the eighth grade camping field trip, which would run for three days and two nights.

Gabi said this was better because she liked Cara, but didn't like the idea of a fourteen year old joining in on what she had planned. Chris actually started to look physically ill, but agreed to let everyone in. He had no idea what Gabi had planned, but he did know everyone needed a pick me up, and no one cheered people up like Gabi Shay.

Gabi picked up Rae and Sage first. Josh was already in the car. They picked up James next, then got Caty, and finally Ellie.

"So what are we doing?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, what could be so fun about the restaurant we go to every day?" Caty wondered.

"The secret stash of course," Gabi said, speeding through traffic lights and ignoring stop signs.

"The secret stash of coffins we're gonna need if you keep driving like this?" Rae asked sarcastically. "I swear Gabi, you driving is way scarier than Snake Dude!"

"That's a compliment New Girl," Gabi said.

"Who decided it was okay to give you a license?" James asked.

"How many times did you need to take the road test?" Caty added her question.

"Only once actually. And my tester was a hard-ass," Gabi said. "Obviously I was more careful then."

"Why don't you care about us enough to be careful now?" Ellie moaned.

Gabi just laughed and there was a collective sigh of relief as she parked in front of The Silver Dragon.

The group knocked on the side door, where they knew Chris would be waiting.

"Okay, so what's this about a secret stash?" Caty asked after everyone hopped on one of the bar stools.

Gabi grinned as she went behind the bar counter and crouched down. When she came back up, she was holding three large glass bottles. She put them down on the counter in front of Rae.

"Oh, wine, excellent!" Rae exclaimed.

"Wait, we're drinking?" Caty asked.

"Wow, you really _are_ a genius, aren't you?" Gabi teased.

"Gabi, that alcohol belongs to the restaurant," Chris said. "We can't just take it."

"Relax, we just got a new shipment," Gabi said.

"That is true," Chris said slowly.

Caty shook her head. Chris was her only ally. "No, Chris, this is _your_ family's restaurant!"

"But we'd unload the new shipment Sunday night, and we get rid of all the leftovers. Mom and Dad invite over a bunch of friends and they try to finish off what they have left and dump the rest, every month, like clockwork."

"They just dump it out?" Rae asked, surprised.

"Well, they already have their own private collection of alcohol," Chris said. "They don't need more."

"Hay Lin and Eric are gone until Sunday night. Josh and I are working that night, so we can unload the shipment before they get back, and no one will ever know," Gabi said, trying to appease Caty.

"And what are you going to say happened to the alcohol they're supposed to serve their friends?" Caty asked.

"This party is usually on Sunday nights. Since they're not going to be home, they were planning to dump it all anyway," Chris said.

Gabi gave Caty a hopeful smile.

"Do what you want Caty, but I'm definitely drinking," Rae said.

"Me too," Ellie agreed.

"Oh fine. I'm in," Caty sighed.

Chris and Gabi put different glasses on the counter. Then Chris ran to the back as Gabi put more bottles on the counter. When Chris returned, he was carrying four large 2-liter bottles, one containing ginger ale, one containing root beer, one containing lemonade, and one containing coke.

"Chasers," he explained.

"Hand me the coke, and someone give me some rum," Rae demanded.

"Rum coke is my favorite too," Chris said.

Ellie looked the wine bottles in front of her, then asked, "Is there vodka?"

"You know, I always thought the way your mother enjoys alcohol put you off this stuff," Caty whispered. Ellie's mother being a drunk was the one secret Caty knew about Ellie.

"They always serve alcohol at cast parties. I just have someone, usually Adam, watch me so I don't get too drunk. Will you cut me off?"

"Sure. I'm guessing these are unsupervised cast parties?" Caty said.

"Unsupervised is just another word for fun," Gabi said, joining the conversation.

"I want a cosmo," Ellie said. "Anyone know how to make one?"

"Oh, I'm really good at cosmos!" Gabi said.

"One for me too then," Caty said.

"Josh, Sage, what's wrong?" Rae asked, noticing they were sitting still, shooting each other confused looks.

"What exactly _is_ alcohol?" Sage asked.

Everyone stared at her.

"You're kidding, right?" Ellie asked.

Sage shook her head.

"Josh, you don't even know?" Rae asked. "I would think Caleb would need a whole lot of something alcoholic after he found out about Alyssa being his daughter. And don't they serve wine or something at Christmas or Thanksgiving or something?"

"I can't believe your parents ever went without drinking," Caty added.

"We don't have anything that looks like this in Meridian," Sage said, looking at a bottle of Lambrusco.

"I'm guessing the Cian Crocodile doesn't have that extra kick to it," Gabi giggled. Josh hid a smile while everyone else looked confused.

"Well, if you don't know what alcohol is," Caty said, pouring herself a glass of gin while waiting for her cosmo, "you should get an explanation. So, alcohol is a depressant-"

Gabi cut her off with a groan.

"Caty," Ellie said, "they don't need to know what alcohol is scientifically!"

"Actually, classifying something as a depressant is a psychological definition," Caty said.

Ellie rolled her eyes, but smiled. She didn't say it in her high and mighty voice. She said it shyly, the way Alyssa would've, and Ellie knew she was doing it for Ellie's sake. Caty had been slowly trying to fill the hole Alyssa left just to make Ellie feel better.

"What they need is the fun definition," Ellie said. She launched into her own explanation of alcohol.

"Are you okay?" Rae asked, nudging James beside her who was staring into space, the glass of wine her poured himself untouched.

James looked at her and gave her that grin that turned Alyssa into a puddle. "Sure."

Rae rolled her eyes. "Give me a little credit. I know you well enough to know that's not true." As she said it though, she wondered if that was true.

She hadn't realized it before, but besides Alyssa, James was really only friends with Rae when it came to Team GRACE. He and Sage were close, but only really hung out at school. They didn't really interact outside of school, even during guardian practice. Sage was his fighting teacher at first, but she was better with a dagger than a sword, and when it became clear James preferred to fight with a sword, Josh was forced to take over as his fighting teacher. But this week, Josh and Rae were practically stuck to each other, taking comfort of their fight with Alyssa in each other, and James had been practicing on his own. He probably felt lonely.

"I just wish Alyssa was here," James shrugged. "She'd go on and on about how this is against the rules and how we're underage and list the dangers of alcohol."

"Stuff that would probably annoy Gabi and Ellie to no end," Rae said.

"But stuff I'd love to hear because it's so quintessentially Alyssa," James said.

Rae had to smile at that. She had to admit, she had been incredibly jealous of James since he was the only one who Alyssa wasn't angry at. Granted, she knew it was her own fault, but jealousy was never rational. But she was happy to know James was still there for her. James always made Alyssa laugh, always put a smile on her face, and always put her first. And he didn't like her _despite_ her little quirks-he liked her _for_ them. Rae was happy to know her best friend was in good hands.

"And I miss her," James said.

"Miss her? You're with her every day! Anytime you're not with us, or at basketball practice, you're with her."

"I'm not with the _real_ Alyssa. The one I fell for. Ever since the big fight at her birthday party, she's been different. She's angry and moody, more aggressive. When I first met her, I _wanted_ her to be more aggressive so she could stand up for herself. But this is angry aggression, and I didn't want that. Alyssa used to be sweet and accepting. I thought it was adorable when she was shy. I want that girl back. I'm not saying I like her any less, but I don't want her to be angry all the time. That'll destroy her. I want to see that sweet, happy girl I once knew. I saw a glimpse of her today-uh yesterday?-but it was gone as quickly as it came."

"We suck," Rae declared. "We're the ones who made her that way. We really suck!"

"It wasn't smart of Josh to keep her parentage a secret, but I can understand why he did it. She barely looks at her mother now and she can't talk to her without getting angry. I miss how they used to talk as if they were best friends."

Rae sighed, taking a sip of her rum-coke. "James, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"If you had known the secret when the rest of us did…would you have told her?"

"Yes," James said immediately. "If it was a secret that physically hurt Alyssa, I wouldn't say a word, but this was something she deserved to know and I'd absolutely tell her, no matter what any of you said to try and stop me."

"I thought about telling you," Rae admitted. "Josh and Ellie begged me not to tell her and I just thought, maybe if I told you, you'd tell her, and I wouldn't have to feel bad for keeping it from her, but I also wouldn't be held responsible by Josh and Ellie. But then I realized I would still be responsible because _I_ would've been the one that told you and Ellie was Alyssa's best friend at one point and I started to think maybe she was right about it not being a good idea to tell her and…I don't know, I didn't know what to do."

"I knew it was harder for you than anyone else," James said. "From the beginning, it was clear everyone else had made a decision about whether or not to tell her. Cara, Ellie, and Josh didn't want to say anything, Chris really wanted her to know, and Sage told me she'd wanted to tell her too. Caty and Gabi didn't care either way. You were conflicted. You didn't want to hurt her, and you didn't know what would hurt more-telling her or not telling her."

Rae sighed. "At least I know for next time. If there is a next time."

"You will be friends again."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Rae, Alyssa has been friendless for nearly seven years. You were a godsend for her. You didn't care about her obviously low social status. You decided you liked her and you guys became friends right away. You completely clicked. She is not going to want to lose you."

"But looking at it from her perspective, I can see our friendship ending. I mean, if Alyssa knew if my dad was cheating or not, of if she knew whether my suspicions of him caring for Sage more than me were true, and she didn't tell me, I'd hate her."

"Forever?"

"Well, no, just for a little while."

"And after that time?"

"I'd want to be her friend again. I'd need her. Even if she's the one who kept it from her, she'd also be the only person I'd want to talk about that with."

"And she feels the same. I'm sure of it. I'm not saying it'll be easy or quick. But she'll work through her anger and you guys will make up."

Rae smiled. "You're right. And when we do…well, she'll go back to being the Alyssa you fell for."

"I know. And I can't wait." James gave her another smile. This time, the smile was filled with kindness instead of charm. "And about your dad…Alyssa gave me the bare bones version of why you feel that way, but if he knows the same Rae I do, I can promise you he doesn't care for Sage more than you."

Rae actually blushed at that. Rae never had a best friend before-the closest thing she had was her friend Kayla in her old town-but here in Heatherfield, Rae had found a best friend in Alyssa, a boyfriend in Jake, and a huge support system in the rest of Team GRACE. Her mother had said moving to Heatherfield was the best thing for them, and Rae finally realizes she was right. Moving to Heatherfield _was_ the best thing. Maybe she didn't think that for the same reasons her mother did, but what did the reasons matter? Rae was never happier.

Sure she lost her best friend and she had to fight for her life on several different occasions, but she had friends and she was a part of something here. More than that. She was the _leader_ of something. She had value, a purpose. And that was just the guardian part of her life. She had some normality too, and eve that was great. She had a boyfriend. She felt wanted, desired. And she went to one of the best high schools in the country. And now she was at her favorite Chinese restaurant at 1am on a school night drinking alcohol with her friends, feeling care free and happy for the first time since her fight with Alyssa. Everything seemed alright, like it was all going to work out. And even though she didn't know it before now, that feeling was something she hadn't felt before moving to Heatherfield.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty moaned as she felt her body shake. Was someone shaking her awake? But why? Her alarm usually woke her up.

"Go away," she muttered.

"Okay, but if you don't get up soon, we'll all be late for school," she heard Gabi's voice.

Why was Gabi in her house?

Caty opened her eyes and immediately felt a huge head ache. She rubbed her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was on a bar stool…in The Silver Dragon…where she'd slept with her head on the bar…

"Gabi, what the hell?" she moaned, clutching her head.

"It's 6am. We have just enough time everyone to get home and grab their stuff for school. We'll have to forego showers, but we should be able to change and put on make-up."

Caty glared at the gorgeous girl in front of her. "Why are you screaming?"

"I'm not. Sounds like you have a hangover."

"A…but I've never…last night was my first time…I have a _test_ today in…why did we sleep…I don't even remember-!" Caty choked out.

"I didn't really catch all of that," Gabi laughed. "I think what you are trying to say is that last night was your first time getting drunk so you've never had a hangover before and you have a test today in something. Also, you were wondering why we slept here last night. That's because we each passed out one by one as we got tired. You were first. The alcohol made you sleepy. But when I woke I found some of us passed out on the floor and others sleeping on the bar like you. New Girl was smart enough to fall asleep in a booth. Oh, and apparently you don't remember last night?"

Caty nodded.

"Don't worry. I taped you dancing on the bar singing Like a Virgin."

"That's not funny," Caty snapped. "And stop screaming!"

Gabi lowered her voice to a whisper. "I'm not joking. You actually did that."

Caty paled. Gabi chucked and started shaking Ellie awake.

As it turned out, every member of Team GRACE woke up with a huge hangover, and each person had done something more embarrassing than the last. Rae, convinced that Jake was there with them, spent the night making out with an empty booth. Sage sang I Love You by Avril Lavigne and Can't Help Falling in Love With You to Josh, and ended up crying into her drink when he jumped back as she tried to kiss him.

Josh had his own embarrassing moment when he proclaimed to Rae, for everyone to hear, that she was the girl for him and she should break up with Jake and be with him. Rae took a break from making out with the empty booth to listen to this proclamation and when he was finished, she had to hold the booth back from pummeling Josh. She kept muttering, "Don't worry sweetie, he didn't mean it."

At this point, Josh began to see the empty booth as Jake as well, and kept saying, "Bring it on, I can take you!" Finally, he ended up throwing up, using his shoes as a barf bag, and passed out. Rae went back to making out with the booth.

Caty, luckily, had not gone past dancing on the counter, singing Like A Virgin. Everyone clapped for her performance, she took a bow, fell off the counter, jumped back up announcing she was okay, received more smattering applause, and passed out after taking another bow.

Ellie fell in love…with a flashlight. She cried every time she lost grip on the flashlight and the bulb was shined in someone's face because she thought every time the flashlight shone in someone else's face, the flashlight fell in love with that person.

The most surprising thing of all happened when Caty, Josh, Rae, and Sage were all passed out. Gabi and James were both in a state past tipsy, but not even close to drunk, so they were both very aware of what was going on around them. Ellie dropped the flashlight one too many times and it stopped working. Ellie sobbed uncontrollably, moaning, "I killed him, I killed him, I'm going to jail! I loved him!"

Chris went over and _hugged_ her. Clearly he didn't remember he hated Ellie. Then, to make her feel better, the two sang a duet. They performed Summer Nights for James, Gabi, and their four sleeping friends. After they were done with the song, they started making out.

Gabi had gotten video every humiliating moment and James played them for the others as she drove each person home. She told them they could delete the videos if they wanted, but she already e-mailed them to herself and to Bree, with a promise that she wouldn't watch them.

Chris grabbed his stuff from his apartment, then Gabi swung by James' house, Caty's house, and Ellie's apartment. She went to Larson Street last. She dropped of Sage and Rae, telling them she'd be back in a few minutes.

"You guys good here?" she asked the others when she parked in her driveway. Everyone nodded, and Gabi and Josh headed inside to grab their stuff.

When they walked inside, Daniel was pacing around, Sienna looked near tears, Luc looked like he was in the middle of a panic attack, and Eva was just lying on the couch, bored.

Gabi cringed. So far, they'd all lucked out, managing to either sneak into their house or find their family asleep so they wouldn't get in trouble for sneaking out and staying out all night. Looks like that luck didn't extend to Gabi.

Sienna turned towards the door and gave Gabi a look of pure delight. "Gabrielle!" she cried, practically squealing.

Daniel and Luc immediately looked at the door.

"Gabi! Josh!" Luc cried happily.

"Gabrielle, where _were_ you? I was so worried! I woke up and you were both gone, as was your car."

"Sorry Dad, I forgot to tell you Josh and I slept over at New-uh Rae Dylan's-house last night. She lives here on Larson Street too. You know, that's where Sage is staying."

"Dylan? Any relation to Frank Dylan?" Sienna asked.

"Her father," Gabi said, rolling her eyes.

Sienna looked stunned, but not in the 'in awe of her father' sort of way. In fact, she looked sorry she asked.

"I can't believe you would be so irresponsible as to go somewhere without telling me," Daniel said. "And you were in your own bed at 11 last night. When did you decide to go over to this girl's house?"

"She called me around 1," Gabi lied. "She was having a crisis, and wanted Josh and I to come over. By the time we helped her fix things, it was almost 3, so we just slept over." Gabi knew she should add an apology to the end of that, but didn't really feel like apologizing to her father. She found herself constantly angry with him.

"Gabrielle, there is a rule in this house that all plans are to be made before 9pm, and have to be run by me."

"Dad, I'm seventeen-"

"You sure don't act like it!"

"Gabrielle, you should always tell me or your father when you're going somewhere so we don't worry. I was so scared for you," Sienna said.

"Don't be. You're _not_ my mom."

"But I care about you," Sienna protested. "Eva and I really want to be part of this family, and that means being part of your life. Can't you give us a chance?"

"We do _not_ have time for this," Gabi groaned. As she said, a loud beep was heard, making Josh jump and the Shays roll their eyes.

"What the hell-" Josh started.

"That's my car horn. It's super loud and annoying," Gabi explained. "I think the original horn broke and this one got put in before we bought the car."

"Who's beeping your horn?" Sienna asked.

"My imaginary friend," Gabi bit out. She looked at Josh. "Get your stuff."

Josh nodded and headed to his room. Luc followed Gabi into hers. "What were you actually doing?" he asked with a smile.

"We went to The Silver Dragon after hours and got drunk," Gabi admitted. She didn't want to lie, even if Luc was only ten.

"You don't seem drunk," Luc said.

"The fact that you know how I act when I'm drunk is shameful. Of me, I mean. You should never have seen me that way. But anyway, I didn't get totally drunk. We originally thought we were going to head home, and I wasn't going to drive drunk. When it became clear no one was going anywhere, I wanted to go crazy, but didn't. I didn't want to drive with a hangover. And as a reward, I was one of the only people who didn't do something embarrassing, and I got everyone else's embarrassing moments on video."

Luc laughed.

Gabi walked out of her room and found Josh waiting in the living room.

"One more thing Gabrielle," Daniel said before they could walk out the door. Gabi cringed at his half gleeful half triumphant tone. Punishment time.

"Both of you can consider yourselves grounded this weekend. That means no going out, no friends coming here, no exceptions."

"_This_ weekend?" Gabi asked, horrified. "But Dad, Luc's party is tomorrow!"

"You can still throw Luc his party, but your friends are not allowed to come."

"Not even Bree or Jake?" Luc asked. "Because they may be Gabi's friends, but they're also my guests."

Daniel sighed. "Fine. Bree and Jake may come, but no other friends. And neither of them are allowed to come over early to help set up or stay late, not even to help clean up. You and Josh will do all the setting up and cleaning up yourself as part of your punishment. What you did was wrong. You snuck out of the house and had us all worried sick."

"Okay, I understand," Gabi said. Internally, she was smiling. She and Josh had both asked for Saturday off for Luc, but Gabi had an all day shift Sunday so she could at least avoid her family.

"And, you cannot work all day Sunday," Daniel added.

"But Dad, that's so unfair! You can't _ground_ me from work!"

"That's not part of your punishment Gabrielle. Your grandmother is coming over for dinner on Sunday. You can still work the lunch shift."

Gabi nodded slowly as she and Josh headed out to the car. She never liked her grandmother, and now she had to suffer through dinner with her, Sienna, and Eva all at the same time?

Gabi picked up Rae and Sage, and on their way to school, told Caty, Ellie, and Sage they couldn't come over the next day and explained her punishment.

Ellie began to talk about how unfair Daniel was being, to show Gabi her support, but Gabi tuned her out, thinking about her grandmother's visit.

Gabi knew dinner with her grandmother, he father's mother, would be nerve-wracking for her dad. They never had a good relationship, and after Gabi's grandfather died, they became even more estranged. Her grandfather was the one trying to keep the family together. Now her grandmother, Patricia, only visited a few times a year, around her grandchildren's birthdays, and at Christmas. And Patricia did not know Daniel had married Sienna.

Then Gabi started to smile. Her grandmother was a stern, old fashioned woman, and she and Gabi almost always fought when they saw each other. But Patricia already didn't approve of Sienna when she and Daniel were just dating. This would give an extra ally on the battle against Sienna.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae contemplated shutting the locker, but knew the noise would hurt her head. But she couldn't just leave it open. It wasn't _her_ locker.

Alyssa kicked Rae out of her locker on Monday, so Jake had offered to share his (which was only a few lockers down from Alyssa's). And unlike most kids, Jake's entire life was in his locker. He had everything he could possibly need in there. If there was a zombie apocalypse, the best place for Jake to be was the school.

With a sight, Rae shut the locker and her headache worsened for a moment. She sighed, wishing she, like Caty, had thought to bring sunglasses to school so the bright lights wouldn't harm her eyes. Then again, she supposed she was lucky. At least Silena didn't realize Rae had gone anywhere during the night like Gabi's father had.

"God, what happened to you?" Ronnie asked.

"Yeah, you look awful," Brooke said.

Ever since Rae started working at Down the Rabbit Hole, Ronnie and Brooke had been stopping by her locker in the mornings to catch up.

Rae just groaned.

"Hey babe!" Jake exclaimed, as he saw walked over to them.

"Shhh! Not so loud," Rae said.

Jake frowned. "What's wrong? You look terrible. Are you sick?"

"I think she's drunk," Ronnie giggled. "Or, she got drunk and she's suffering a hangover."

"The second one," Rae confirmed.

"You got drunk?"

"It was supposed to be stress relieving."

"And was it?"

"You tell me. I spent the entire night making out with an empty booth because I thought it was you."

Ronnie burst out laughing. Jake tried to stifle his own laughter.

"Booth?" Brooke asked. "Where were you?"

"The Silver Dragon. Chris let us come in after hours."

"Is it you and The Basement Gang?" Jake asked.

"Minus Alyssa," Rae mumbled. Now that Jake had forgotten about GRACE, he was getting even more aggravated with the secrets his girlfriend was keeping.

"Obviously," Jake said. "Because if Alyssa had been there, you wouldn't have been as drunk as you got."

"I probably wouldn't have even had a single drop if Alyssa had anything to say about it," Rae agreed. Alyssa would not like the idea of anyone of them getting drunk because A.) it was a school night, and B.) they were underage.

The four talked for a little longer, then Ronnie and Brooke left to grab stuff from their own lockers. More and more people got to school, and the people who had their lockers near Jake's started to file in. Every time someone slammed their locker door shut, Rae groaned. The eighth time it happened, she turned around to glare at the person and found herself face to face with Alyssa.

"Oh! Um…hi," Rae said dumbly.

Alyssa frowned at her. "You look like death," she declared. She turned to walk away, but stopped when she saw James coming towards her.

"Morning Lyss," he said, giving her a kiss. "Be right back." He walked toward Rae and Alyssa starred at him incredulously. Sure James was still training with GRACE, meaning he was technically still friends with GRACE, but did he really abandon her for Rae?

"How are you feeling?" James asked.

"Like death," Rae said wryly, looking straight at Alyssa. Alyssa rolled her eyes.

James grinned. "Sorry to hear that."

"You were with her last night," Jake said. "How come you don't seem as bad as her?"

"Cuz James decided to be responsible on not get drunk like the rest of us," Rae said, rolling her eyes. "He was only a little tipsy by the end of the night. Oh, and guess who else was responsible and only got tipsy? Gabi!"

"I've never seen Gabi _not_ get drunk when there was alcohol around," Jake laughed.

"You got drunk last night?" Alyssa demanded, suddenly participating in their conversation.

"No. As Rae said, I didn't let it get that bad," James said.

"What were you doing drinking on a school night? Or at all? You're underage James!"

Jake began to laugh and tried to cover it up by coughing. Alyssa wasn't fooled. She rasied an eyebrow.

"Do you have something to say?"

"It's just…well, you know, I was just thinking if you'd been there last night with Rae and the others, you probably would've stopped them from drinking by saying it's a school night and you're all underage," Jake said, hoping she wouldn't blow up at him.

"_Those people _can do whatever they want. They could get deliriously drunk, fall in a ditch, and die for all I care," Alyssa declared, shocking Rae. Alyssa had a firm 'no talking about people dying unless you actually want them to die' policy. Did she really hate them that much?

"Alyssa!" James cried admonishingly. He looked scandalized. Clearly he knew about the policy too.

Alyssa just shrugged.

Jake coughed again, trying to turn things less awkward. "So…anything interesting happen?"

"A lot of things. And, I feel it's my duty as a guy to tell you your girlfriend was cheating on you with a booth at The Silver Dragon."

Jake laughed a little. "Yeah, so I've heard. I wonder if that's actually considered cheating though, since she thought the booth was _me_."

"The answer is no," Rae said firmly, making everyone except Alyssa laugh.

Alyssa fake yawned, then grabbed James' arm and dragged him away.

"She's still mad at you?" Jake asked.

"Well I did keep a huge secret from her," Rae said.

"No. Josh did that. You were just unlucky enough to be put in the awkward position of knowing the secret and not knowing what to do with it."

"It wasn't exactly like that. I mean, Josh never would've told me if I hadn't pulled it out of him. And once I found out, I wanted to tell Alyssa, but I didn't because Josh didn't want me to. I basically chose Josh over Alyssa. How could I choose anyone over my best friend?"

"Well James is trying to get her to come around, right?"

"Yeah, but clearly he's not making any headway."

"I wouldn't say that. Sure she was nasty to you just now, but she did talk to you of her own accord. This was the first time all week she acknowledged you. That's a step up, don't you think?"

Rae realized he was right. "So, you think maybe, she's on her way to forgiving me?"

"It's definitely a start."

Rae smiled. "Yeah…it is." And even through her hangover, Rae started to feel better. Maybe her best friend was finally coming back to her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Out of all the shoes Caty had worn since she "inherited" Bree's old clothes, the navy blue converse she had on today were the most comfortable, and the easiest to walk in. However, she still stumbled as she entered her pre-calc classroom that day, thanks to her impossible to see through sunglasses. Still, if it was a choice between stumbling through the halls, or facing the bright light of the school after a hangover, stumbling won hands down.

"I'm pretty sure sunglasses indoors is against school rules," Emma teased when she saw Caty. "You know, like hats in the classrooms."

"_That_ would be a stupid rule," Caty declared. "Why the hell can't we wear sunglasses indoors?"

"Why would you _want_ to, is a better question," Zach said, joining their conversation.

Caty just groaned and massaged her temples, trying to get rid of her head ache.

Misha and Nina walked up to her, both with stone cold expressions on their faces.

"I don't know what's up with the sunglasses indoors, but we have our board game presentation today, and you can't wear those," Misha declared.

Caty was a bit surprised. That was the first time Misha had talked to her since the dance. The three of them were a group for a math project and had luckily finished it before their fight.

"I can't take them off," Caty said.

"Why not?" Nina asked.

"Um…medical reasons?"

"Do you have a concussion?" Tayler asked as she joined the conversation too.

"Yes! I have a concussion!" Caty said. That was a perfect excuse!

"Caty!" a voice cried.

Caty turned to see her cousin walking towards her. "Ow Lili, not so loud," she complained. "What are you doing here anyway? Your class is next door."

"I know, but when Gabi told me you were suffering a massive hangover, I had to come see for myself!"

Caty cringed as Misha cried, "Hangover?"

"You got _drunk_?" Nina asked, distaste evident in her voice.

Caty groaned again, this time out of annoyance. This day could not get any worse.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Sunday afternoon, Chris crashed his bike into a fire hydrant.

"You okay man?" a guy who was walking past him asked.

"Sure, fine," Chris grumbled. He sighed. He understood his mother had to use her bike when she was The Silver Dragon's delivery girl, but they had several employees who owned cars. Why couldn't they be delivery people?

Alyssa was walking by when she saw Chris sprawled on the ground, a broken bike next to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked, rushing over to his side, momentarily forgetting she was in a fight with all of Team GRACE.

"Totally fine," Chris said, getting up. If he was surprised that Alyssa was talking to him, he didn't show it.

"What happened?"

"The sun got in my eyes and I crashed."

"Ouch."

Chris picked his bike up and blushed when he realized how intently Alyssa was looking at him.

"Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"U-uhm, yeah, I-I'm fine," he stammered out. "But my bike's not doing so great."

"Do you need some help getting it back to The Silver Dragon?"

"No, I can just change into Shagon and fly it back," Chris said. Then he realized he should've accepted Alyssa's help. That could've been a step to regaining her trust and friendship.

"Speaking of Shagon…can I show you something?" Alyssa asked.

"Sure," Chris said slowly.

"Come on," Alyssa said, leading him into the closest alley. When they were sure no one else was there, Alyssa lifted up her palm and a flame showed up over it.

Chris's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.

Alyssa giggled and extinguished the flame.

"You…you got your powers back?"

"Yup!"

"But…but how?"

"Did James tell you that we were attacked?" Alyssa asked.

Chris nodded.

"Well, when my mom realized that I was in danger whether I had my powers or not, she decided to give me powers back, so we went to Kandrakar on Friday, and the rest is history."

"That's great!" Chris cried. "But how are you going to gain control if you're not training with us anymore?"

Alyssa frowned. "I don't know. I'm so mad at everyone and Team GRACE, and I'm just as mad at my mom, so I have no idea who can train me now."

"You have to choose one or the other. Either us or your mom. Because you need one in order to master your power."

"I know. You're right."

"If you're mad at us…why are you talking to me?"

"Because…because I'm not mad at _you_…anymore. From what James told me, you were the only one who actually wanted to tell me. You gave Josh an ultimatum, and the only reason you didn't tell me is because Rae convinced you not to, and I get why you listened to her. She's…she was _supposed_ to be…my best friend. Of course you thought she'd know what was better for me. She was wrong, but that's on her, not you."

Chris smiled. "Well…good." He changed into Shagon and got ready to fly away.

"Wait…good? That's it? That's all you're going to say?"

Chris turned back into himself and said, "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know…something a little more encouraging that that."

Chris sighed, frustrated. "Look, Alyssa, I know what I did was wrong, but you're not free of blame here either. Do you know I felt when I heard you were attacked? I was sick with worry! I wanted so badly to know you were alright, and of course James said you were, but how could I know for sure til I heard it from you?"

"I…I know you were worried. I got your texts. And your voicemails."

"And you didn't answer a single one," Chris said, his voice taking on a hard edge Alyssa had never heard.

"I didn't know it mattered so much."

"Of course it mattered! Lyssa, we're _friends_! What if I was attacked? Wouldn't you be worried about me? Or do you just not care as much?"

"Of course I care! I'd be out of my mind with worry!" Alyssa cried. "I'd want to know if you were alright. And I'd need to hear it from you! I…oh. I see your point."

"Good to know," Chris said sarcastically, running a hand through his hair.

Alyssa bit her lip. That was hot! _He_ was hot. She knew that. He had thick, black hair, midnight blue, almond shaped eyes, and these adorable dimples. But she'd never really thought about it before.

"Chris, I'm _sorry_," she said. "I was still mad at you."

"I didn't _do_ anything."

"Yeah, that's kind of the point."

Chris sighed. "Yeah…I know."

"But like I said, I forgive you. You wanted to tell me, and you _were_ going to, and that does count for something. I guess you had my best interests at heart."

"Everyone did Lyssa. Or at least, they _thought_ they did. They all care about you. But I'm not going to push it. I'm glad _we're_ at least friends again."

Alyssa smiled. "Yeah. Me too."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Oh my God guys, I am SO sorry that took so long! I don't even have a very good excuse, except that my muse left me, and if any of your guys are writers, then you know how that feels. I know some of you guys are. But the good news is, I'm not blocked anymore, and I have the next two chapters planned out. I start classes on Wednesday, but I'm going to work super hard to get the next chapter out by Tuesday night. And this chapter is definitely the longest.**

**Most of the next chapter is about Alyssa working through her anger, and she will forgive most of Team GRACE one by one, but it will take a little longer for her to forgive Rae and Josh, the two who were most in the wrong in her opinion. Sorry I disappeared guys! I hope you liked it!**


	29. Angelic Dream

**A/N: Hello everyone! I want to start by saying you guys are the best ever! Even though I was away for over three weeks, I didn't lose a single follower or favorite (actually I gained one in each), and I got the six reviews I've come to almost expect from the six people who review every chapter without fail, and a review from a new reviewer. I want to thank my seven reviewers, eight favoriters, and fourteen followers for all the support! It means so much to me! **

**I also want to apologize for being away for so long AGAIN! BUT, the next chapter is almost done, so I only have to add one more section and edit, and it should be up soon. And I hope you like this chapter.**

**And before the shout outs, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to coolmon16 for favoriting and following this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**And one more time, I want to put in this DISCLAIMER: The prophecy belongs to Rick Riordan, and I tweaked it fit GRACE, and added my own lines here and there.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: Yes, I'm back! And I'm back again, though it took almost as long so you'll probably have to re-read again, but I'm glad you like the story enough to re-read chapters. I hope for this story to be one that people will re-read eventually. There's a Harry Potter fanfiction called The Deepest Desire of Her Heart that I re-read all the time, and I hope this story is like that to some people. The scene between Taranee and Nigel before Alyssa and James came home was my favorite part to write, and to read over when I was editing. Yes, I'm trying to slowly ease into an understanding between Eva and Gabi. Honestly, it did occur to me that maybe Ellie and Chris would be cute, but I already had plans for both of them, so I don't think so, but you never know with me. Well, you'll see Alyssa start to make up with the other girls here, but it'll take more time for her to warm up to Rae again. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Emily: That's very mature of you. Which is interesting since you're the opposite of mature. You're right you never know with me, although I know. I already have a plan for Alyssa and James. But I really like them too! Of course you love Gabi and Luc, they're like us with our brothers. Yes, Caty will discover the truth either in this chapter or the next…no, I mean the next chapter or the one after that. Lol, I can't think of ANYONE who would fall in love with a flashlight. Especially not you! Yup, she forgives Caty in this chapter, as well as some others. Yay senior year (which now feels like it's been going on forever!)**

**SilvenArrow: Haha, yes, I'm alive. Don't worry, I'd never abandon this story. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not all that good at finishing stories, but I definitely will finish this one, in a timely manner. It might be a while before I finish, but I won't leave you hanging for a couple of months or anything. Anyway, I'm glad you liked that because I was really proud of how I explained it, but was worried my readers wouldn't. And yes, I wanted to give at least **_**some**_** background on Alyssa's true parentage. I should've written out the scene in which Rae told Jake, but I didn't. That was my bad. But yeah, the siblings are getting used to each other, which needs to happen. Gabi will need to protect Eva eventually. Yes, Caty's getting close. It'll be revealed either next chapter or the one after that. Hold on to that thought about Caty's father, that's addressed in this chapter. You are so perceptive! They were believable because all the things they did were things my friends did while they were drunk. I was the one who sang to my crush the way Sage did to Josh, and one of my reviewers is the person who fell in love with a flashlight (she did think she killed it, but she didn't sing a duet with anyone or make out with anyone. I was sober that night, and after she started crying over the flashlight, my other sober friend and I decided the night was over). Oh, so perceptive. Hold on to the possible Sienna and Frank connection. You will see Gabi's grandma in this chapter. And this chapter has Alyssa making up with most of the team.**

**Misa: I'm happy you're happy, and I'm so glad you were missing this story! You will eventually learn more about Eva's birth father and what happened between him and Sienna. I love both of those songs too. I sang them to my crush one night when I go drunk. Actually, I wasn't even that drunk. I was past tipsy, but not drunk yet, but was still brave enough to sing those songs. And my roommate missed her boyfriend so much at one of the parties we went to (he went home for work every weekend so he couldn't go), so she ended up making up with the party host's couch after she got drunk enough. Actually, Sage next, then Caty and Gabi, **_**then**_** Ellie. But you'll see all of that this chapter. Hope you like it!**

**Taylor: I'm so glad you liked it. I took all the drunken actions from things my friends and I have done. Sage singing those songs to Josh was modeled after me. I sang those same songs to my crush. And you will see Alyssa make up with more people in this chapter. Enjoy!**

**WaterAmulet: It's so weird you weren't able to review. But thank you for PM-ing me! This is not even the first time this has happened. One of my other reviewers had the same problem on my first chapter. I'm glad you liked the chapter and my explanation of how Alyssa was able to use her breathe of fire. Yes, I did get that idea from Avatar, but I think Taranee did it once in the show. I don't know if she did in the comics, because I don't read every issue, just certain ones. My cousin has a bunch of them, but not all of them, so I can only read the issues she has. Actually, Chris and Alyssa's relationship is addressed in this chapter. Hope you like it!**

**Guest: Will is a good guess for the identity of the Angel of Magic. Normally, I wouldn't confirm or deny that, but this time I'm going to break that rule and deny it. It's not Will. The reason I'm telling you is because I want to see how many people can guess Angel's identity before I reveal it. I hope you enjoyed the story so far, and enjoy this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Sunday morning, the entirety of Shay household got up early and fought over the bathroom, each trying to get in there first so they could look their best in order to impress (or, as Daniel liked to say, pass the inspection) that came with Patricia's arrival. It was Josh who reminded them they lived in a mansion with two en suites and four other bathrooms. Sienna and Daniel were the most embarrassed, considering they had a beautiful en suite in their room.

The other en suite was in Michael's room, which Gabi was supposed to move into three years ago when Michael left for college, but she decided against it. Sure she wanted an en suite _and_ a walk in closet, and her room only had a walk in closet, but her room was also bigger, had a better light source since her window was bigger, and she really didn't want to deal with the hassle of moving all her stuff out.

Sienna slaved in the kitchen last night, trying to replicate Patricia's favorite dishes: Seafood paella, beef wellington, coq au vin (a dish Gabi _hated_), and soufflé and Baked Alaska for dessert. To make matters worse, those were all dishes that Patricia came to love because of Gabi's mother.

Alexandra worked as a chef in a restaurant for years. She only quit after Gabi was born, wanting to spend time with her children. Still, she was amazing in the kitchen and made the same five dishes every time Patricia came to visit because she knew how much Patricia loved them. Sienna wanted to replicate Alexnadra's recipes to impress Patricia, but that wouldn't be easy. Sienna had made everything except the soufflé, which happened to be her worst dish. It kept collapsing every time she'd tried to make it in the past, and this morning itself she'd already ruined three.

Luc and Gabi set the table with the "good china" and spent the rest of the morning fidgeting. Josh's nasty behavior didn't help. While the two were the kitchen, helping Sienna clean the dishes, he had, as usual, treated her like she was stupid and incompetent. Instead of yelling back at him, today, when they exited the kitchen and got the living room, she manipulated the metal photo frame to whack him on the side of his face. It went very well since it left a red mark on his cheek, and a bruise on his eye that would be a shiner by the next day. When Eva, who noticed it first, asked him what happened, he said a witch attacked him, which caused Eva to look at Gabi with a mixture of glee and fear. When she left the room, Gabi telekinetically threw him across the room, into the couch, flipped her hair airily, and walked away.

Luc and Gabi spent a good portion of the morning pacing in Gabi's room. Gabi would fix her hair every few minutes and Luc would pull on his tie. Josh came to join them after an hour, wearing a dress shirt, dress pants, and a tie, just like Luc. Patricia thought everyone should always look their best, and it did give Gabi an excuse to wear a ridiculously fancy dress for Silena Shane's new evening wear line that Gabi bought during one of her after guardian training retail therapy trips to the mall.

"Is this lunch really _this_ big a deal?" Josh asked.

"Grandma Patricia is scary," Luc said. "She disapproves of everything we do. She's always wanted an all-around perfect grandchild."

"All-around perfect?" Josh asked.

"Someone who got good grades, and can play sports, and do just about everything else," Gabi explained.

Patricia _had_ that perfect grandchild actually. Michael was always her favorite. He got great grades, was captain of three Varsity teams, got into five Ivy Leagues (he chose to go to UPenn in the end), was an amazing piano player, was a math whiz, and was majoring in poly sci. Patricia was delighted that one of her grandchildren would one day take up some kind of political office (even though she was less than thrilled that Michael had strict democratic views; Patricia was super conservative).

"Why is she putting so much pressure on you?" Josh asked.

"She has to put all her hope for exceptional family members in her grandchildren because my dad, her only child, disappointed her at every turn," Gabi said. "I don't understand why though. Our family was already very wealthy, and he just made our wealth grow. But that wasn't good enough for her. She thinks the only redeeming quality my dad has was that he chose to marry my mother."

"Which means she disapproved of every woman my dad was with after my mom died," Luc said.

"You should've seen the way she looked at Sienna the last time she came over," Gabi said, sounding like she was on the verge of cackling.

"So is this another opportunity for you to embarrass Sienna and anger your dad?" Josh asked, his voice heavy with disapproval.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "I don't need your judgments Josh," she replied, trying to keep her voice even. She and Josh still had to put up a façade of friendliness for Luc's sake.

Josh just sighed as the doorbell rang. Both Gabi and Luc jumped out of their skin.

"She's here!" Gabi squealed. Patricia was one of the few people that scared her. She smoothed out her hair again, fixed Luc's slightly crooked tie, and rushed to the door just in time for Daniel to open it.

Patricia smiled graciously. She looked impressive as always. Her hair, somehow still red despite her age, was cut much shorter than the last time her family shorter. She had on the perfect amount of make-up, and she spared no expense on her Ralph Lauren dress or Prada coat.

"Mother," Daniel said formally. "Lovely to see you, as always."

"Likewise," Patricia replied, giving him a kiss on each cheek. She beamed at Gabi and Luc, as she always did at the start of her visit. It'd soon be replaced with a sour look. "How are my grandchildren?"

"Hi Grandma. We're doing great," Gabi said, plastering a huge smile on her face.

Patricia gave Gabi and Luc both a hug.

"And who's this?" Patricia asked, setting her sights on Josh.

"Oh, uh, this my friend Josh. His parents live in California, but wanted him to attend Sheffield for his last years of high school. They used to go there. He has no family here, so he's staying with us," Gabi explained.

Patricia didn't seem to like that. "Really Daniel? You're letting a boy that looks like him stay at your house with your daughter of the same age?"

Daniel bit his lip and Josh looked shocked.

"At least you have that boyfriend of yours," Patricia said to Gabi.

Gabi looked confused. Who?

"You _don't_?" Patricia cried.

"She means Jake," Luc whispered.

"Oh. Yeah…we broke up," Gabi mumbled.

"What did you do?" Patricia demanded.

Gabi had to refrain from glaring at her grandmother. Yes, the break up with Jake had been her fault, but why did her grandmother automatically assume it was her fault? She'd had her fair share of boyfriends that messed up the relationship on their side.

"It just wasn't working out. We're still friends."

"He came to my birthday party yesterday," Luc added helpfully.

"Really Daniel," Patricia sighed, shaking her head and ignoring Luc. "I can't believe you are letting this boy live here." She looked at Josh. "No offense."

"How can I _not_ take offense to that?" Josh whispered to Gabi.

Gabi had no answer. Patricia said several offensive things that they were just supposed to pretend they didn't take offense too.

"Now where is that wife and step daughter of yours?" Patricia asked.

"Sienna is finishing up preparations in the kitchen," Daniel said. "And Eva…" he trailed off, looking for the eight year old.

Eva came out of the kitchen and joined the Shays, as if Daniel's thoughts summoned her.

"Speak of the devil…" Gabi said in amazement, making Luc laugh.

"Ah, there you are. Mother, this is Eva Carson, my step daughter."

"Hi," Eva said shyly. Between her mother's freak-outs and Gabi and Luc's stories, Eva quickly realized Patricia was someone to be shy around.

"Hello," Patricia said distastefully. "Who are you wearing?"

Eva looked confused.

"She means who made your dress," Gabi explained. Eva had chosen to wear a pretty blue dress that Sienna had stitched herself. Gabi knew that would be a bad choice. Patricia liked to see labels. That's why she approved of Gabi's clothes. Most of them were Silena Shane, and the others were either Ralph Lauren, Jovani, or Terani. Eva should've worn the Versace dress Daniel gave her for her eighth birthday.

"Oh, my mom made this," Eva said.

"Of course she did," Patricia sighed.

Daniel, uncomfortable with the situation, gave Eva an encouraging smile, and led Patricia to the living room. After five minutes, Sienna called them to lunch.

The rest of the afternoon went just as badly as Gabi expected. Sienna hadn't been able to perfect a soufflé, and Patricia, just to make her uncomfortable, refused to eat the Baked Alaska, and complained about how she was craving "Alexandra's soufflé." Sienna almost burst into tears.

Patricia, always thinking of Gabi as silly for wanting to change her name, called her Elena the entire time, and bristled every time Sienna addressed her as Gabi. Daniel told Sienna that during Patricia's visits, everyone called Gabi 'Elena', but Sienna had said she wouldn't do that because that's not what Gabi wanted. Gabi had a suspicion that was because of the story Gabi told Sienna about why her mother wanted to name her Gabrielle.

Patricia asked Gabi how school was going. Gabi told her she was head cheerleader of JV, and the only junior on Varsity, and Patricia seemed proud. However, she grew more and more displeased as she found out Gabi wasn't editor of the school newspaper, was layout editor of ZOOM, rather than content editor, and only had a B-average.

Luc didn't impress her anymore. Patricia was happy to hear Luc had straight A's, but wasn't pleased to learn that he still wasn't on any sports team, quit playing piano, and had gotten his black belt test moved back six months. Gabi's hand curled into a permanent fist as Patricia picked on Luc. Luc didn't _like_ sports. He wasn't athletic except for when it came to tae kwon do. He didn't like piano either. He was much better at guitar (an instrument he couldn't mention to Patricia he played because she thought guitars were an abomination), and his black belt test got pushed back because Luc had meningitis and couldn't attend any classes over the summer.

Patricia then turned her sights on Josh. As long as he lived with the Shays, he was part of the family, she'd said. She liked to hear that he was a martial arts expert and was on the basketball team. She grew more impressed when he told her that he liked art, and was in the senior art class, Art Honors Society, and had gotten his submission accepted in Sheffield's student art show (usually Sheffield didn't accept submissions from first year students, and Patricia knew that since she attended Sheffield herself). However, Josh had the same grades as Gabi, and let Patricia down.

Eva did well in school, like Luc, but didn't do any other activities, and Patricia didn't spend much time talking to her. Patricia spent the rest of the time picking apart every wrong move Daniel or Sienna made, from career choices or raising Gabi, Luc, and Eva.

Gabi wanted to get into guardian form and suck her grandmother into the ground by the time lunch was over. However, one good thing did come from lunch. After the meal, Patricia wanted to talk to Daniel privately in his study. Sienna cleared the table and started on the dishes. Eva retreated into her room. Gabi, Luc, and Josh convened in Gabi's room to talk about how brutal lunch was. At one point, Gabi needed to use the bathroom, and on her way back to her room, heard Patricia telling Daniel that Sienna was silly and indulged in frivolity. She did not have the beauty, intellect, or compassion that Alexandra did, and she was not the right person for Daniel.

Of course Daniel didn't take this sitting down. He yelled at his mother saying he loved Sienna, and he loved Eva. He said they'd brought more into his life and Sienna would be a fantastic mother

figure to his children as soon as they gave her a chance, making Gabi roll her eyes at his naivety. As if any of them would give the step monster a chance!

Patricia said that Daniel had been married to Sienna long enough, and that if his kids were going to give her a chance, they would've done so already. She told him it wasn't right for him to replace Alexandra, or make so many changes in Gabi and Luc's lives. She said Alexandra was someone she could proudly introduce as her daughter in law, but Sienna was am embarrassment to her family and the Shay name. Gabi's smile grew bigger and bigger.

Daniel said that he was sorry she felt that way, but Sienna was the woman he loved, and he wasn't trying to replace Alexandra, but he did want to move on. He said making the family bigger should be a positive change and that Gabi and Luc will eventually be glad for the change. He said if Patricia can't accept that Sienna and Eva were part of the family, and would be forever, then she was no longer welcome in the house. Gabi's mood worsened at his insistence that Sienna and Eva were forever. Why couldn't he see Sienna was going to leave him like all the other gold digging sluts he was with?

Patricia reminded Daniel that she was his _mother, _and he _couldn't _ban her from his house. She guilt tripped him by saying all she wanted was for her only son to be happy and she didn't believe Sienna could make him happy.

"_Alexandra_ made you happy," she said. "She's the only one who can make you happy."

Daniel replied that actually, he had three kids that made him happy, and he was only happier now that he had a new wife and child. Patricia said _of course_ she knew Michael, Gabi, and Luc made him happy. She was talking about his _true love_, and she said you can't have more than one. Then she said that as long as she was alive, she'd do everything in her power to make sure Sienna wasn't a permanent addition to the family, and before Daniel could yell at her, she added that he'd thank her for this.

Gabi was so happy, she skipped back to her room without waiting for Daniel's response.

"Luc, guess what? Grandma doesn't approve of Sienna for Dad, and she's gonna try and show him that Sienna's not right for him."

A smile spread over Luc's face. "That's awesome. At least she's on our side about _something_. And what Grandma wants, she gets."

"Sienna will be gone soon," Gabi agreed.

Josh rolled his eyes. "You guys are terrible people."

"And so is Sienna," Gabi replied, and that was the end of that conversation.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Alyssa walked into the school building Monday morning, the first thing she heard was a cheery greeting from Sage.

"Hi Alyssa! Good morning!" she called. Alyssa looked over to see her standing with a few cheerleaders.

Alyssa rolled her eyes, but instead of just staring blankly at her like usual, Alyssa tried to smile. She was pretty sure she only managed a grimace, but Sage's smile didn't falter.

Ever since the fight last week, Sage had been greeting Alyssa with a smile every chance she got. She didn't say anything to Alyssa if she was with a fellow member of Team GRACE so as not to make it awkward, but otherwise, she'd always call out to her. Alyssa figured that was Sage's way of saying she still wanted to be friends.

When Alyssa really thought about it, she wasn't actually mad at Sage. Sage probably thought this was a secret Josh had to tell Alyssa, and it was none of her business. She'd already forgiven Chris, and told him she'd stop by The Silver Dragon later to smooth over things with the rest of the Lyndon Clan. Maybe she should forgive Sage too?

"Good morning Sage!" Alyssa called back.

Sage's smile widened. She said something to the girls she was with, then rushed over to Alyssa.

"Are you talking to me now?" she asked hopefully.

Alyssa shrugged. "I guess."

"Are you still angry with me?"

"Sort of. I mean, you live with my…_former_…best friend, and I was over there all the time, so I thought we got pretty close."

"We did," Sage assured her.

"So then why didn't you tell me?"

"Alyssa, I'm sorry no one told you, and I'm sorry everyone felt the need to hide it, but I couldn't tell you. It was none of my business. This was Josh's secret to tell. To be completely honest, I might've told you if someone else was your brother or sister. Like, if I found out you were related to Chris or Rae, I might've told you. But Josh is my best friend, and this was his secret, and I couldn't do that to him."

Alyssa nodded. So she was right about Sage's reasoning.

"Do you understand?" Sage asked.

"Yes. I get it. And…I forgive you."

"Really?"

Alyssa nodded.

Sage beamed at her and gave her a huge hug. "I'm so happy! Chris told me at guardian practice yesterday that you got your powers back. Now that you're friends with the two of us, will you come back?"

"Wait, I thought Hay Lin was out of town. How are you still having practice?"

"Hay Lin said her being out of town was no excuse for us to stop training, so until she gets back, Rae is taking over training. Hay Lin says she won't always be around to teach us anyway, and we do need to learn how to run practices by ourselves."

"Oh. Okay then. Well, to answer your question, no. I'm not coming back. At least not yet. I may not be mad at your or the Lyndons, but there are still six members on Team GRACE I'm freaking furious at. I can't deal with them."

"How are you going to learn to control your powers then?"

"I don't know," Alyssa admitted. "Because as angry as I am at the team, I'm angrier still at my mom, and she's the only other person that can help me. I'm thinking maybe Hay Lin will be willing to work with me privately, so I can still learn, but I don't have to deal with the rest of the team."

Sage nodded. "I'm sure she'll agree. She'll do anything to make sure you keep training."

"For someone who's so laidback most of the time, she sure takes training seriously, doesn't she?" Alyssa asked.

"You can say that again. Thursday afternoon, she actually asked us if we would all consider skipping school to get in some early morning practice before she, Eric, and Cara left."

Alyssa laughed. "See, that's like the opposite of her personality. Hay Lin's so weird sometimes!"

"Like when she writes on herself," Sage said.

"We think she's cursed," Alyssa replied.

"To write on herself?"

"To never be allowed to use paper."

"Oooh, that's a good curse!" Sage said, and both of them burst out laughing.

At the same time, James walked up to the pair, and gave Alyssa a kiss. "Good morning Miss. Ashcroft."

"Good morning Mr. Mason," Alyssa replied, smiling.

"Hey Sage," James greeted with grin, which Sage easily returned.

Alyssa always marveled at how Sage reacted around James. Unlike every other girl she knew, even girls like Rae, who were perfectly content in their relationship, couldn't resist James' smile. But Sage never seemed affected. It wasn't even like she didn't care. It was more like she was repulsed. Not at James himself-they were pretty good friends. She was repulsed at the idea of liking him, like the very concept of being attracted to him was disgusting. It was so strange.

One of the cheerleaders called Sage back over.

"Looks like I'm wanted," Sage said. "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye Sage," Alyssa replied as the Meridian princess ran over to her friends.

"Are you two friends again?" James asked.

"Yup."

"Two down, seven to go," James said.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Calm down there. I forgave Sage because I wasn't really mad at her, and I forgave Chris because he did try to tell me, and I will forgive Cara, because even though she's not _that_ much younger than us, I know I wouldn't know what to do at fourteen either. But everyone else was still in the wrong. Did I expect Gabi to tell me? No. The thought probably never even crossed her mind. But Caty or Ellie? Yeah. Rae or Josh? Definitely. The fact that they didn't is reason enough to not forgive them."

James sighed. He knew Alyssa couldn't stay mad at the team forever. And once she forgave all her friends, she'd be the Alyssa Ashcroft he fell for. But man was it taking forever!

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty had finally worked up enough courage to use Gabi's "look" on Brian. It was a free period in APUSH again and Mrs. Taylor had given everyone in the honors crowd permission to go to the Debate Team classroom and practice for their debate tomorrow during the free period.

Misha and Nina were at one of the desks looking over their notes. The two of them, along with Tayler and Jaimie, were debating against a team of students from Crawford High School. Sheffield was outlining the pros of Bernie Sanders as the Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidential election, and Crawford was outlining the pros of Hilary Clinton. Caty personally thought Sheffield had that one in the bag.

She was worried about her debate. She, Zach, Emma, and Brian were debating about whether or not renewable forms or energy should be subsidized by the government. All four of them thought that it should, but unfortunately for the debate, Crawford got to argue that it should, and Sheffield had to argue against it.

She looked for her teammates and found them scattered. Zach was flirting with Tayler; the two of them had an on-again off-again relationship since eighth grade. Emma was texting furiously on her phone. Brian was with Will, Travis, and Nick, obviously helping them with their debate topic. The three boys, along with Ralph, a boy from Shelia's group, were debating the unfairness of progressive tax rates. Crawford had to fight back showing why they _were_ fair.

Feeling her eyes on his, Brian looked up at Caty and offered her a shy smile. Just as she was about to use the "look" someone burst through the door. It was Lili.

Caty resisted the urge to groan. Ever since she found out about GRACE, Lili had been a lot nicer to Caty, but she still had her annoying habits, like walking in on Debate Team practice.

Brian and his friends rolled their eyes, Nina and Misha exchanged looks, and everyone else just stared at Lili curiously.

"Caty!" she cried and the water guardian realized Lili looked scared.

"Lil, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Aunt Iris," Lili said.

"Mom? What about her?" Caty asked, wishing Lili would just get to the point.

"Something's wrong with the baby. Aunt Iris is in the hospital."

Caty felt her blood run cold. Her mouth dropped open. "Is she alright?" she asked.

"I don't know. Mom won't let me skip school and see her, but Uncle Jeremy got you permission to leave if you can find a ride."

Caty nodded and looked at Brian. "I-I have to go!" she said.

"Yeah, of course. Do you need-?" But Caty didn't hear the rest of the question as she ran out of the room.

Lili headed back to class as Caty ran the opposite direction, to the nearest exit. Who did she know that could give her a ride? Gabi might've taken her car today. But she couldn't go back to the APUSH classroom and ask for a ride. Mrs. Taylor wouldn't be allowed to dismiss a student with a parent's approval unless they were sick. Which means Gabi had to fake being sick. She had to get in contact with her.

Caty took out her phone, but it was dead. "Shit," she muttered. There was only one way to get in touch with Gabi now.

"_Alyssa, I need you. Or, I need you to get me in contact with Gabi,_" Caty said in the fire guardian's head.

There was no response.

"_Come on Lyssa, I know you're listening,_" Caty said.

Silence.

"_Please Lyss! This is important and my phone is dead and I _need_ Gabi. Please!_"

"_Caty, I don't have time for you stupid fake relationship problems. Leave me alone!_" Alyssa snapped coldly.

"_This isn't about that. This is an _emergency_! If you don't connect me with Gabi, I can just make you._"

Caty had no idea if this was true. Could she control someone if she wasn't right next to them? What if Alyssa broke their connection? Could Caty still control her? She wouldn't have to find out because Alyssa sighed exaggeratedly, but said, "_Oh fine!_" She must've heard the desperation in Caty's voice.

"_What's up Ice Queen?_" Gabi asked a second later at Caty made it outside. Ice Queen was Gabi's new nickname for her, and though it wasn't really a flattering nickname, Caty found she really liked it.

"_Something's wrong with the baby and my mom's in the hospital. I have no idea how she is, but Dad got me permission to leave school if I can get a ride. Did you drive yourself today?_"

"_I did. I'll meet you outside in five minutes._"

"_Caty, could I…I mean do you think…do you want me to come?_" Alyssa asked.

Caty was tempted to say no since Alyssa was being less than helpful, but then realized she did want the extra support. Besides, this could be way to start to make up with her. Caty may not be as broken up about Alyssa's anger as Rae and Josh, but she missed her too.

"_Yeah. I mean, if you want to come…that would be great._ _Uh, Gabs, where did you park your car?"_

_ "Gold lot," _Gabi answered.

Caty headed to the gold lot. The seniors had their own parking lot called the green lot. The juniors were forced to park their cars one behind another on the hill in the back of the school. Athletes had their own little lot called the gold lot, since they went home much later than regular students. Any senior on a varsity team got to use the gold lot. Juniors got to use the gold lot if they were captain of something. Gabi was co-captain of Varsity and captain of JV cheerleading, so she got to use the gold lot whenever she drove.

As promised, Gabi-and Alyssa-met Caty at Gabi's car in five minutes.

"Do you know what hospital?" Gabi asked as she started the car.

"Yeah. My dad texted me. She's at St. Elizabeth's, just before the border that separates Heatherfield from-"

"Star City. Yeah, I know where it is," Gabi finished.

Gabi must've broken a hundred laws to get the girls to St. Elizabeth's. What was supposed to be a 25 minute drive got shortened to nine.

When they arrived, the three headed up to room 234, which is the room number Jeremy texted Caty.

"Where's your dad?" Gabi asked as they got in the elevator.

"He texted me, saying he went to grab some lunch. He should be back soon," Caty said.

A nurse was working near the room Iris was in. Once Caty explained she was family, the nurse let her go in, but didn't tell her what was wrong.

"I hope everything is alright," Alyssa said nervously, pacing in front of the door. Gabi took a seat on one of the chairs.

"Yeah me too," Gabi said, feeling a familiar sense of dread. This is how it started for her mother with Luc. What if Iris died in childbirth too? It didn't happen too often anymore, but…

"I wonder if she's going to be born with a birth defect or something," Alyssa went on. "It happens all the time. Or maybe it's a genetic disorder. Like down syndrome. Or Turner Syndrome. That's pretty common in girls. And Tay-Sachs disease or cystic fibrosis, or even Phenylketonuria!"

"Excuse me, what? Pheny…huh?" Gabi said, but Alyssa wasn't listening anymore.

"Phenylketonuria can affect that brain!" she cried. "This is terrible!"

"You lost me after Down syndrome," Gabi said in a bored voice.

Alyssa glared at her. "Aren't you worried about the baby at all?"

"The baby? A little, yeah. But you know who else is effected when there's something wrong with an unborn baby? The mother. What if Caty's mother dies in childbirth?"

"That's really rare these days," Alyssa said. "And way more common for young mothers. Like, if you get pregnant at fifteen, you have more of a chance of dying than if you get pregnant at a normal age, like say, 28."

"I don't need a statistic Classless-a!" Gabi snapped. "_My _mother had my brother Luc when she was 34, and she died in childbirth."

Alyssa's mouth dropped open. She knew Gabi lost her mother, but she had no idea how. "Oh wow that's…that's terrible Gabi, I'm so sorry."

"I don't need your pity," Gabi muttered, but there was no venom in her voice. "I just think we need to consider that it may not be the baby in danger. It may be Iris."

"Wait…who's Iris?"

"Caty's mother. She lets all of Caty's friends call her Iris," Gabi said in a 'duh' voice.

"Sorry. It's been a long day," Alyssa said sheepishly. "We had this substitute in our calc 3 class and he was like Croatian or something and I'm assuming he spoke English, but no one could understand him and the rest of the day wasn't much better."

"Croatian? I'm pretty sure I know who you're taking about him. We had him sub for our lit class the other day and he insisted on reading aloud from the play we're currently reading, as if _Macbeth_ isn't hard enough to understand without a teacher no one can understand reading for every part."

Alyssa laughed.

"So I heard you got your powers back."

"You heard right."

"Then you need to come train with us again. We need you. _I _need you. I don't care if you hate everyone on the team. I'm not appealing to you guardian to guardian. I'm appealing to you big sister to big sister. Saving all the known worlds to me means Earth…it means Luc. So to you, it must mean your brother, right?"

Alyssa looked stunned as she took a seat next to Gabi. "I hadn't thought about it that way, but you're right. I don't think I can deal with the team right now, but I was thinking of asking Hay Lin if she'd teach me privately, before or after guardian training every day."

Gabi nodded. "That seems like a good alternative. We just need all the help we can get. My little brother can_not_ die because of me."

"Wow Gabi, I never knew you were so caring," Alyssa said, then winced. "That was kind of mean. Sorry."

"No, you're right. I'm usually a bitch," Gabi said casually.

"Why are you so okay with that?"

"It's who I am."

"It doesn't have to be. You can change!"

"And _what_ would be the point of _that_?" Gabi snarled.

Alyssa looked taken aback at Gabi's tone but answered anyway. "Well…and I mean, this was just a _guess_…but I kind of thought you _wanted_ to change. For…well you know, for Josh. To get him to like you?"

Gabi sighed. "I did," she admitted. "But he doesn't like me. And he won't like me ever. Actually…he hates me."

Alyssa gave her a confused look. "What? Since when?"

"Two weeks ago exactly," Gabi said, laughing so she wouldn't cry. "He told me he hates me."

"But why would he do that?"

"I'm thinking it's because he hates me," Gabi replied, rolling her eyes.

Alyssa rolled her eyes back. "No, he doesn't. I know he doesn't. Which is why I'm confused."

"Let's be real here Classless-a. The last time you talked to Josh was over two weeks ago. How do you know he hasn't just changed his mind about me?"

"Because according to you, he told you he hated you the _day_ after my birthday, which means he changed his mind about you over the course of 24 hours."

"So…?"

"So that doesn't happen. You can feel one way about a person one day and do a complete 360 the next!"

"Didn't you?"

"What?"

"You were besties with Rae and Josh on your birthday, and you couldn't even look at them the next day. What do you call that besides a complete 360?"

Alyssa frowned. She had a point.

"Okay, point taken," Alyssa said. "But let's go back to the original point. You can be different. And you are. I see the way you are with Ellie. You're the only one who doesn't treat her as if she's stupid. And what about Caty? You used to tease her all the time and now you're practically best friends."

Gabi knew she was right. She was always impressed with the way Ellie stood up to the cheerleaders and never thought of her as dumb, but tough and feisty. And Caty…well they were really close. Gabi helped Caty, and now they could always tell when something was bothering the other and were always there to listen and offer advice.

"So what?" Gabi asked

"Well, I'm just saying…you started off wanting to change for Josh, but you ended up changing just to change. So if Josh is stupid enough to hate you, he doesn't deserve you."

Gabi shook her head, a smile on her face. "You hate Josh though. How do I know you're not saying that to spite him?"

"I guess you don't," Alyssa admitted. "But seriously Gabi, I am saying this in defense of you."

Gabi smiled. It was kind of ironic because Gabi never felt closer to Alyssa. How strange that when Alyssa was mad at her other friends would be the moment she and Gabi would have a normal conversation.

"Hey, aren't you freaking out about missing class?"

"A little bit," Alyssa admitted. "But Caty and her mom are more important. I'll be honest…I do enjoy schoolwork, just like my mom, but even my mom wasn't as into it as I was. The reason I threw myself into school was because I didn't have any friends. Chris and I would talk, and I had my art, but without any actual friends, school was all I really had. I didn't have anything to do or anywhere to be. But now…it's different…or at least…it _was_ different."

"Look…I need to apologize to you," Gabi said.

"For what? If it's about this whole secret thing, don't worry. You and I weren't actually friends, so you had no real obligation to tell me. If I had found out a secret like that about you, I'm not sure I would've told you either."

"No, it's not that," Gabi said, seeming nervous. "I'm talking about what I did to you in fifth grade and at my party. I know you never liked being called Classless-a Klutzcroft, and I didn't know you'd lose all your friends because of that. And I'm not going to lie, I didn't care back then that people treated you like a pariah. You didn't _matter_ to me then. But now…we're not friends, but I _do_ see your value…I mean…no one deserves that. And I feel bad. So I'm sorry."

Alyssa looked stunned before giving Gabi a small smile. "Well, I forgive you I guess. And see, I'm right. You _have_ changed."

"Well naturally," Gabi smirked. "Aren't you always right?"

"Damn straight," Alyssa said grinning.

A few minutes later, Caty walked out of the room, looking pale and shaken. Alyssa and Gabi both got up and helped her into a seat.

"Are you okay?" Alyssa asked.

"Is your mom okay?" Gabi added.

"What's wrong?"

"Is it specifically the baby or is something wrong with your mom?"

"Do you know if she's going to be alright?"

"Guys, stop!" Caty cried. "I can only answer so many questions at once."

"Sorry," Alyssa and Gabi chorused.

"Okay, so my mom was sleeping. Aunt Dawn was in there, but she doesn't know what happened. My dad does, but he's out getting lunch. I'll know soon."

"Can I get you anything while you wait?" Gabi asked. "Something to eat or drink?"

"Coffee would be nice," Caty admitted.

"Sure. How do you take it?"

"Black, 2 sugars," Caty replied.

"I'll be right back," Gabi said.

"Hey Gabi! Change," Alyssa sang after her.

Gabi just laughed.

"Change?" Caty asked.

"We talked a lot about how Gabi's been changing for the better," Alyssa explained, taking a seat next to Caty. "And Gabi offering to get you something…that's one example of it."

"I guess you're right about that," Caty agreed. "Hey Alyssa…can I ask you something?"

"Okay," the fire guardian replied, wondering why Caty sounded so serious.

Caty hesitated, then said, "You told me once that Ellie didn't drop you as a friend. You said you guys had a fight. What was that fight about?"

Now Alyssa was the one who was hesitating. "You'll have to find out from Ellie yourself," she said finally.

"Ellie won't tell me," Caty said. "At least tell me _something_."

"All I can say is, I found out a dangerous secret and I insisted she tell someone about it and she refused. She promised she would tell someone just before we ended our friendship."

"But she didn't tell anyone?"

"No."

"And what is this secret? At least give me a hint. I need to know what's going on with her."

"Caty, you're not an idiot. I think you know exactly what's going on with her."

"Ellie is a trained actress. If I confront her with a flimsy accusation, she can lie her way out of it. But if I tell her that you told me, that'll scare her into being honest. But I don't want to tell her that you told me without you actually telling me. I don't want her to think you betrayed her trust when you didn't, and if you don't actually tell me what's going on, I won't know the full story in case she tries to test me."

"Caty, I'm sorry, but it's like you just said. I can't betray her trust."

"But don't you care?"

"Of course I do! I was going to try helping her myself…before."

Caty sighed. "Are we talking about that now?"

"We don't have to."

"We should. Look, I'm not going to say I'm sorry for not telling you because that's not what I should be apologizing about. I'm sorry for being selfish."

"Selfish?"

Caty explained to Alyssa what she told Ellie-that if Josh was really Alyssa's brother, that would make him Caty's cousin, and that was just too messy for Caty to handle, so she pushed it aside and pretended it wasn't real.

"You're a real control freak, you know that?" Alyssa asked when she was done, but she was smiling.

"So I've been told," Caty said, rolling her eyes. "By my mother, by Lili, even by Gabi, which is crazy since she's a control freak herself."

Both girls laughed, and Caty took this to mean Alyssa forgave her. Then Caty's phone beeped.

"Caty!" Alyssa admonished. "Your phone has to be on silent at a hospital!"

"I know, I know," Caty muttered. Both girls volunteered at the hospital every Sunday and were told they could have their phones out, but they had to be on silent. The sounds phones made could cause heart machines to malfunction.

Caty got out her phone and put it on silent before checking her text messages. "It's from Nina," she said, surprised. Before she could read it, she got another. "And there's one from Misha."

"What do they say?"

Caty sped read them. "They're both worried. They asked me how my mom is, how the baby is, and how I am."

"Sounds like they're warming up to you again," Alyssa smiled.

"They hated me on Friday. I can't believe it took my mom having to get sent to the hospital for them to talk to me kindly."

"It shows they still care," Alyssa said shrugging.

"Do they?" Caty asked, looking Alyssa square in the eye. Alyssa knew what she meant. Since her party, Alyssa had been talking to Nina and Misha a lot, sitting by them in class, enjoying their company at lunch, and even texting them outside of school every now and then. Alyssa would now how they really felt about Caty.

"They miss you," Alyssa said. "They're just a little hurt. This is supposed to be the most important year of high school, and they told me the three of you made some pact to stick together for the entire year and help each other."

"Yeah. I remember," Caty murmured.

"Well, that's what they're hurt about. You guys were supposed to stick together, but ever since school started, you started hanging out with a completely new group of people and the more time passed, the more you hung out with those people and the less you hung out with them."

"That's not my fault! I hung out with GRACE because of the whole guardian thing. And then most of us became friends. Am I not allowed to have other friends?"

"Of course you are. I'm not blaming you Caty. I'm one of those new people after all. They just don't understand. They like me and Rae. They _get_ you becoming friends with us, and it was easy for you to integrate us into your group. But they don't understand Ellie and Gabi becoming part of your inner circle."

"That's what caused our fight in the first place. Because they didn't like that I was branching out and making new friends outside of our social circle. They're judgmental bitches!"

"Or maybe they just miss their best friend," Alyssa said. "How about you actually introduce them to Gabi and Ellie? This time, Gabi won't insult them, and they'll begin to get used to the idea of you having other friends. All they need is time to _like_ Ellie and Gabi. Now I'm not saying they'll definitely be friends with Gabi, but there's no way they won't like Ellie."

Caty nodded slowly. She didn't know why she had to do so much work just to get her _best_ friends to accept her other friendships. She wasn't even sure if those were the kind of people she should be friends with. But she also knew that she used to be just as judgmental as they were before this year, and she did miss them both. She should at least try.

"Okay, you convinced me," Caty said.

Alyssa smiled just as Gabi came back with Caty's coffee. A few minutes of pointless chatter later, a young looking blond man came hurrying over.

"Dad!" Caty cried. She handed Gabi her coffee and hugged Jeremy.

"Hey sweetheart," Jeremy said softly when Caty let go. "How're you doing?"

"Terrible considering Mom looks awful and no one will tell me what's wrong," Caty replied.

"Don't worry sweetie, your mother is fine. It's Catherine that's in trouble," Jeremy replied.

Caty resisted the urge to roll their eyes. A couple of weeks ago, her parents had made several announcements regarding the baby, including that they'd settled on Catherine for her name.

"Well, what's wrong with her?" Caty asked.

Jeremy ushered Caty back into Iris's room, probably to explain what was happening. Gabi and Alyssa exchanged worried looks. It was fifteen minutes later when Caty joined them outside again. She looked white as a sheet, her eyes glassy, as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Caty, what's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

"What's going on with the baby?" Gabi added.

"It's my fault," Caty said, ignoring both of their questions.

"What is?" Alyssa asked, frowning.

"Catherine may die and it's my fault."

"How can it be your fault?" Gabi asked. "Whatever it is, you had nothing to do with it."

"I wished for it," Caty said. "And it happened."

"That doesn't mean anything," Alyssa said. "A few years ago, my grandma was sick and in pain and we knew it was only a matter of time before she…you know, died. And I wished for her to die so that her pain and suffering would end, and she died the next day. That wasn't _my_ fault though."

"Yeah. These things happen…whatever these things are. You can't have done it," Gabi soothed.

"No, you don't understand…I didn't just _wish_ for it. I _made_ it happen."

"Caty…are you talking about using your powers?" Alyssa asked.

Caty nodded miserably.

"What exactly happened?" Gabi demanded.

Caty took a deep breath and said, "The day after your party Alyssa, I was in a rotten mood when I woke up because of everything that had gone down the previous night. My parents, however, were so excited. I asked what was going on, and they said they'd decided on a name for the baby. She was officially going to be named Catherine. Then they started talking about how wonderful it was going to be to actually have a baby in the house and talked about all the parental things they get to do that they missed out on doing with me since I'm not technically theirs. And I just got so mad that I wished something would happen to her. Then I stared at my mother's stomach and before I knew what I was doing, I demanded that something happen to it."

"And…what happened?" Gabi asked in a whisper.

"Placental abruption," Caty replied, her voice also a whisper. "The placenta is supposed to attack itself to the uterus so that the baby can get food and oxygen, but it separated from the wall…like completely."

"But I thought that can only happen during the third trimester," Alyssa said.

"My mom is _in_ the third trimester. She's 26 weeks."

"What does this mean for the baby?" Gabi asked.

"She can have growth problems if she's born normally," Caty said. "But more likely, she'll either be born premature or as a still baby."

Gabi looked like she was slapped in the face.

"Look, Caty, if you demanded the baby to do something to itself, then this is not your fault," Alyssa said. "The only thing you could've caused with your powers is for the baby to wrap the umbilical cord around itself."

"I demanded the baby have problems with its umbilical cord, and I put more force into the command than ever before. There are several things that can cause placental abruption, but umbilical cord problems is the only thing that could've caused it for this baby. And right after I figured that out, my dad confirmed that was the cause. So it's my fault."

Alyssa and Gabi were quiet. They wanted to comfort Caty, but they were beginning to realize she might be right about this being her fault.

"What do you want to do now?" Alyssa asked. "We can take you home if you want."

Gabi nodded, taking out her keys.

"No…let's go back to school," Caty said.

"Are you sure? The day's almost over," Alyssa said. "Even the way Gabi drives, we'd only make it back in time for our last class."

"And that's gym for all of us. Do we really need to go back for that?" Gabi asked.

"I have AcDec after school, and you have cheerleading, and I'll bet Alyssa has an art project to work on."

Actually, Alyssa had work right after school today, but she didn't bother correcting Caty. "Are you sure?" she asked.

Caty nodded. "I'll feel better as long as I keep busy."

Gabi and Alyssa nodded. Caty ducked into her mother's room to tell Jeremy where she was headed. She backed out of the room before Jeremy could express his opinion on Caty's idea, and the three girls headed to the parking lot.

As Alyssa predicted, the girls had just enough time to head to gym class. Gym was the one class that GRACE shared. In fact, all of Team GRACE, except for Cara, was in that class.

When Alyssa, Gabi, and Caty got out of the locker room, Alyssa joined James, Gabi headed in the direction of Bree and the other cheerleaders, and Caty walked over to where Rae, Jake, Josh, and Ellie were. Chris waved at Alyssa and smiled at Caty, but stayed with his friends.

"Hey. We saw Gabi and Alyssa run out of class. What happened?" Jake asked.

"It was weird because Gabi said she was sick and needed to see the nurse and said she felt faint so she asked if someone could go with her. And Mrs. Taylor asked Lana to accompany her, but Gabi yelled no and Alyssa volunteered and Gabi agreed Alyssa should go. She even called her _Alyssa_," Rae said.

"Are you and Alyssa friends again?" Ellie demanded.

"Yeah, I guess we are. I asked Alyssa to connect me to Gabi cuz I needed a ride, and when Alyssa heard where I was going, she asked if she could come. We made up, and I think she and Gabi are on better terms too."

"Where did you go?" Josh asked.

Caty shifted uncomfortably. Jake noticed, so he distracted everyone by saying, "See, I told you Alyssa was coming around."

"Yeah. She forgave Chris and Sage, and now Caty…and I guess Gabi, but I don't think she was ever really _angry _with Gabi," Rae listed. "She technically has forgiven Cara, she just hasn't told her yet. That just leaves…" She looked at Josh. "…you and me."

Josh smiled, one of the first genuine smiles Caty had seen since Alyssa's party. "That's awesome. She'll probably forgive you first, and then maybe you can convince her to talk to me?"

"Of course."

Ellie cleared her throat. "Um, she hasn't forgiven _me_ yet either," she reminded.

Rae and Josh looked stunned for a moment.

"I'm sorry," Rae said. "I didn't mean to forget you, it's just…it's clear Alyssa's most mad at us, so we're getting impatient. We know she's not going to be ready to forgive us until she forgives the rest of you."

"I understand," Ellie said, though it seemed like she didn't.

"Do you think she needs to forgive me too?" Jake asked.

"I don't think she's actually _mad_ at you," Rae said. "She's just not talking to you because you're my boyfriend, so you're associated with me."

One of the teachers blew a whistle, meaning that day's activity was about to start. They explained it was a free day and they could do whatever they wanted as long as they were doing something. The group started a game of TV tag. They learned long ago that as long as they were moving, the gym teachers were okay with whatever on free days.

Caty and Jake both went to get a drink before the game started.

"Thanks for rescuing me back there. I know you changed the subject so I wouldn't have to tell them where I'd been," Caty said.

"Everyone's entitled to their secrets. I'm here to listen if you need me though."

Caty smiled. She was hoping he'd say that because she wanted to tell Jake so badly. These serious issues were just the kind of things they'd talked about before their fight, and she was so happy to have him as a close friend and confidante again.

"My mom's in the hospital," she blurted out.

"What?" Jake asked, shocked.

"Something's wrong with Catherine."

"Oh no, what's going on?"

Caty told him what was wrong with Catherine and what that meant. She left out the part about it being her fault since she couldn't explain that without explaining her powers. She did tell him that she wished the placenta abruption would happen.

Jake assured her it wasn't her fault, and asked if her mother was okay. As usual, Caty felt better after talking to Jake. Unfortunately, it didn't last since ultimately, she still knew what was happening to the baby was her fault. And now her mother had to stay in the hospital for several days to make sure everything was going to be alright.

In short, Caty could responsible for killing her own sister.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

On Wednesday, Rae inquired about everyone's Thanksgiving plans while they waited for Hay Lin to start guardian training.

"Anyone who wants to can come to my house," Rae said. "My mom never wanted me to be lonely on Thanksgiving, and she thought I would be since it would normally be just the two of us so she always invited her friends over and once I was old enough to make actual lasting friends, she had me invite them and their families over. Usually we have lots of people at our house."

"We're having Thanksgiving with Lili's family," Caty said. "It'll be the first time that we get to see Aunt Dawn's house. Even after she moved out, she would always come over to our house, so I'm curious to see Lili's new house."

"Lili says it's huge and everyone has their own rooms," Gabi said.

"That's what she told me too, which is a step up. Usually Layla and Libby had to share and the twins had to share."

"What about your mom?" Ellie asked.

Caty had told the others what was happening with the baby and that her mother was in the hospital the previous day. Besides Gabi and Alyssa, Ellie was the only one who knew it could be Caty's fault.

"Um, well, Thanksgiving isn't til next Thursday, and she's being released on Monday, so we're good."

"How's the baby?" Rae asked.

"Still the same, but they can't keep my mom in the hospital for that. They just have to hope that the baby doesn't die."

The room was silent. No one was sure what to say. Caty broke the silence she caused by saying, "What are you doing Gabi?"

Gabi sighed and decided to play along. "It's the Carsons' first Thanksgiving," she said in fake cheery tone. "And the step monster invited over her sister who happens to have three kids. It's gonna suck!"

"Maybe you'll like the kids. Maybe they'll be like Luc," Ellie suggested.

"Not likely," Gabi muttered darkly. Then she brightened. "But Michael is coming home, _finally_!"

Josh had practically taken a vow of silence when it came to Gabi, still furious about the brusies she left on his face, but broke it to ask, "Who's Michael."

Gabi shot him a shocked look. "My brother."

"Your brother's name is Luc, or did you forget?"

Gabi rolled her eyes. "I have more than one brother moron! Michael is my older brother. He's 21 and he's in college. Thanksgiving it the first time he's coming home since he moved in this year."

"I didn't know you had an older brother."

"I don't know how. I feel like I mentioned him in front of you," Gabi replied. "But whatever, you do now. And just so you know, if he realizes you're being mean to me, he'll kick the crap out of you."

Josh rolled his eyes and snorted. "Please! I'm the rebel army second-in-command. I can take him."

"You can't take on Michael Shay in a fight," Caty scoffed.

"Is he exceptionally big or something?" Rae asked.

"No, he's only 5'9" and average weight, but he's all muscle, and he's really agile," Gabi said.

"Yeah," Ellie said dreamily, and everyone laughed. Every girl had a crush on Michael back when he was still attending Sheffield.

"What about you James?" Ellie asked. "What're you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"My family is joining Lyssa's," James replied.

"Aww," Ellie cooed.

"What are you doing Ellie?" Caty asked.

Ellie shrugged. "My family doesn't really do Thanksgiving. Jason's working that day, and I tried to pick up a shift at Applebee's, but for some reason, everyone _wants_ to work Thanksgiving."

"Well, you can join my family. My dad is letting Luc and I invite two friends each," Gabi said.

Ellie smiled. "Oh that sounds awesome, thanks!"

"Chris, what about you?" Rae asked.

"The restaurant closes early and we have a big dinner with my grandparents."

"Maternal or paternal?" Rae asked.

Cara smiled as she jumped in to answer. "Both."

"Do they know about the guardian stuff?" Gabi asked.

Cara shook her head. "Grandma-my mom's mom-would completely freak out. Besides, the less people know, the better."

James nodded. "Taranee didn't tell her parents either. I asked her once."

"I _wish_ I could tell my dad," Gabi muttered. "Now that Eva's made it her mission in life to prove I'm a witch, Dad is getting mad at _me_, as if I did something to scare Eva or make her think I'm a witch. He thinks I set this whole thing up so that I could get her into trouble or something."

"You can't tell your father though," Caty said. "It'd be different if we were just another set of guardians, but we're Thousand Year Guardians, and all the other Thousand Year Guardians before us had family members in the know captured or tortured."

"I know, I know," Gabi sighed. "I'm reading the journals."

"You're not keeping them where Eva can find them, are you?" Rae asked.

"Of course not. I put the journals in a box in Luc's room. He won't look through it. Speaking of which, that box also has the stuff we found at Irma's, which we've yet to look through."

"Monday," Rae declared. "When all the craziness settles down. By then Caty's mom will be home and Thanksgiving will be over."

"I can't wait," Gabi muttered. "I do _not_ need to spend time with the step monster, the she devil, and their family."

"The people who are also _your_ family?" Caty asked teasingly.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "It'll be so much easier to deal with them now that Ellie's coming." She looked at the Meridian princess. "It'll be even easier if I had another friend. Want to come and hang with me, Ellie and Josh?"

Sage looked confused. "Oh, I guess we never mentioned it!" she exclaimed.

"Mentioned what?" Rae asked.

"Josh and I are going to the Hales' for Thanksgiving."

"Since when?" Rae asked.

"It was our plan since the beginning," Sage replied.

"We always go there for Thanksgiving," Josh added. "And this way, I'll get to see my parents and siblings."

"Are you gonna tell your dad that Alyssa knows about being his daughter?" Ellie asked.

Josh's eyes widened. "I…never really thought about it. I guess I _should_…right?"

Everyone else shrugged, unsure.

"I mean, if you do, then Cornelia will get reminded and Jilly and Julia will find out and that'll be devastating for them," Cara said. "But if you don't…well you saw what happened when you kept a secret from Alyssa."

"You don't _have_ to decide right now. You can wait til you see everyone before you decide whether to tell them or not," Caty said.

"You're right," Josh agreed. "I guess I'll play my ear."

"You'll do what?" Rae asked.

"Play my ear…isn't that what you say?" Josh asked.

Everyone began laughing.

"I think you mean play _it by_ ear," Cara choked out.

"Well that's a weird expression," Josh replied.

Gabi raised her eyebrows. "Cuz playing your ear is so normal," she said sarcastically, prompting another round of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Hay Lin asked, coming downstairs.

"Josh is trying to take up an instrument," Chris joked and everyone snickered.

"Which one?" Hay Lin asked excitedly, making everyone laugh harder.

Cara smirked. "His ear."

Hay Lin's face lit up. "You're gonna _play_ a body part?" She displayed her forearm to the group, which was, predictably, covered in writing. "I knew one of you would realize your body doesn't just have one function."

"There were so many things wrong with that sentence," Cara said, wrinkling her nose.

The others kept laughing. Hay Lin was truly something else.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Since Monday, Alyssa had been a lot friendlier. She'd gone to The Silver Dragon to forgive Cara and apologize to Hay Lin for skipping out on guardian practice. According to Chris and Cara, Alyssa was training with Hay Lin for two hours every day after guardian training to practice with her element. Since her powers were innate, it came naturally to her now that she could control fire, she didn't have too much to get through to catch up to the other girls in terms of level.

Alyssa would walk to school with Sage every morning. When they arrived, Sage joined Gabi and the cheerleaders on the steps, but Chris would be waiting for Alyssa at her locker, with James. Chris didn't like James any more now than he did when he first met him, but he made an effort to be nice for Alyssa's sake.

Alyssa and Gabi _were_ on better terms. They went so far as to nod, smile, or even wave at each other in the halls, and, according to Rae, even paired up for an AP History project since Lana had managed to convince Chris to be her partner.

And Alyssa had come out from hiding (skipping lunch to spend time in the library or art studio) on Wednesday. Caty had made up with Nina and Misha. She'd explained that her mother was in the hospital since something was wrong with the baby (though she didn't elaborate), and Nina and Misha decided their fight had gone on long enough when they found out. On Tuesday, Caty got Gabi and Ellie to have lunch with Nina and Misha, and it had actually gone pretty well. On Wednesday, everyone was back to their normal tables. Ellie sat with Adam, Jade, and Milly again. Gabi rejoined the cheerleaders. Jake, Rae, and Josh sat at their private table. And Alyssa and Caty had rejoined Nina, Misha, Brian, Travis, Nick, and Will. James, who had been spending lunch periods with Alyssa, joined Caty's table, though he would spend a few minutes at the popular table to talk to his teammates.

However, she still ignored Ellie, Rae, and Josh. It was Friday when Ellie finally got an opportunity to make up with Alyssa.

Jason explained to Ellie that morning that he was going to spend the night at Markus's. Whenever he spent the night at a friend's, Ellie arranged to as well since neither she nor Jason wanted Ellie to spend a night alone with her mother, especially now that she started working again. Even though the job was good so they could pay rent, her mother came home drunk every night since she was bartending, and this didn't bode well for Ellie.

Ellie said she'd ask Jade or Milly at lunch if she could spend the night with one of them. Jason said he'd run into Taranee at the supermarket the previous day, and she'd invited both him and Ellie over for dinner the next day. Jason said he was spending the night at a friend's, and asked if Ellie could spend the night with the Ashcrofts. Taranee said absolutely.

Ellie hadn't told Jason about her fight with Alyssa. She didn't want to worry him or disappoint him. He was so happy his sister and Alyssa were friends again. So even though Ellie didn't feel comfortable with the idea of spending the night with a girl who hated her guts, she thanked Jason and said she'd go.

Anyway, all of Team GRACE, including Hay Lin and Eric, were burning with curiosity about the relationship of the Ashcrofts. Had Alyssa forgiven her mother? Probably not since she was training with Hay Lin. Had Taranee told Nigel why Alyssa was mad? How had he reacted? Were they fighting? Ellie would find out that night.

Ellie was nervous the entire day. She had work at 5. Applebee's had unpredictable schedules for servers and hosts, but Ellie was working carside that day, and all carside orders went to the bar at 10 o' clock, and her shift lasted until 9. She kept trying to prolong her shift as long as she could, cleaning up the carside station, taking all the calls, and packing orders her fellow carside worker Hannah was supposed to pack. Finally Hannah told Ellie she'd been working hard enough and she should just go home. Hannah's shift had started at 6, so she was supposed to be the one to clean up and close the station.

When Ellie headed outside, Adam was there waiting for her. Adam was seventeen and could drive already. He'd drive his friends places, and he worked at Shop Rite, which was in the same complex as Applebee's, so he and Ellie scheduled themselves to have shifts at similar times so they could carpool. Since Jason worked so many hours a week, it was rare that he had time to drive Ellie anywhere, so Ellie relied on Adam, and he was happy to take her.

"Hey Adam," Ellie said.

"Hey El. It's 9:47. I've been here for almost an hour. What took you so long?"

"I'm sorry Adam. Jason arranged for me to sleep over at Alyssa's house but she's still mad at me so I tried to prolong my shift for as long as I could."

"How come Alyssa is letting you stay over if she's mad at you?"

"She's not. Jason arranged it with Mrs. Ashcroft."

"Well, she's forgiven Sage Martin and Caty Lewis, and I think even she and Gabi Shay are on good terms. I'm sure she'll forgive you soon."

"I hope so."

"No one can stay mad at you long," Adam assured her, making her glow with happiness. Adam could always make her feel like she was on top of the world. "So your house first or straight to Lyssa's?"

"My place. I need my overnight bag."

Adam nodded and they took off, exchanging funny work stories. When he dropped her off at Alyssa's house, he wished her luck and gave her an encouraging smile, but he ultimately had to leave Ellie to face her angry ex-best friend on her own.

Taranee opened the door for Ellie, and Ellie was surprised to see she looked just as friendly as always. Ellie didn't know what she was expecting, but she thought if Taranee and Nigel were fighting, Taranee would look crabby and tired. Maybe they weren't fighting?

But when Ellie walked into the house, she saw no sign of Nigel. Mentally going over his work schedule, which Taranee had given her once she realized Ellie and Alyssa were friends again, she knew he'd be home by now. He didn't have any night classes on Fridays.

"How long have you worked at Applebee's?" Taranee asked.

"I started there over the summer. How do you know I work there?"

Taranee laughed. "You still have your name tag on."

Looking down, Ellie realized she didn't change out of her work uniform. Why didn't Adam say anything?

"Oh…I guess I forgot to change. Ooops," Ellie murmured.

Taranee just laughed again. "Well, you're going to change into pajamas soon anyway," she said. "Alyssa's upstairs in her room. We put out an extra mattress on the floor for you. There's a bed sheet, pillow, and blanket on it."

"Thank you. Mrs. Ashcroft…you know Alyssa and I are still fighting, right?"

"Yes, I do know that," Taranee said. "But I also know that she has forgiven several members of…what is it you call yourselves, Team GRACE?"

Ellie nodded.

"Okay. I like that name. Anyway, she's forgiven several members of the team. I'm hoping a sleepover might give her a chance to work things out with you too."

"That's what I want too," Ellie said. "Thank you." She headed upstairs.

"Hi Ellie," John said when he saw her.

"Hey John," she said, marveling at how much he'd grown. The last time she saw him was when she had dinner at the Ashcrofts house the night after Alyssa's party, and she hadn't taken notice of him then. Back when Ellie and Alyssa were still friends, John was only 3, and he called Ellie 'Lee.'

Ellie stood in front of Alyssa's door and saw it was partially open. She walked in and dropped her overnight bag on the mattress. Alyssa wasn't in the room, but the bathroom light was on, so Ellie figured she was in there.

Ellie always thought Alyssa was lucky because every bedroom in the house, including the guest rooms, had an en suite. But Rae and Gabi had en suites and walk in closets in each bedroom, which was even more amazing. Ellie just wished they had a bathroom with a toilet that _didn't_ clog every other time someone used it.

Alyssa exited the bathroom with a serene look on her face. Her expression immediately soured when she saw Ellie.

"Oh…you're here," she said, and even though her tone displeased, at least it wasn't mean.

"Um, yeah. How was your day?" Ellie asked, cringing. How was your day? Really? That was the only thing she could think of to say?

"Tiring. Let's go to bed," Alyssa said flatly.

"Oh, uh…o-okay," Ellie agreed. She went into the bathroom the change. When she came out, the only light that was on was the lamp above Alyssa's bed. The fire guardian was reading.

Ellie yawned. She hadn't realized immediately, but she was tired. But she couldn't just go to sleep without even _trying_ to have an honest conversation with Alyssa about this whole mess.

"Lyssa, can we talk?"

"Nope."

"But-"

Ellie stopped when Alyssa closed her book and turned off the lamp. The room was pitch black now.

Ellie sighed and got under the covers.

"You know," she said a few minutes later, "I really am sorry for everything that happened. But I was just trying to protect you. And maybe keeping the truth from you wasn't the right way to do it, but I was just doing what I thought was right. I'm sorry you can't see that."

Alyssa didn't respond, not that Ellie really expected her to. She sighed again and drifted off into sleep soon after. She should've expected to be attacked by a dream.

_The strange thing about this dream was that she'd had it before. It was the dream about the battle with Snake Dude Ellie had before she knew about her guardianship. But this time, every time someone said Rae's name, she could hear it. And this time, the dream went further._

_ Real Ellie began to shake in her bed when dream Ellie and dream Caty got trapped in Snake Dude's webs as they tried to save Alyssa and Rae._

_ Caty and Ellie both cried out, distracting Gabi. She looked back for a moment, allowing Snake Dude the time he needed to compose himself. He grabbed Gabi by using his tail. She squealed and struggled. He threw her, and she landed fifty feet away._

_ "Gabi!" Caty cried in fear._

_ Snake Dude slithered over to the other girls and grinned evilly. "You're done now Gaurdianssssss," he hissed. "But firsssst…" He got in Rae's face. "The Heart of Kandrakar if you pleassssse."_

_ "Sorry, my hands are kind of occupied at the moment," Rae said snarkily. _

_Green, tall, and scaly hissed angrily. "Very well. I will pry it from you dead form," he decided._

_ "Good luck with that," Rae replied, smirking, clearly knowing something Snake Dude didn't._

_ "_Rae_!" Caty hissed. "Not the time for smugness and jokes."_

_ "Aw, you like my smugness and jokes, don't you?" Rae asked Snake Dude._

_ Snake Dude didn't answer. He just glared at them, then opened his mouth. This time, instead of shooting webs at them, Ellie saw a ball of fire forming. They really _were_ done!_

_ But then they were fine. There was a shield in front of them and the fire hit that instead. Ellie looked up to see Angel flying above them._

_ Without a word, Angel managed to melt Snake Dude's web and the guardians were free._

_ "Where's Gabi?" Caty asked._

_ "I can't reach her," Alyssa said. "But I can pick up her brainwaves with my powers. She's still alive, but something is blocking the psychic connection."_

_ "Do _we_ still have a connection?" Rae asked._

_ "_Can you all hear me_?" Alyssa asked in their heads._

_ The others nodded._

_ The girls looked up to see Angel fighting Snake Dude. Oddly enough, she was using the same kinds of tricks Sage used-energy blasts and telekinesis to attack, clones to cause confusion, and intangibility to defend. But didn't Angel have the power to disintegrate monsters just by looking at them?_

_ Apparently Rae was thinking the same thing Ellie was because she flew next to Angel, aimed and landed a ball of lightning at Snake Dude's eye, and said, "Angel, just disintegrate him!"_

_ "I cannot," Angel said in her echoing voice. "He is far too powerful for me to do that. But together, we can defeat him."_

_ Rae nodded. "_Guys, together now_!" she ordered in the guardians' heads._

_ The other girls flew next to her. Without even looking at each other, Rae, Ellie, and Caty got to work creating a storm. Before they were done, Gabi had rejoined them. _

_ "You're okay!" Alyssa cried happily._

_ "Well, of course. Between having telekinesis and wings, it's hard to kill me while I'm airborne," Gabi said cockily._

_ "What does airborne mean?" Ellie asked as the winds picked up and storm clouds popped up in the sky._

_ "Not the time," Caty said as rain began to fall._

_ "_Can you hear me in your head_?" Alyssa asked Gabi telepathically._

_ "_Yes. Can you all hear me_?"_

_ The others nodded._

_ "Good. Something was blocking Alyssa's telepathy before and she couldn't reach you," Caty said, relieved._

_ Lightning started to flash and Rae harnessed it. She shocked Snake Dude, but unlike that day in the alley, this time it hurt him much worse. He screeched in pain and fell to the ground._

_ "Is that it?" Caty asked._

_ "Not even close," Angel said. "He, like many other Meridianites, are much more powerful in their home world."_

_ "Great," Alyssa muttered. "Now, this storm is great an all, but as long as it's still going, I can't use my power."_

_ "So be it," Angel said. _

_ Alyssa looked kind of shocked._

_ "Do it again," Angel said to Rae as she noticed Snake Dude getting up._

_ Rae harnessed more lightning and shot Snake Dude again. While he was down, Angel fired energy blasts at him._

_ "Guys, we need to finish this. I have an idea. Let's stop this storm!" Rae yelled._

_ Ellie and Caty came to Rae's end and cleared up the skies._

_ "Alright, ready?" Rae asked. "Gabi, I want you to launch a continuous stream of boulders. Ellie, summon up your strongest hurricane. I need you to encase a wave that Caty makes."_

_ "What does encase mean?" Ellie asked._

_ "It means your hurricane needs to be surrounding my wave. My wave needs to be _inside_ the hurricane."_

_ "Got it."_

_ "Once the wave is inside, I need you to hurl it at Snake Dude. The idea is to cut off his air source and drown him so he has no way to escape. That means you guys need to be really careful to not create ice. These need to be two separate attacks launched together."_

_ Caty and Ellie nodded. Ellie began forming a hurricane and Caty used water from a bay they were floating above to make a wave._

_ "Lyss, I need you to trap him in a ring of fire. Can you do that?"_

_ "Definitely." Alyssa began shooting fire at the ground._

_ "Okay. Angel, if Ellie and Caty fail, I'll need you need to keep up those blasts. I'll hit him with some lightning and we should be good."_

_ "As in, he should be dead?" Gabi asked._

_ No one said anything. Everyone knew the answer._

_ Snake Dude began to rise again. Their attacks were more powerful this time, but so was he. Gabi launched boulders at him. After being unable to dodge the first few, he was out cold again._

_ "I'm good," Alyssa said as she finished up a ring of fire around Snake Dude._

_ "I'm ready," Ellie said._

_ Caty forced a wave into Ellie's hurricane. The two girls launched it, careful not to create ice. For one moment, it seemed like it was going to work. In the next second, a wall of monsters rose up in front of them. They were the same monsters that attacked them on Halloween and invaded Ellie's house. The difference was, now they were wearing shoes…shoes with wings on them. They had the ability to fly! The monsters raised their clubs and diffused both the hurricane and the wave._

_ "I need you get me past those things!" Rae cried, looking from Gabi to Alyssa._

_ Angel was the one who responded. She began firing energy blasts at several monsters. The ones who got hit died. The ones who didn't get hit were disintegrated._

_ Wordlessly, Rae flew through the dust of the disintegrated monsters, lighting balls encasing her hands. She let out a ferocious battle cry, launching ball after ball. Unfortunately, more monsters blocked her with their clubs. Angel was trying her hardest to get rid of them, but more and more were coming to Snake Dude's aid._

_ "What's going on?" Alyssa asked out loud. "Rae's way stronger than that, but those balls look small, as if she's losing power the way you guys used to before the Heart timed out."_

_ "But that only happened because you didn't have your powers," Caty said._

_ "I know, but…clearly something's up, because look." Alyssa held out her palms, clearly trying to produce a fireball. Her normal fireballs were the size of exercise balls, and even when she was weakened, she was able to produce beach ball sized fireballs. What she produced now was the size of a softball._

_ Caty and Gabi exchanged worried looks before trying out their own powers. Caty could no longer produce water, and couldn't create more than a small tide in the bay. Gabi tried to shoot boulders at Snake Dude, but only managed pebbles. Everyone looked at Ellie expectantly. She tried to make a tornado, but ended up with a breeze._

_ "This is not good," Caty said. _

_ Angel couldn't destroy the monsters quick enough, and Snake Dude regained consciousness. None of them were powerful enough to defeat him anymore. They could barely hurt the weaker monsters now._

_ Rae cried out in pain suddenly. "The Heart!" she cried._

_ Caty, Gabi, and Ellie exchanged confused looks but Alyssa understood what she meant immediately. Before she could order the guardians to land, their wings disappeared._

_ Angel, who also realized what Rae meant, used her telekinesis to save the guardians and put them safely on the ground before turning her attention back to the club wielding monsters and Snake Dude._

_ "She can't do this on her own," Rae said._

_ "Well, what do you propose we do?" Alyssa asked. "I can probably only produce a candle sized flame now!" She put her out finger to demonstrate. Nothing happened._

_ "Uh…" Caty said, before trying to raise water from a puddle. Again, nothing happened._

_ Rae, Gabi, and Ellie tried their powers as well._

_ "What's going on? I know we're in human form, but we should have _some_ power," Rae said._

_ "Do you know why the Heart timed out?" Alyssa asked._

_ "No clue," Rae replied._

_ "So we don't know why we lost our guardian forms and we have no powers?" Caty asked. "I think our best course of action is to get _out_ of here!"_

_ "What about Angel?" Rae asked._

_ "What _about_ her? She can do way more than _we_ can," Gabi spat._

_ "She's getting overpowered. Angel's saved us from desperate situations. Snake Dude probably wants to get rid of her," Alyssa said._

_ But suddenly, the monsters all stopped. Then landed on the ground and bowed to…Angel._

_ "What is going on?" Caty whispered._

_ Angel slowly landed in front of them, but turned to face the guardians._

_ The girls looked at each other, unsure of what was happening._

_ "Look. Snake Dude," Ellie murmured. _

_ Even Green, Scaly, and Ugly was bowing to Angel. Angel walked over to the guardians._

_ "Angel, what's happening?" Rae asked._

_ Angel didn't answer. She looked at the dead Heart in Rae's hand. "It timed out again," she said. She was breathing hard._

_ "Yeah. Do you know why?" Alyssa jumped in._

_ Angel held out her hand. "Let me see it," she said._

_ Everyone looked at Rae expectantly, but now Rae backed away, holding the Heart close. _

_ "Rae? What's wrong?" Alyssa asked._

_ The other exchanged looks. They were all a little weary of Angel, but Rae trusted her wholeheartedly. _

_ "Why are all the monsters bowing to you?" she demanded._

_ "It's a spell," Angel explained. "It's only temporary, but for the next few minutes, it'll keep them at bay. They think I'm their master. It takes a lot out of me. Once the spell breaks, I won't be able to help you, but hopefully by then, I can fix the Heart." _

_ Rae still looked uneasy, but gave Angel the Heart. _

_ "I need each of you to touch it," she said._

_ All five girls put a finger on the Heart. It felt warm and began to glow again. The girls sighed in relief._

_ "Okay, good," Angel said._

_ The girls stepped back, waiting for Angel to give the Heart back to Rae. The monsters rose and roared._

_ "I think the spell is broken," Gabi said unnecessarily._

_ "Quick, give me the Heart so I can change us," Rae said urgently._

_ Angel glanced at Rae for a minute before putting the Heart around her neck._

_ "Angel?" Rae asked, confused._

_ "The Heart belongs to me now," she said. The monsters began to bow again. Clearly, this was no spell._

_ The guardians looked at each other._

_ "Angel, this isn't funny," Alyssa said._

_ "Nor is this a joke," Angel replied._

_ "_What's going on_?" Ellie asked inside their heads._

_ "_The prophecy_!" Alyssa said. "_Remember, '_they shall be betrayed by one whom they call friend_.' That could be Angel…it must be_."_

_ "_So she switched sides, like the prophecy said_," Caty realized._

_ "_That_," Gabi said, "_or maybe…maybe it's not Angel who switched sides. Maybe it's Elyon. After all, she's the one who kept saying her allegiance is with Queen Elyon. The only reason she'd betray us is if Elyon switched sides_."_

_ "_So what does that mean_?" Ellie asked._

_ "_Who cares_?" Rae said, weighing in for the first time. She looked at Angel. "_I'm not playing_," she said out loud. "_Give me the Heart, or you will regret it_."_

_ Angel barked a laugh. "What can you do with no powers?"_

_ The girls grimaced. She was right. Not only could they not change, but they didn't even have the limited powers they were supposed to have in human form._

_ Rae looked at her hands for a minute. Before anyone could register what was happening, she punched Angel square in the jaw._

_ Angel stumbled back, looking shocked. The others were shocked too._

_ Rae didn't waste a second. She kicked Angel in the stomach. Angel fell. Josh's hand to hand training sure paid off, even though she hadn't practiced in months._

_ " . ," Rae growled._

_ The others exchanged terrified looks. They'd never seen this scary side of Rae before._

_ "Take it from me Keeper," Angel replied, getting up._

_ Rae growled again and Ellie saw electricity crackling by her hands._

_ "Lyssa, look," Ellie said._

_ Alyssa's eyes widened. She opened her palm and a flame appeared. "Looks like we've got some juice left after all!"_

_ Immediately, Caty grabbed water from the nearby trees and launched a wave at Angel. Ellie followed up with some air blasts. _

_ Alyssa launched small fireballs at her. Angel used her wings to extinguish the flames, but while she was distracted, Gabi used her telekinesis to get the Heart. Angel realized just as it rose above her head and made a grab for it. She got it and held it above her head. Gabi struggled to take it back, but it was clear Angel was using her own telekinesis to keep it, and hers was more powerful than Gabi's, especially since Gabi was in human form._

_ "Guardians," Angel boomed, her echoing voice giving the girls a head ache, "this is your final day!"_

_ "_What does she mean by_-"_

_ But before Caty could even finish the question, Angel dropped the Heart and it broke. All the guardians fell to their knees, gasping for air._

_ Ellie felt her lungs burning and heart beating out of her chest. Through her blurry vision, she could see the others having the same physical reaction. In a few seconds, her vision went blank. She tried to cough, but only managed to gag. She tried to keep herself awake, but it was getting to be too much. She knew what was happening. It was obvious. After all, the Heart was broken, and that meant no more guardians. She was dying._

Ellie was still gagging when she heard Alyssa's voice. The pain in her lungs had stopped, but her heart was still beating fast.

"Ellie! Ellie! Wake _up_!"

Ellie eyes shot open and she sat up, sweat pouring down her face, gasping for air. Her eyes were wild as she took in her surroundings.

Alyssa knelt in front of her. "Are you okay?" she asked, concern evident in her voice and face.

"You're alright," Ellie said, relief flooding over her. "And…and _I'm_ alright!"

"_Are_ you?" Alyssa asked skeptically. "You sounded like you were dying!"

"I thought I was. I thought _we_ were. I…we're _going_ to! Alyssa, we're going to die!"

"Yeah…we all are. Everyone dies eventually," Alyssa said slowly, frowning.

"No!" Ellie shook her head, frustrated. "I had a dream…like, a guardian dream. One of those prem…primavera?"

"Premonitions?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah, those."

"What happened?"

Ellie told her everything that went on. "And then Angel drops the Heart, on purpose, and it breaks, and we're left there gasping for air and we're gonna die!"

"El, calm down! We're not gonna die. And you know why?"

Ellie shook her head.

"Because of _you_. You had this dream, meaning now we know, we can't trust Angel."

Ellie nodded slowly, realizing Alyssa was right.

"But in my dream, Rae trusted Angel completely, unlike the rest of us. But right now, Rae is just like the rest of us. She's a little weary of Angel."

"Then something must happen between now and the events of your dream that changes Rae's opinion. But it doesn't matter now. Just make sure you tell the rest of the team, and they'll know to watch their backs when it comes to Angel."

Ellie nodded, still a little shaken from the dream. "What time is it?" she asked.

"11:20," Alyssa said, opening the blinds and letting sunlight in.

It was already morning. At least Ellie didn't have to go back to sleep.

The doorbell rang downstairs.

"Who's that?" Ellie asked

Alyssa shrugged. "I wasn't expecting anyone," she said.

"Hello Mrs. Ashcroft. Is Alyssa home?" they heard a male voice ask.

"Why, hello Chris. Come on in," Taranee said.

Ellie gasped, jumped up, and hid behind the bed.

"El? You okay?"

"Absolutely not!"

Alyssa frowned and was about to say more when Taranee called, "Alyssa! Chris is here to see you!"

Alyssa wanted to go see Chris, but she had to figure out the reason for Ellie's strange behavior first.

"I'm gonna need a minute!" Alyssa yelled back, her voice harsh.

Taranee and Chris exchanged pleasantries downstairs, waiting for the fire guardian.

"Ellie, I know you don't _like_ Chris, but you're not _scared_ of him. So why are you hiding? Especially when he's downstairs?"

Ellie sighed. "Did James tell you about that night we went to The Silver Dragon after hours and got drunk?"

Alyssa nodded.

"Do you know about all the embarrassing things each of us did?"

"No. I only know that James and Gabi only got tipsy, and Rae was so drunk, she spent most of the night making out with one of the booths because she thought it was Jake."

"Well…besides Gabi and James, we all did embarrassing things. I fell in love with a flashlight, and I kept dropping it, and one time, it stopped working, and I thought the flashlight was a person, so I thought I killed him, and Chris gave me a hug and then we sang a duet."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Summer Nights, from Grease. It's my favorite musical and Chris sang the song with me to cheer me up. And then we…made out."

"What?!"

"Yeah."

Alyssa looked dumbstruck for a moment. Then she began to laugh.

"Lyssa! It's not funny!"

"But it _is_! Oh my God! But at least he's hot. Was it good? Did you like it?"

"Ew! No! Well…I don't know! Probably not, because it's _Chris_, but I don't remember. I wouldn't have even believed it if Gabi didn't have proof. She has a picture of Chris hugging me while I cried about killing the flashlight, and a video of us singing. The video also has us making out, and Gabi has some still pictures of that too."

"I _need_ to see those!" Alyssa cried.

"No! No one needs to see those. Chris and I haven't been able to _look_ at each other since."

"Okay, well I'll go see what he wants, but I'll shoo him out quickly so you won't have to see him."

Ellie nodded, all for that idea. Alyssa started towards the door.

"Aren't you gonna at least fix your hair?" Ellie asked.

"No. It's just Chris. I'm okay with him seeing me like this. Why? Would _you_ fix your hair for Chris?"

"What?"

"Do you _like_ him?" Alyssa teased, laughing.

Ellie threw a pillow at her.

"Okay, okay, sorry," she said, tossing the pillow back, still laughing.

Ellie lay back down on her mattress as Alyssa headed downstairs. She woke her phone up, put her headphones in, and pulled up an online version of the Into the Woods script. It was Sheffiled's Fall Musical. Ellie was playing The Baker's Wife, Adam was playing The Baker, Jade was playing the witch, Milly was playing Little Red Riding Hood, and Sage had landed the role of Cinderella. There were only a few more rehearsals before the first performance. They were doing evening shows Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for two weeks, as well as matinee shows on both Saturdays.

When Alyssa came back upstairs, Ellie took out her earbuds and looked at the fire guardian expectantly.

"Well?"

"He's gone. You're safe."

Ellie let out a sigh of relief. "So what did he want?"

"He wanted to hang out tonight, but I have a date."

"With James?"

"No, with my other boyfriend," Alyssa said sarcastically.

"I've been trying to figure this out since we reconnected," Ellie said. "When did you get so sarcastic? You're supposed to be straightforward one."

Alyssa laughed. "Caty's the straightforward one. I became sarcastic because of Rae. It's her influence."

Ellie nodded. "Hey, Lyss…what exactly did you tell Chris?"

"I told him I'd love to hang out, but I have a date with James tonight…why?"

"Okay, I'm going to tell you something, but don't read into it. I still hate Chris! But, well…you know why he hates James, right?"

"Because he thinks James could hurt me, right?"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Lyssa, for someone so smart, you sure are slow! Chris _likes_ you. Like, _romantically_."

Alyssa frowned, then began to laugh. "El, that's crazy."

"I think the word you're looking for is _true_. Did you ever hear what Chris said to me and Adam after the whole 'Classless-a' incident caused Adam to stop speaking to you?"

Alyssa blushed, as she always did whenever she thought about what Chris said to her former best friends. "Yeah."

"That's when Adam and I first figured out that he had a crush on you. And seeing how he is with you and how much he dislikes James, it's clear he _still_ has a crush on you."

"Josh dislikes James too, and he doesn't like me."

"Yeah, cuz that would be gross!"

"Okay, so that was a bad example," Alyssa amended. "But-"

"No buts. He has nightmares about you dying. He's always calm, cool, and collected, but you should've seen the way he lost his temper at Rae and Josh for days after the big fight. And he missed you _so_ much. He was practically _singing_ when he told us you guys made up, and he waits for you to arrive at school by your locker every day. You know who else does that? Your _boyfriend_. Cuz it's a boyfriend-y thing to do!"

Alyssa bit her lip, not sure what to say. The way Ellie put it, it sounded like he _could_ like her. And that made her nervous. If Ellie noticed it, what if James had too?

"Lyssa? What are you going to do?"

"Do? What _should_ I do? I mean, does it even matter? I'm with James. I'm falling _in love_ with James."

"Okay, well then you have to make that clear to Chris. Rae figured out Josh had a crush on her and stopped being so…_romantic_ with Jake when Josh was around."

"So what, I'm not supposed to be girlfriend-y with my _boyfriend_ when Chris is around? I'm not going to do that!"

"You don't have to, but think about how he must feel when he sees you kissing James all the time. And that's not the only problem. How do you think James will feel when he figures it out? And who's to say he hasn't already? Now that you know, you have to let Chris know you're not going to stray for James so that this doesn't boil over."

Alyssa nodded slowly, realizing Ellie was right. Both girls were quiet for a few minutes until Ellie asked, "Are we okay? Are we…friends again?"

Alyssa smiled slightly. "Yeah, we are."

"Really?"

Alyssa chuckled. "Yeah. I decided the day after you sat through that awkward dinner, I was least mad at you and Chris. You kept a secret from me, but you had my best interests at heart. You may have been misguided, but I decided that if you apologized, I'd forgive you. But then you didn't apologize for a long while and I got angrier that you didn't even care enough."

"It wasn't that I didn't care. I was scared. You yelled at me to go away that night before dinner, and then you went ballistic on your mother, and you ignored all of us, so I didn't think you would forgive any of us. But then you forgave Chris and Sage, and the other Lyndons. When you walked into gym on Monday with Caty _and_ Gabi, I knew I had a better chance of getting you to forgive me, but I couldn't think of a way to get you alone until last night."

"Well, it's in the past now."

"I'm glad," Ellie said. "Does this mean I can ask you a personal question?"

"Is the question what's going on with my mom and dad?"

"You know me so well."

Alyssa laughed, but Ellie saw the sadness in her eyes. "My dad was waiting for my mom to tell him, but the night James and I got attacked, he got tired of waiting, and asked her what was going on. I don't know exactly how the conversation went, but after she told him, they fought. I couldn't hear what they were saying. I wanted to eavesdrop, but John came out of his room when he heard the yelling, and he was terrified. Our parents never fight…_ever_. So I went into his room, and closed the door and played Uno with him to distract him, so I never got to hear exactly what was said. My dad packed up some of his stuff, and it staying in University Housing for now."

"So he left?"

Alyssa nodded.

"Why hasn't your mother fallen apart?"

"I'm assuming it's because, like me, she thinks he'll come back because if he was done with the relationship, he'd look for a more permanent place to stay than University Housing. To be honest, I wouldn't blame him if he was done with the relationship. I'm just afraid he won't want anything to do with _me_ anymore."

"Why would you think that Lyssa? Your dad loves you!"

"But he's not _really_ my dad, is he? I consider him my father, and I always will. He raised me since birth. But what if he doesn't feel the same way?"

Ellie didn't know what to say to that. She could reassure Alyssa that Nigel would still love her, but what if that wasn't the case?

Alyssa changed the subject by asking, "Hungry?"

"Definitely!"

"Okay. We'll have lunch, and then we can head to The Silver Dragon to explain your dream to everyone. It's at 2 today, right?"

"Right…we?"

"Yeah. We."

"So…does that mean you're going to be training with us from now on?"

"Yeah, it does."

Ellie beamed at her. Things were finally starting to look up.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So, I hope you liked it and I hope the wait was at least half way worth it. I slowed down in this chapter after I got the part when Caty, Gabi, and Alyssa met in the parking lot, and I went back to wrote the scene with Patricia **_**after**_** I finished the rest of the chapter. But like I said, I next chapter should be up MUCH sooner! Review please!**


	30. The Lockbox of Friendship

**A/N: Hey guys! Eleven days. Faster-than-usual update, huh? I'll admit, I took a two day break to write a Harry Potter one-shot I had in my head and was lazy for a couple of days. It took me until editing to realize I didn't finish the first little section, and that's because I was bored writing about it and lagged on finishing it. But, I wanted to get this out. Hope you guys like it!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**WaterAmulet: Looks like you were able to review this time, and I was surprised to see you were the first of my regulars to do so. But yes I am back! And as for Gabi's grandmother…well I don't really see how she can make her son dissolve his marriage, but with my mind working on it, you never know. Caty really did do it. It's her fault. Thank you for the compliment. This is a next gen story, so I obviously don't want to focus too fiercely on the old group, although there's a lot about them in this chapter. I never liked Angel either, and I created her! There's something weird and suspicious about her, but obviously I made her that way on purpose. As usual, I need to revisit my love triangles, so I put in the James/Alyssa/Chris thing in there. You never know what'll happen with them, even though James and Alyssa are my favorite. I think Ellie and Chris would be really cute together, but I most likely won't put them together. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and it was sooner than last time!**

**Shay: Yes, I was super busy, but also super lagging. My classes have been really laying the homework on me. Haha, yes, Patricia is a bitch, isn't she? I wanted to explore the mind control for a while actually, and I'm probably going to do it in the next chapter. Michael will actually be coming home the same afternoon that this chapter ends on, and Josh and Sage aren't headed to the Hales until Wednesday night or Thursday morning, so Josh will meet Michael. And I'm so glad to hear that. I guess I have one lifelong fan!**

**SilvenArrow: Everyone seems to hate Patricia, but that was the desired effect, so I'm glad. I like Sienna too, and I'm sure Gabi will warm to her eventually. I should've written about the birthday party, but I was too lazy, and every time I imagined the party, I couldn't think of anything of importance happening, so I didn't include it. Luc had a great time though. And yeah, I think Gabi and Alyssa finally made a breakthrough. They're on better terms than Gabi and Rae now. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I believe if the Heart breaks, they at least suffer, if not die. After all, no Heart means no guardians, and the current guardians must feel something when all their powers leave them in an unconventional way. It's going to take some time for Alyssa to become friends with Rae again, and even longer for her to forgive Josh, but eventually. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: I'm sorry for the long wait, but I'm glad you liked it. When you really think about it, Caty's **_**powers**_** are scary. She can make people do anything she wants. Yes, I was thinking about how Alyssa was going to make up with everyone, and I already had the idea in my mind that Caty was going to accidentally use her powers to harm her sister, and decided that would be a good time for Alyssa to make up with Caty, and it just so happened I wrote about that before Alyssa's sleepover with Ellie. It's going to take some time before I write in some real hints about who Angel could possibly be, but in the meantime, you can give me your guesses if you have any. Someone asked if it was Will, which was a really good guess, but incorrect. Besides that one guess though, I will neither confirm nor deny anyone's guesses unless they PM me. Enjoy this chapter!**

**Misa: Caty will fix what happened to her sister eventually, but she has to first get a handle on her powers, because even though she technically wished for this, she didn't try to make it happen. I know you love Alyssa and Rae's friendship, you keep waiting for them to make up. I'm not going to lie, it's going to take time. However, she will make up with Rae before Josh. Hope this wasn't **_**too**_** long a wait for you. Enjoy!**

**Emily: And you actually don't mind that you were last this time? I mean, it's your choice. Of course Luc is modeled after my brother, because he's the best brother in the world, even if he does hate me and yell at me half the time. Patricia's such a bitch, isn't she? People like to keep busy to avoid their problems. I get it. I'm like that. I probably wouldn't go back to **_**class**_**, but still. Caty and Jake would be kind of cute, but I'm trying to prove that the boy/girl best friend thing will work without feelings. After all, I proved it, so I want other people to know it works. Yes, Ellie and Chris would be cute, but I'm probably going in a different direction. Sorry, I had to put in the James/Alyssa/Chris triangle! You know how much I love Alyssa and James. Thanks for your review on the HP story. Let me address those thoughts now. I'm glad it was more interesting than you thought lol. I hate **_**Madame Bovary**_** too, but I needed to use it. This was a one-shot, so I couldn't spent too much time on every little thing. Yup, you know I'm a pretty big Dramione fan. Astoria is a good person, I can see it. So I wanted to highlight it. I didn't like that I had to make Rose gaga over **_**Romeo and Juliet,**_** especially because I hate it, but that play is what inspired the story. I didn't want to put too much nervousness and stuttering in the confessions cuz it was a one-shot. I'm glad you liked it, and here's your update.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Rae cried for the millionth time that afternoon. "Why would I be so trusting of Angel?"

"Oh my _God_, I don't _know_ Rae!" Ellie snapped. "Who cares? The _point_ is that now you know not to be."

"But why _would_ I be in the first place?"

"I swear to God, I'm going to kill you if you ask me that one more time!" Ellie threatened.

"No one's killing anyone," Hay Lin cautioned.

"What about monsters? Can't we kill them?" Alyssa asked, eliciting laughter.

It was Saturday afternoon, and as promised, Alyssa went to guardian training with Ellie, and rejoined GRACE. It was awkward at first because Alyssa was doing a fantastic job of avoiding looking at or talking to Rae and Josh, the two members of the team she was still mad at, but now everyone was caught up in the story of Ellie's dream.

"It's not a big deal," Caty said. "The dream I mean. Who knows if it'll even happen?"

"Well, I was thinking about that," Alyssa said. "This dream was exactly the same as the last time Ellie had the dream. The only difference was that now she could hear Rae's name because now she knows Rae, and this dream went further. So maybe Ellie's dreams don't just show a possible future. Maybe they show the definite future."

"Possible future?" Hay Lin asked.

Caty explained her theory to Hay Lin.

"No, no, no! That's wrong. The air guardian doesn't dream of possible futures. Her dreams _are_ the future. The events don't have to transpire exactly as they do in the dream. For example, now that you all know to be weary of Angel, you won't give her the Heart, but you _will_ go to Meridian, just the five of you, and you _will_ have that fight."

"What does transpire mean?" Ellie asked.

Everyone ignored her as Hay Lin's words settled in.

"Even with Angel on our side, we couldn't win that battle," Rae said. "So what are we supposed to do?"

"Don't go to Meridian without us," Sage said.

Everyone looked at her.

"In the dream, the five of you plus Angel couldn't win, but if you also had the five of us, and used Angel's help up until the part where she asks you to give her the Heart, you could win."

"She's right," Josh said. "That's a good plan."

"Anyway, there's no way I'm letting you go to Meridian without me," James said to Alyssa. "Not now that I know what could happen."

Alyssa smiled at his overprotective attitude. She always hated when Chris and Josh acted that way, but with James, it was different. She loved that he wanted to protect her.

"I guess that's all we can do for now," Rae agreed.

"Can I just point out that Caty was _wrong_," Gabi said. "She thought Ellie dreamt of possible futures, but that's not true. So she was wrong!"

"Wrong?" Caty asked, as if she didn't know the meaning of the word.

"Yeah. Wrong. It means 'not right'" Gabi said teasingly.

"I know what it means!" Caty snapped. "But I'm _never_ wrong."

"You are now," Ellie taunted, earning herself a glare from the water guardian.

"Can we just train?" Caty asked, annoyed.

"That's a great idea," Hay Lin said. "I've developed some new exercises for us to do, and now that we have a full team, it'll be even easier. Chris, Cara, I'm going to need you guys in tip top shape, so bring the healing potions so you can drink them when you need to re-energize. Sage, James, and Josh, I want you guys to spar, weapons and hand-to-hand only. That means no magic Sage. It's going to help you in the next exercise."

Everyone nodded. Chris and Cara went upstairs to their apartment to grab the healing potions before they headed outside.

"Hey, isn't this the first time you're going into guardian form since you got your powers back?" Ellie asked Alyssa as Rae lifted the Heart.

Alyssa smiled excitedly in response.

"Guardians, unite!"

Alyssa felt the familiar surge of power she'd missed as she heard Caty's voice.

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

"I have wings again!" Alyssa cried gleefully.

"Something Rae could probably do without," Caty snickered.

"I'm getting better!" Rae said, glaring. She flapped her wings and took off, only to fly into the wall above the dumpster. "Ow!"

"_Much_ better," Caty teased.

"We're going to have to work on your flying," Hay Lin said, shaking her head. "Now, listen up. Ever since you were first told of your guardianship, we've been practicing control every day. We've been testing the extent of your powers and experimenting with them. What we haven't done is sparring practice. You guys have a pretty good handle on your powers. You have good control of both your element and your second power. Some of you are starting to exhibit third powers. Ellie's dreams are making more sense, Gabi started to control metal, and Caty is closer than ever to making ice. Even Alyssa, who lost her elemental powers for a while, has good control. So now we're going to practice how to fight by making you spar."

"I call sparring against Caty because water will hurt the least!" Ellie cried out, making everyone laugh.

"I don't know why you're laughing. I'm serious," Ellie said, but everyone just laughed harder.

Hay Lin laughed too and said, "You guys will spar against each other eventually, but not today. What you're going to be doing today is sparring against Chris and Cara, in regent form. In order to better prepare you for battles, each of you will spar both of them at the same time. While one of you fights, the rest of you will either be working on strengthening your weak points, or learning something new. Rae, I want you to work on your flying. Crashing the way you do isn't funny anymore."

"When was it ever funny?" Rae grumbled.

"Caty, I want you to work on making ice," Hay Lin continued, ignoring Rae. "Ellie, I'm going to help you better home your enhanced hearing."

"What does hone mean?"

"Improve," Hay Lin said before moving on. "Alyssa, it is within the fire guardian's power to shoot blasts of heat energy."

"What do you mean?"

"Taranee described it as…microwave emissions?"

"Oh, okay," Alyssa said, leaving everyone except Caty and Rae confused.

"What does emissions mean?" Ellie asked.

"Emission is like…to release," Caty said. "It's basically the same as when Alyssa shoots fireballs, except with…microwaves."

"That's really painful. But what do microwaves have to do with fire?"

Everyone started laughing again, leaving Ellie really confused.

"Not like that…microwaves like in the electromagnetic spectrum," Caty said.

"The what?"

"We learned about it in chemistry…last year."

"So that means I'm supposed to know it?" Ellie asked, making everyone laugh. "I'm on a roll today," she said. "I should seriously look into a career as a comedian."

"Well, actually, because you're female, you'd be a comedienne," Caty said.

"Know-it-all," Ellie muttered. "Can we get back to Alyssa shooting microwaves?"

"On the electromagnetic spectrum," Rae said, "microwaves are responsible for heat. So Alyssa would be shooting heat waves at enemies."

"Heat waves? Now why couldn't someone just explain it like that?" Ellie wondered.

Caty rolled her eyes.

"But what's the electromagnetic spectrum?"

"Something you can research on your own time," Hay Lin broke in. "For now, I want to finish my spheal. While one of you is sparring, Gabi, I want you to work on your trichokinesis."

"My _what_?" Gabi asked.

"It means the ability to manipulate your hair," Alyssa said slowly. "Why is she working on that?"

"Cornelia could use her hair as a prehensile weapon."

"A what?" Gabi repeated.

"Prehensile, like…using your hair like Snake Dude uses his tail, to grab someone or something and toss it aside," Caty explained.

"That's not weird at all," Ellie said. Everyone except Gabi agreed.

"Are you kidding? That's awesome! I totally want to be able to do that."

"Great!" Hay Lin said brightly. "Now, unlike Cornelia, you have really short hair, so by the end of the day today, you're probably only going to be able to get your hair to grow, but if you can get as long as Sage's, that's good for two hours."

Gabi nodded.

"Now let's see…I want Gabi to be the first to spar."

Gabi nodded and stepped forward. Chris and Cara changed into their regent form. Chris stood in front of Gabi, and Cara stood behind her.

"Wait…both of them? At the same time?" Gabi asked.

"Don't worry, we won't give you more than you can handle," Chris promised. This was a lie, because he knew his mom would want them to go full power, and they would, but this seemed to calm Gabi down.

At the end of an hour and a half, each girl had sparred against, and lost, to Chris and Cara. Ellie lasted the longest in battle, showing Rae how useful fancy flying could really be, and inspiring her to work harder on gaining aerial control.

Everyone else had various progress. Alyssa got the hang of microwaves pretty easily, and Gabi grew her hair as long as Sage's, but Rae, even with her newfound determination, kept crashing and hurting herself, and Caty was no closer to creating ice. Caty, who had the most control over her powers, got panicky and nervous, and lasted the least amount of time. Gabi was the best after Ellie, and she didn't hold back, hitting the Lyndons with everything she had. Rae and Alyssa were both a little nervous about hitting and hurting the Lyndons with lightning and fire and lasted just a little longer than Caty because they didn't give the battles their all.

Hay Lin had each of them drink some healing potion to get their strength back before explaining their next activity.

"None of you can be scared to battle your hardest. I understand Chris and Cara are your friends and you don't want to hurt them, but they are strong and much more experienced than you, so they won't take as much damage as you may expect. If they do, I can heal them. They'll be okay. If you hold back now, you won't be able to pull out your full strength when you need to."

GRACE nodded, knowing Hay Lin was right.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do next. I want you guys to form teams and battle against each other, five on five."

"Do we get to pick the groups?" Rae asked.

"From tomorrow, yes. But today, I will assign them. The battle will be GRACE against the rest of the team."

"What? No!" Alyssa gasped.

"Why not?" Sage asked, surprised by her reaction.

"Because I'm not battling my boyfriend. He happens to have no powers!"

"Neither does Josh," Rae agreed. "All he has is that stupid sword."

"Hey! My sword is _not_ stupid!" Josh cried, looking really hurt.

"You have an unnatural connection to that thing," Gabi said, rolling her eyes.

"This sword belonged to my grandfather and it was the last birthday present he gave me before he died!"

"Oh…Well, now I feel like a jerk," Gabi muttered so softly that only Ellie, who was sitting next to her, could hear.

"Anyway, we can handle ourselves," James said. "Although, I really don't want to fight my girlfriend."

"I can handle myself too," Alyssa said. "With my powers, I can take you out in two seconds. I don't want to hurt you."

"It'll be fine Lyssa," Chris said. "You may have powers, but James has skill and speed. You guys need this practice."

Alyssa bit her lip, contemplating, then finally sighed in defeat. Everyone (except Alyssa) looked at Rae, making sure she was on board too. She nodded.

The teams battled for over 45 minutes, going til after practice was supposed to be over. GRACE, confident because of their powers, just fired at everyone, hoping to get a hit. The others worked much better together. Josh and James fought, powerless, fought together, making sure they always attacked two-on-one. They were very impressive. Cara was a good fighter, but in this fight, didn't battle too much. Instead, she stood back and used her speed to run over to whatever teammate was in trouble and touched them to make them intangible so the attacks wouldn't hit them.

Sage was a nasty opponent, between her mad fighting skills and her impressive magic. Sage started using energy blasts, a trick that GRACE knew she had, but had never saw before. Caty and Gabi both got hit by the blasts and they hurt like hell. Ellie tried to confuse James and Josh with her flying, but before it could affect them too much, Chris shot a laser at her. For the rest of the fight, they were each other's main opponents. The embarrassment Ellie had because of him that morning disappeared now that she was fighting him, something she was used to even before she knew of her guardianship.

In the end, GRACE was both too tired and too hurt to continue. Hay Lin said the battle would end either when one all members of one side were down or when Rae (for GRACE) or Josh (for the others) called it to an end. When Rae said GRACE was done, the girls were surprised to see the others were in much better shape than them.

Josh and James were breathing hard, but could've gone on. Sage was also breathing hard, but had energy to go for longer. Chris and Cara, superhuman in their regent forms, weren't tired at all.

"Okay, well now I'm super embarrassed that I freaked out about fighting James," Alyssa said when everyone had caught their breath.

"Hay Lin, that was such great practice," Rae said.

"I'm glad you think so, because we'll do variations of this every time from now on. It'll help all of you to home your battle skills," their teacher said.

The group nodded as Rae changed the guardians back. None of them realized, but GRACE and James, who didn't know too much about Meridian and battles, were nervous to be in a real battle like the one Ellie dreamed of or like the ones Hay Lin told them she and the rest of WITCH were in. This kind of practice would really help.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Monday was not Caty's day. She was excited that her mother was finally coming home from the hospital, but school was horrible. Everything went wrong, and it was all thanks to Brian. It started out with an incident in the morning. Nina and Caty were walking over to meet Misha at her locker before pre-calc when they heard Brian.

"Hey Caty!" he called. "Wait up!"

Caty and Nina both turned around to see the boy rushing over to them. He had flowers in his hand and he practically forced them into Caty's.

"I got those for you. I know they're your favorite," he said eagerly, a huge smile on his face.

Caty smiled. "Oh Brian, that's so-wait…are these poppies?"

"Yeah. They _are_ your favorite…aren't they?"

"No! My favorite flowers are irises, like my mom's name. I'm _allergic_ to poppies!"

"What?"

"I already feel itchy," Caty cried.

"Let them go!" Nina exclaimed, grabbing the bouquet and throwing it at Brian. "Come on, let's get you to the nurse."

Luckily, the poppies only caused some itching and swelling, but she missed the pre-calc test on vectors that she'd studied for hours with Adam for. And her teacher didn't give make up tests if a student was absent that day!

Humanities didn't go much better. Their teacher, Mrs. Rollins, let them have a free period. Half way through, she asked for two volunteers to do a little job for her. Caty and Brian, always eager to impress, were the first ones with their hands up.

Mrs. Rollins handed them a key for the in the auditorium, saying she left some stuff there from her morning dramatics class. There was a manila folder, and a box of costumes. She asked Caty and Brian to retrieve them. The two made small talk on the way, and Caty was pretty proud of herself for not freaking out, and for being able to carry a conversation without Gabi's help.

When they reached the auditorium, Brian saw the folder and Caty saw the box. Brian grabbed the folder, then ran over to where Caty was, handed it to her, and grabbed the box.

"Don't you worry. I've got this," he said, his eyes twitching.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" she asked.

"Uh…nothing," he said quickly, and his eyes stopped twitching.

Caty wondered if he was trying to give her that smoldering look Jake told her guys use sometimes. If so, he failed miserably. The look actually kind of scared her a little.

"Oh…well anyway, it's fine. I can take the box."

"Oh, no, no. You don't need to strain yourself. It's much too heavy for you," Brian said.

"Ex_cuse_ me? I'm stronger than I look, and that box is filled with dresses and hats. I can handle it."

"But you're a girl!" Brian said stupidly. He realized instantly he'd made a mistake.

"Yes. I _am_ a girl. Not an _invalid_!" She gave him back the folder, grabbed the box, and marched out without waiting for him.

As if that weren't bad enough, Brian messed up again at lunch. Caty was sitting at her usual table with Nina. Alyssa and James were also there, but they were predictably missing Rae since the fire guardian hadn't made up with the raven haired girl yet. Misha was also missing, taking a make-up test for Humanities. The boys were there as well, but Brian was missing. Nina was the one to ask about his whereabouts. Travis told them he was in the home ec room.

Brian appeared ten minutes into the lunch period and presented Caty with brownies.

"I baked these for you last night. I went to the home ec room to heat them up because I baked M&amp;Ms into them and they taste better if the M&amp;Ms are metled."

Caty was nearly drooling. She loved brownies and M&amp;Ms were her favorite candy.

"Brian these are amazing!" she cried, biting into one.

Nina and Alyssa, unable to resist, also took one each and agreed with Caty. Brian was glowing. However, towards the end of lunch, Caty felt her throat closing up.

"Guys, I don't feel so good," she gasped out to the girls.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

"My throat is closing up. It feels like…Brian! What was in those brownies?"

"Just the usual ingredients. Sugar, flour, cocoa-"

"Nuts! Were there any nuts?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm allergic to nuts!"

"But only cashews, right?"

"Cashews? No, I'm allergic to tree nuts, which you should know considering you tried to poison me with tree nut brownies the day of the IB test."

Brian paled. That's right. He should've remembered that. He put tree nuts in those brownies!

"Uh oh…" he said.

"Okay, nurse," Nina said.

Since she'd only eaten half a brownie (the other half fell on the floor, and Caty wanted to save the rest of the batch for later), the nurse allowed her to stay in school after Caty begged, but she was not allowed to go to APUSH, and didn't get to help Nina and Misha present their project. It was a small project, only worth 30 points, but presenting was one third of their grade, and Miss. Taylor would give her a zero for that part.

The worst incident was in biology. They'd done a lab that day, and after all the groups had cleaned up, they still had fifteen minutes of the period left. Mr. Kelvin let them use the time to work on their LAB report, but since it wasn't due til the next day, the only person who actually worked on it instead of talking with their friends was Alyssa.

Caty, Misha, and Nina walked from their seats up front to the back row where Travis, Nick, Will, and Brian were. Caty was still a little weary of Brian, but tried not to show it since she was supposed to be getting him to fall for her. Since Alyssa was actually using the time to work, Rae and Jake joined the group, not having to be afraid of getting constant glares from the African American.

Brian steered the conversation to music and asked for everyone's favorite song. Caty answered first, saying her favorite song was probably Only Hope by Mandy Moore.

"I love that song!" Rae gushed. "From A Walk to Remember."

"It's Caty's favorite movie," Jake piped up.

"Really?" Rae asked. "I didn't peg you as a romance movie lover."

Caty laughed. "I'm not. But that movie was really good. I kind of identified with Jamie, Mandy Moore's character."

Rae nodded, able to see that.

"And what about you Rae? I wouldn't peg you as a fan of the movie either."

"My mom made me watch it. I had just broken up with my freshman year boyfriend and she thought the best way to get over him was to watch a bunch of romantic movies."

"Romantic movies?" Nina repeated dubiously. "In which the main characters are happy in seemingly perfect relationships?"

"I think my break up was just an excuse for her to make me watch her favorite romantic movies," Rae replied, making everyone laugh.

"Getting back to the original topic," Brian said, "Caty, you're favorite song is Only Hope?"

"Yup," Caty nodded, blushing a little. The reason she liked that movie so much, besides the fact that she identified with Jamie, was because it was the first movie she and Tony watched as a couple.

Brian grinned at her and Caty's anger melted away. That grin was really sexy! She smiled back at him, but in the next second, her smile was replaced by an expression of horror. Brian jumped up on his desk.

"Brian?" Nina asked.

"Dude, what are you _doing_?" Nick asked.

Brian opened his mouth, and to everyone's surprise, began to _sing_. "There's a song that's inside of my soul/It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again."

"Oh my God," Caty muttered, backing up.

"I'm awake in the infinite cold/But you sing to me over and over and over again."

"What's happening?" Caty squeaked.

Brian looked directly into her eyes as he continued. "So I lay my head back down/And I lift my hands/And I pray to be only yours/And I pray to be only yours/I know now you're my only hope."

Caty felt her face heat up and she covered her eyes, then peeked through her fingers. Everyone was looking at Brian now. Not even Alyssa was still working. Mr. Kelvin seemed torn between stopping Brian or letting him continue. After all, he wasn't really doing anything _wrong_.

"This is my song to you Caty," Brian said. "This is how I feel."

"Brian-" Caty started, but was interrupted by Brian continuing to sing.

"Sing to me the song of the stars/Of your galaxy dancing and laughing/and laughing again."

"Brian, stop!" Caty hissed, but he paid her no attention.

"When it feels like my dreams are so far/Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again."

"What is happening?" Caty moaned.

Brian got to the chorus again, and everyone started laughing at the spectacle he was making of himself.

"I can't," Caty declared, running out of the room.

Brian, whose eyes were closed, didn't notice, and kept singing. Nina went after Caty. Her other friends were frozen in shock. Misha's own face was turning red. Alyssa, realizing no one was else was going to move, went after Caty and Nina.

Caty ran down the stairs, then took a left, not sure where she was going.

"Are you okay?" Nina asked when she saw a red faced Caty pause at the water fountain.

"That was so humiliating," she gasped.

"Why was he singing to you?" Alyssa asked, joining them.

"Why does he do anything?" Caty moaned. "This whole day sucks because of him."

"He was just trying to be nice," Alyssa said. "He likes you, right?"

"I guess. But what do I do now?"

Nina and Alyssa shrugged as the bell rang.

"Crap," Caty said as the three girls rushed back to the room. Everyone else was already gone. Misha waited for her friends. Caty, Alyssa, and Nina grabbed their stuff and left with Misha.

Alyssa went to the art wing, which was pretty close to the science wing. Caty, Nina, and Misha had AP Government. The Social Studies wing was on the other side of the school. The girls were late.

Caty and Brian had a presentation that day, and Caty kept going red and stuttering every time she caught sight of Brian. Needless to say, that presentation didn't go well.

After the presentation, Caty sat down in her seat next to James. Since AP Government was an elective, juniors and seniors had the class together.

"What happened?" James asked, talking about the presentation.

"Brian serenaded me at the end of Biology."

James gave her an incredulous look. "_Why_?"

Caty shrugged, but then wondered if maybe she _did_ know. Brian gave her flowers she was allergic to, and she failed her math test. He treated her like she was weak and made her feel inferior. He gave her brownies with nuts in them, and she failed her history presentation. He sang to her and humiliated her, and she did miserably on her government presentation. Maybe he didn't like her. Maybe he wasn't being nice. Maybe he did all those things on purpose to trip her up. Maybe he was still trying to take her down, and she'd been so busy trying to get him to fall for her, she let her guard down and fell for all his tricks!

Caty's last class of the day was gym and luckily, Brian didn't approach her during the class. Caty wanted to confront him though. She, Misha, and Nina joined Brian, Nick, Will, and Travis at Brian's locker after the girls finished changing after gym.

"Brian!" Caty exclaimed.

"Caty! Listen, I'm so-"

"No, you listen!" Caty interjected furiously. "I can't believe you! Here I thought we were becoming friends and actually getting along, and you made me fail one test, two presentations, and basically told me I'm weak because I'm a girl. You are a rotten, good for nothing, misogynistic douchebag! I can't believe I ever thought we could be anything more than rivals. And to think I actually thought I could like you!"

Caty turned on her heel and left, with Nina and Misha trailing after her.

"Caty, wait! You don't understand!" Brian called after her, but Caty decided she was done listening to Brian Din.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Monday didn't go any better for Ellie. At the end of English, Jade and Adam, who were last to pack up, waved Ellie and Milly forward, encouraging them to head to music without them.

Ellie and Milly obliged. They got to the music room first and started discussing what songs they were going to perform at the Hollidazzle Dance. The Hollidazzle Dance was the Holiday dance Sheffield held before Christmas break, and the Music III students had to perform there just like they had to at the Halloween Dance. They'd start working on their songs right after Thanksgiving.

Adam and Jade slipped in after the bell rang, but their teacher started class ten minutes late every day, so as long as the students were there before he started, they weren't counted late.

Ellie and Milly had settled themselves on the floor next to a box of open sheet music, looking through it to try and get ideas. Jade sat next to them, but to Ellie's surprise, Adam went over to a group of boys instead of joining them.

"Why isn't Adam sitting with us?" Ellie asked.

"Maybe he wants to hang out with Sam, Justin, and Cash today?" Milly suggested.

"Actually, he wants to tell them something. And I need to tell you guys something," Jade said.

"What?" Ellie asked.

"It's about the Hollidazzle Dance. We can't go together."

"Why not?" Milly asked.

"Because I have a date."

Ellie nodded. She, Milly, Jade, and Adam always went to the Sheffield dances as a group unless one of them had a date.

"Wait, who?" Milly asked.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Obviously Jimmy Sanders," she said, naming Jade's longtime crush. "And that's so great Jade. It's fine. Adam, Milly, and I will go as a group."

"Um actually, it's not Jimmy. And Adam has a date too."

"He does? Who?" Ellie asked, feeling a twinge of annoyance. Adam never had a date before. He never even asked anyone out. He always liked Ellie.

"Um…me," Jade said.

Milly and Ellie both stared at Jade incredulously, and she shrugged, blushing. Neither girl had seen Jade this shy before.

"He asked me out last night and we're officially together."

"Together? Like together-together?" Ellie asked, unable to understand it.

"Yeah."

"Wait," Milly said. "Jade, are you telling us you and Adam are…dating?"

"Yes."

Milly and Ellie looked at each other, then back at Jade.

"But…_why_?" Milly asked.

Jade narrowed her eyes and glared at her best friend. "What do you mean why?"

"I just mean you guys are _always_ fighting and you always said you guys were just like brother and sister and now you're dating?"

Ellie nodded, hoping Jade would say this was some big joke so that the pit in Ellie's stomach would go away.

"I've always kind of liked him," Jade said. "He's cute and smart and talented. And he has the whole seriousness thing going on which I find super attractive. And unless he's acting or singing, he's the quiet type, which I'm also into. And my heart racing whenever he's protective of me, or skipping a beat when he turns his oh so rare smile on me, or my forgetting to breath in those once in a blue moon moments when he acts like a complete sweetheart do not equal me loving him like a brother."

"So why now? Why didn't you ask him out before?" Milly asked.

"Actually, he asked me out," Jade said.

Ellie mouth dropped open. _What_? That piece of news just made her feel worse.

"But ? That piece of news just made her feel worse.

"But _you're_ the outgoing, bold, confident one. How did you get him to ask you out?" Milly asked.

"I didn't _get_ him to. You know Adam's been into Ellie since like, birth-"

"It was _kindergarten_," Ellie corrected.

"Same thing," Jade said, looking annoyed that she was interrupted. "He always held out hope, but I guess he gave up." She looked at Ellie. "Which you must be relieved about. Anyway, we were studying for our Humanities quiz together and he asked if I wanted to grab dinner and I said yes, and it didn't seem remotely date like at first. We'd gotten dinner just the two of us before. But then he kissed me."

Milly and Ellie gaped at Jade.

She beamed at them and said, "Well then I asked if that was a date and he said only if I wanted it to be, so I asked what he wanted and he said he definitely wanted it to be a date."

"That's…actually really cute," Milly said.

"I'm glad you think so, because I wanted to know if you guys are okay with this. We've always been a big group, and we don't want to date if you think it'll make things weird."

"Of course it's going to make thinks weird Jade. But I also don't want to tell you _not_ to," Milly said.

"I don't know about this," Ellie admitted.

Jade's face fell.

"You really like him?" Milly asked.

"Yeah…I do," Jade said, a soft smile gracing her lips.

"We're not going to stand in the way of your happiness," Milly said. "But what if you guys break up?"

"Then it'll be really weird," Ellie said.

Jade sighed. "I know. And we thought about that. But I really want to give this a shot."

"Then we support you," Milly said.

"Thank you," Jade said gratefully. "El, you okay?"

"Fine. Totally."

"Are you good with this?"

"Sure," Ellie lied.

Milly and Jade frowned, but neither said anything.

Adam grabbed the bathroom pass, but before leaving the room, he stopped at the girls' spot on the floor.

"Did she tell you?" he asked Ellie and Milly.

"Yes I did," Jade said. "And they're okay with it."

"Great," Adam said. He gave Jade a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

"You're blushing," Milly said, awed. "You really do like him. How long have you had a crush on Adam?"

"Too long to be acceptable," Jade said, making Milly laugh.

Ellie jumped to her feet abruptly.

"El?" Jade asked.

"I changed my mind. It's definitely _not _okay."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Ellie, would you totally be opposed to us working as double agents?" Alyssa asked Ellie that afternoon.

It was time for guardian training and everyone was there except Caty. Cara and Chris were sparring, James was reading one of the journals (the one of Emily from the group called POWER), Rae was texting Jake, and Gabi was typing out her latest newspaper article on her laptop. Alyssa had been reading over James' shoulder, trying to avoid Josh, who was trying to catch her eye and playing some Meridian card game with Sage at the same time, and saw Emily, POWER's air guardian, had been a double agent.

"_I_ would be totally opposed to you working as double agents," James said before the air guardian could say anything.

Alyssa rolled her eyes, and before she could protest, Chris said, "I'm going to have to agree with James on this one. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"But it's be really useful to have someone on the inside," Alyssa insisted. "It could help us figure out of the prophecy."

"And what happened to Angel in Ellie's dream," Cara added.

"You're not actually supporting this idea?" Rae asked. "We have to stick together."

"Is that a rule Keeper?" Alyssa asked mockingly.

"Yes," Rae said firmly. "It is."

"Well wasn't full disclosure another rule? But we broke that one, didn't we?"

"Alyssa-" Rae started, but was cut off by Gabi.

"Can we remind ourselves that in order for Classless-a and Ellie to be double agents, Ellie would first have to agree?"

Everyone turned to look at Ellie, who was aiming little puffs of air at the ground, not paying attention.

"Ellie? Ellie!" Alyssa said.

Rae shot a tiny bit of electricity at Ellie, enough to give her a shock.

"Ow! Rae!" she snapped, then saw everyone looking at her. "What?"

"What's with you?" Gabi asked.

"Nothing. Just…Jade and Adam are dating."

"Seriously?" Alyssa asked.

Ellie nodded. "Adam asked her out last night."

"_Adam_ did?" Alyssa repeated incredulously.

"That's the reaction Milly and I had too," Ellie said.

"Does that have anything to do with why you sat with the Glee Club kids at lunch instead of Drama Club?" Sage asked. "And why you worked with Hayley during drama instead of Adam, Milly, and Jade?"

Ellie nodded. "I told Jade I wasn't okay with her dating Adam and spent the rest of the day avoiding her."

"Why aren't you okay with it?" Rae asked. "You never liked Adam. Now that he's with Jade, he'll stop asking you out."

"But…he's not _supposed_ to be with Jade. He's supposed to like _me_."

"Ellie, that's not right," Alyssa said. "You should be happy for your best friends. You can't be selfish with Adam. It's not fair. It'd be one thing if you actually liked him, but you don't."

"So?"

"So, you're being petty," Gabi said.

"But he's _my_ best friend," Ellie whined.

"So is she," Alyssa reminded.

"You know, Adam's pretty cute. You might've missed the mark on that one," Gabi said.

Ellie glared at her.

"She didn't _like_ Adam," Alyssa said.

"You know, she isn't even right for Adam," Ellie said. "She said she loves his rare smile and his once in a blue moon sweet moments."

"What's wrong with that?" Rae asked.

"Well, we clearly don't know the same Adam. The smiles and sweet moments aren't at all rare when he's with me."

"Because he was in love with you. Maybe now that he likes Jade, he'll be sweeter and smiley with her," Gabi said.

"Maybe," Alyssa murmured and Rae knew she was thinking of the time she told Rae that Adam was only nice when he wanted to be. But she also said he was always nice to Ellie. Maybe that would transfer over the girl he liked now.

"If he _really_ liked her, he would've been that way with her always."

"Maybe he got tired of pining after someone who would never like him back," Sage said softly.

Josh cleared his throat, realizing that comment was probably directed towards him.

Everyone looked around awkwardly for a moment, and breathed a sigh of relief when Caty walked in.

"What took you so long Ice Queen?" Gabi asked.

Caty huffed and muttered angrily under her breath, ignoring Gabi's question.

"She had a bad day," Alyssa said sympathetically.

Rae burst out laughing, remembering the scene in biology that day.

"Get this Gabi," Alyssa went on. "Brian _serenaded _her in biology today."

"No way! What did he sing?" Gabi asked eagerly.

"Have you ever seen the movie A Walk to Remember?" Rae asked.

"It's one of my favorite movies…he did _not_ sing a Mandy Moore song!"

"Only Hope," Rae confirmed.

"That's not the only thing he did!" Caty cried, then proceeded to tell everyone everything that had gone wrong that day, and how Brian had something to do with it, and ended her story with her outburst.

"Caty," Alyssa said slowly, "did you really say 'I actually thought I could like you'?"

"Um, yeah. Why?"

"Because now he probably thinks you like him," Gabi said.

"Which is probably a good thing," Chris pointed out. "Because after everything else you said to him, the only way he'd still like you is if he thinks you could like him."

"I don't care if he likes me. I want to kill him!" Caty cried.

"But what about your character eval and your recommendation?" Alyssa asked.

Caty groaned. "I messed everything up. But he did it first. I thought he liked me. Why was he being such a jerk?"

"Maybe some guys behave like jerks towards girls they like," Josh said.

"Oh yeah, great strategy," Gabi said, rolling her eyes.

"I thought cheerleaders were supposed to like guys that are mean to them," Rae said.

"I thought you were dating a guy that gives sermons on stereotyping," Gabi shot back. "Anyway, Caty, you never answered my question. Why were you so late?"

"My mom got released from the hospital today. I went home to wait for her and make sure she was okay."

"Was she?" Ellie asked.

"If she wasn't, would Caty be here right now?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't know," Ellie shrugged. "Would she?"

Alyssa stifled a laugh as Gabi rolled her eyes.

"She's fine," Caty said stiffly.

"But clearly you're not. What's the matter Ice Queen?" Gabi asked.

"I wanted to vent to my mom about the awful day I had today, and all she could talk about was the poor baby."

"She's your sister. And she could die," Alyssa said, slightly aghast.

"_I'm_ her daughter. I was there first!"

"And I was Adam's crush first!" Ellie cried.

"Common theme of the day: Jealousy," Cara sighed.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Caty asked.

"Adam and Jade are dating," Rae filled in.

"Oh. Good for them," Caty said. "Anyway, because my parents seem to care more about Catherine than me, I've made a decision."

"Why does it sounds like you're about to say, 'I'm gonna put a knife through their hearts?'" Alyssa asked.

"Because I guess I am, metaphorically," Caty replied. She looked at Ellie. "I'm going to find my bio parents…my _real_ parents."

"Wow Caty, really? That's great," Ellie said. "But I thought you said your biological parents weren't your real parents."

"Real parents care. My adoptive ones clearly don't."

"What makes you think your bio parents do?" Rae asked. "I mean, not to be harsh or anything, but they left you on a doorstep."

"Maybe they just couldn't take care of me. Maybe they wanted me to have a good home and give me my best chance."

"I hate you break it to you Caty, but you're not Little Orphan Annie," Gabi said. "You may not find the happy ending you're hoping for."

"What I'm hoping for is that my adoptive parents feel really bad when they find out I'm in search of my real parents and start realizing I matter just as much as Catherine."

"So you want to find your real parents out of spite?" Alyssa asked.

"When you put it like that, it sounds really bad," Caty complained.

"How else is she supposed to put it?" Rae asked. "I think you need to think about this."

"I've thought about it," Caty replied stubbornly.

Before anyone could say anything else, Hay Lin came downstairs and started practice. It was the same sparring deal as before. She really wanted them to gain fighting skill and battle experience. This time though, the regents, James, and Josh sparred with each other. The guardians battled Sage.

While Alyssa took on the Meridian princess, and Rae worked on trying to bring inanimate objects to life, Ellie, Caty, and Gabi gathered by the pond Caty used as a water source.

"Maybe talk to Alyssa if you want to find your parents," Ellie said.

"Why? Because she's good at all the research stuff? I think Caty can handle that herself," Gabi said.

"Not because of that," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. "Because Alyssa's your cousin."

Caty's eyes widened and she nodded.

"Okay, so if they're cousins, then this could be really easy," Gabi said. "Your parents would either be Taranee's siblings or Nigel's."

"Wouldn't it be Caleb's siblings though?" Caty asked. "Since Nigel's not actually her father."

"And maybe it would specifically be Taranee's siblings because you have to be related on the guardian side," Gabi added.

"So what do we do?" Ellie asked.

"Find out the names of all of Taranee and Caleb's siblings, then look into them," Caty said, her voice professional.

The other girls nodded. Ellie went to go talk to Josh. Alyssa and Rae switched places, and Gabi talked to Alyssa while Caty continued to work on her powers.

The three convened in a few minutes.

"According to Josh, Caleb is an only child," Ellie said.

"And Taranee only has the one brother, Peter," Gabi added. "And even though Nigel is not her father, I asked about him too. He's also an only child."

Caty paled. "Never mind," she said. "I don't want to find my birth parents anymore."

"What? Why not?" Ellie asked.

Before Caty could answer, Hay Lin called Ellie over to spar the regents next.

"When I asked Alyssa if her parents had any siblings, she asked me why I wanted to know. I told her why and she answered me, and she said that you might not want to find your birth parents one I deliver this information. Why did she say that? Why don't you want to find them anymore?" Gabi asked.

"Because there's no one to find!"

"What do you mean?"

"Taranee is the only one who has a siblings. One sibling. That siblings has to be my birth father. He's dead."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

After guardian practice, Team GRACE reconvened in the basement to finally look over the stuff they got at Irma's house.

"Okay," Gabi said, laying out the three items. "So we've got a journal-"

"I'll start on that, thank you," Alyssa said, grabbing it.

"-a lockbox-"

"I've got this. I kept the key anyway," Rae said, pulling the box towards her.

"-and a locked ukulele case."

"Who's gonna handle that?" James asked

"Sage, obviously," Josh said. "She can unlock anything that's locked. It's in one of her magic skill sets."

"Caty, do you want to go through the journal with Alyssa?" Gabi asked, her tone uncharacteristically gentle.

"No," Caty muttered.

"Are you okay Caty?" Alyssa asked.

"Yes."

"She just realized what you realized," Gabi told Alyssa.

"Oh," Alyssa said in understanding.

"What?" Ellie asked. "I don't know what happened after my sparring match began."

"_Caty, are you okay with us telling everyone?_" Alyssa asked in her head.

Caty nodded.

Alyssa took a deep breath. "Caty realized, that since we're cousins, her birth parents would have to be the siblings of _my_ parents. Taranee and Caleb. Gabi, Caleb doesn't have any siblings, does he?"

Gabi shook her head.

"Well, that just leaves my mother and her only sibling was my Uncle Peter, and he's dead so…"

"So her birth father is dead," Rae realized. "Oh Caty, I'm so sorry!"

"But didn't Peter get married?" Ellie asked. "Isn't whoever he married Caty's mother?"

"Aunt Audrey," Alyssa nodded. "She's coming over for Thanksgiving."

"So you can meet your birth mother," Ellie said.

"But not my dad," Caty said. "I've never cared before. I always thought that Iris and Jeremy were the perfect parents. They _chose_ me. I was supposed to live with my grandparents. They were supposed to be my parents. But Iris and Jeremey wanted me to be in a more loving, caring environment, so they sacrificed so much so that they could be near me at all times and act as my parents until they were stable enough to officially adopt me and actually be my parents. But ever since Mom got pregnant, all they care about is Catherine. Everything they do or say or think has something to do with their baby and I thought maybe if I found my bio parents, I would _matter_ again, but my father is dead! I could just be a reminder to my mother of the man she lost. And it's not just that!"

"What else?" Sage asked gently.

"I always thought my parents couldn't take care of me. That they didn't have a stable life or the financial means to support a kid. But I see your family Alyssa. Your parents were happy, together. Your mother is a judge, your dad was in a famous band and is now a college professor. You live in a big house in the richest part of town. My parents had your parents for support, so why didn't they try to take care of me? They had the best people in their life to help them and they just left me. They didn't even put thought into it. If Mom wasn't part of the family, who knows what would've happened? I would've bene clothed and fed sure, but I probably wouldn't have learned how to make friends or been encouraged to play soccer or felt like all my academic achievements actually meant something. I owe everything I am to Jeremy and Iris. If my grandparents were my parents like they were supposed to be, I'd be a completely different person. A worse person. And that's who they left me with. They could've at least tried to find out more about the family whose doorstep they decided to leave me on."

An awkward silence fell on the room, until the Earth guardian decided to break it.

"Wait, Alyssa, has your aunt never mentioned anything about this to you?" Gabi asked.

"No. Aunt Audrey always said Uncle Peter died before they had kids. She never got remarried, so she doesn't have any kids."

"Well she must've been lying," James said.

"I guess so," Alyssa shrugged. "I wish I'd taken notice. I'm not the _most_ observant person in the world, so unless I was actually _looking_ for lies, I wouldn't notice if someone was keeping something from me, and I had no reason to think Aunt Audrey would like about anything, especially about not having kids."

"What does your aunt do for a living?" Chris asked.

"She's a reporter. She writes for the Times."

"Like…like the _New York_ Times?" Cara asked.

Alyssa nodded.

"Wait," Caty said. "Are you saying my mother is Audrey Pierce?"

"Yeah. You've heard of her?"

"She's like Misha's girl crush and celebrity crush," Caty said.

"Her celebrity crush is a reporter?" Ellie asked.

"Makes sense to me. Writers are sexy. Exhibit A," Gabi joked, pointing to herself. She always took pride in her writing.

"Misha follows her every story. She obsesses about her. Audrey Pierce is her hero. And I love her too. She's an amazing writer."

"I've heard of Audrey Pierce too," Rae said. "She was married to Peter Cook."

"That's your uncle, right?" Ellie asked.

Alyssa nodded, then noticed her boyfriend was staring at her open-mouthed. "What?" she asked.

"Are you saying your uncle was Peter Cook?"

"That was his name, yes."

"Like the basketball player?"

"Oh, yeah. He played for some big cat team in the NBA. The Jaguars or something?"

"Bobcats Lyssa. Bobcats," James said. "Or at least they used to be in your uncle's time. Now they're the Hornets." He looked around the room. "Did any of you know about this?"

The girls all shook their head. Most of them had an interest in some sport or the other, but not basketball. Josh played basketball, but being from Meridian, he didn't know any NBA players. Only Chris nodded.

"That was my reaction when I first put the pieces together too," he admitted.

"Adam had a similar reaction," Ellie said. "I don't get the big deal." Like Alyssa, Ellie didn't play or like any sports, although she certainly had the energy to play something.

"I never knew your mother's maiden name, so I never realized," James said.

"Caty, it looks your both of biological parents are big deals," Sage said.

"It could be worth it to meet someone you love so much," Rae said, shrugging.

"It's even worse this way!" Caty cried. "Audrey Pierce started her career before she got married. That's why she kept her maiden name when she got married; because she already had her own byline with the name Pierce. She was the youngest, but most successful staff writer of the Heatherfield Post, and got a job at the times within two years of working for our local newspaper. And I don't too much about basketball, but I know enough math to know that if Peter was three years older than your mother like you said, then he would be 45 now. And if he died 17 years ago, then he would've been 28, and he definitely got recruited into the NBA before that."

"He was 22," James piped up. "And he was still on the team at the time of his death."

"What's your point Caty?" Alyssa asked.

"My point is, I thought at first my parents couldn't take care of me and had no help and that's why they left. When I found out my parents were your aunt and uncle Lyssa, I didn't understand why they would leave me because they would've had a great support system in your family. And now I know they didn't even need support. My dad was in the NBA and my mom was a successful journalist. They were perfectly capable of taking care of me. So why didn't they?"

No one had an answer, and as it turned out, no one needed one. Caty had her own.

"They were selfish! They were enjoying all successes of life and a kid would mess that up, so they gave me away so they wouldn't have to deal with that."

"Hey! Caty, that's my aunt and uncle you're talking about!" Alyssa snapped. "I may not know Uncle Peter, but Aunt Audrey is amazing person, and one of my favorite people in the world and she would never be so selfish. And anyway, she gave you up-"

"Away!" Caty interrupted.

"-fine _away_," Alyssa conceded, "when you were four, so that's clearly not the reason."

"Well did your aunt fall on hard times? No! Misha's been following her career since just about forever and Audrey Pierce has only become more successful as time went on. So why didn't she keep me?"

"Would it even work out? Peter died over 17 years ago, and you're only 16 Caty," Gabi said. "So is Peter even your dad?"

"Peter had to be my dad."

"Unless my mom has a secret sibling somewhere too," Alyssa muttered.

Josh shifted uncomfortably.

"Or your mother had an affair," Gabi said.

"But that wouldn't make Alyssa and Caty blood relatives, and we know that they have to be _blood_ related because Anya and Gwen of MAGIC were," Rae pointed out.

"You said your uncle died before you were born, right Lyssa?" Chris asked.

Alyssa nodded. "Not that long before though. It was only about a week."

"And Caty, when were you born?" Chris asked.

"March 13th. Oh, I get where you're going with this. So if Peter died the last week of October and I was born the following March, that would only be five months, so Audrey would've been pregnant with me for four months already when Peter died."

"So you definitely know your bio parents' identities," Gabi said. "I guess it's up to you what you do with that information."

Caty sighed and nodded. "Okay. I'm tired of this topic. Can we move on?"

Everyone nodded and looked at the items. Sage used her magic to unlock the ukulele case first.

"Look at this," Josh breathed.

Inside were dozens of pictures of W.I.T.C.H. There were silly photos, prom pictures, candid shots, pictures of them in their guardian form, pictures of their boyfriends, pictures of them with their boyfriends…Each photo was labeled with a date, so if the team wanted to, and had the time to, they could make a timeline.

"Okay, ew, what is _that_?" Alyssa cried, pointing at something. She had a picture of Caleb and Hay Lin in her hand. In the middle of the two was a disgusting looking green midget with ripped clothes and shoes.

"That's a Passling," Sage said.

"Which are…?

"They're a toad and goblin hybrid," Josh said. "They like to travel across dimensions and steal items they think are of value, and then sell them in a dimension that may not have those things. The passling in that picture is Blunk. He was trapped in the well with Dad and Will, and Dad took pity on it and had WITCH save Blunk along with himself and Will."

"Even though passlings are tricky, thieving creatures, Blunk rarely stole from them and proved to be both a friend and valuable asset to their team," Sage explained.

"Mom _adored_ him," Cara said. "Passlings are smelly and disgusting, but Mom thought he was cute. She's crazy like that."

"He stayed in the basement with Caleb when Caleb first came to stay on Earth," Chris added. "Actually he stayed here even when Caleb lived here to go to school here and he moved back to Meridian when Caleb and Cornelia did, which I guess was much longer than six years ago." Chris looked at Josh. "Do you know him?"

"Yeah. Blunk is a passling, so his first priority is still trying to sell things across dimensions, but he was one of the few people who knew when Mom and Dad _actually_ moved back to Meridian, and he visits from time to time."

"How was he valuable to the team?" Ellie asked.

"Passlings are great trackers, so Blunk would use his sense of smell to lead the guardians to places they needed to go. Like, he could lead them to kidnapped friends or right to the villain they were fighting if they wanted to bring the fight to him," Sage said. "Blunk also happened to get his hands on something called the Tooth of the Tonga, which he could use to create folds. That's what he uses to travel across dimensions now, but when he was part of Team WITCH, he used it to get the girls to Meridian. It was useful for when the guardians weren't together, so Will could create a fold for the guardians she was with, and Blunk could get the others to Meridian. And he learned how to make the Tooth take him to exactly where he wanted to go much faster than Will learned with the Heart."

"How did he get an item like that?" Alyssa wondered.

"The Oracle gave it to him," Chris said. "He caught Blunk trying to steal, so he decided to give Blunk the Tooth, probably to distract Blunk so he wouldn't steal something of real value."

Everyone laughed at this.

Alyssa started to flip through the journal while everyone else continued looking through the pictures.

After a few minutes, Rae decided to open the lockbox.

"Whoa, guys, check this out," she said.

Inside were six envelopes, a few pictures, some bracelets, a locket, and some other interesting items.

"What is this stuff?" Ellie asked.

"I don't know, but it looks like everything is tagged," Caty said, taking the locket out. She was right. Every item had a tag or label on it.

"That's so pretty," Cara breathed. She was right. The locket had a white gold chain, and the pendant was a large white gold circle with three swirls and a star carved on it. At the top left hand side was blue stone with hints of green and orange that the girls recognized as an opal in the shape of a heart.

"What does it say?" Alyssa asked.

"It says, 'My thirteenth birthday present.' And under that it says, 'W.I.T.C.H. gave me this locket for my thirteenth birthday. They each put a lock of their hair in it and said it bonded us forever and that we'd always be friends."

Sage crawled closer. "That's Mom's!" she cried. "I've seen her wearing it pictures, along with the Heart of Meridian. She had it around her neck in almost every picture until she was 17 or 18. She said for everyone's thirteenth birthdays, instead of each of them picking out an individual gift, they all bought gift together. They bought this locket for Mom after they'd all defeated Phobos and Mom took her rightful place on the throne. She felt really left out when WITCH first became guardians and didn't tell her about being Meridian's princess and the locket was supposed to be their way of assuring her there were no more secrets between them. And the star on the edge is an opal because that's Mom's birthstone."

"So if this is Elyon's," Alyssa said, "did all this stuff belong to her?"

"If that were true, then why does Irma have it?" Gabi wondered.

The girls shrugged.

"Look at this," Alyssa said, taking out an intricate camera. "It's tagged 'My thirteenth birthday present' and under that it says 'Will, Irma, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Elyon hunted everywhere to buy me the exact model camera I've been looking for since I was ten.' This must be Mom's! She loves photography."

Sifting through the box, Team GRACE found a gorgeous ice skating outfit (which was tagged by Cornelia as her thirteenth birthday present), a gorgeous drawing of the guardians and Elyon (which was tagged Hay Lin as the first drawing she did with the art kit her friends got her for her thirteenth birthday), a pair of really expensive goggles (tagged by Will as her thirteenth birthday present), and fancy noise cancelling headphones (tagged by Irma as her thirteenth birthday present).

"Right," Josh said. "Elyon needed assurance that WITCH were truly her friends, Taranee loved photography, Mom ice skated competitively, and Will swam competitively, Hay Lin loved art, and Irma was obsessed with music. They all did well with these presents."

"But why are their thirteenth birthday presents in here?" Rae asked. "What is this?"

The other had no answer, so they just continued looking through the rest of the stuff. The charm bracelets all had silver bands and only a few charms.

"Check this out," Alyssa said, holding one up. "This bracelet has alphabet charms that spell out Elyon's name, and it also has a crown, a little charm with an opal, a charm with two hands joined together which a universal sign for friendship, and a braided rope charm. I know from Hay Lin's journals that the braided rope is the Meridian symbol of magic."

"So that belonged to Mom as well," Sage said. "I think I've seen that in pictures too, and like the necklace, it disappeared in pictures around the time she was 17 or 18."

"Look at this one," Cara said, holding up another charm bracelet. "It's the same, but some of the charms are different. Instead of a crown, it has a hurricane, instead of an emerald stone, the gemstone charm is a pearl, and instead of the braided rope, it has the symbol of the air guardian. But the friendship charm is still there."

"Whose is it?" Caty asked.

"Well, the alphabet charms spell Hay Lin, so I guess it's Mom's," Cara replied. "And I think I know what gemstones mean. We already established that opal is Elyon's birthstone. Mom's birthday is June 4th, and her birthstone is pearl."

"I think you're right," Alyssa said, taking out another charm bracelet. "Judging by the alphabet charms on this bracelet spelling out Taranee, this was my mom's. Instead of the hurricane, there's a flame, and the symbol of the fire guardian, and the gemstone charm is an aquamarine, which my mother's birthstone. She was born in March."

The other bracelets followed the same pattern. Each bracelet had the friendship charm and alphabet charms spelling out their names. Each bracelet also had a charm with their guardian symbol, a charm representing their element, and their birthstone. Will's had a lightning bolt and a garnet for her January birthday, Irma's had a wave and an aquamarine for her March birthday, and Cornelia's had a flower and an emerald for her May birthday.

"I'm May as well," Rae said. "May 14th."

"You want a real coincidence?" Josh asked. "Irma and Caty have the same exact birthdays."

"I wish Irma was my mother," Caty muttered.

"These are adorable!" Gabi exclaimed taking out a few chokers. It was obvious which one belonged to who. Five of them had the classic guardian colors, pink, blue, orange, green, and gray. One of them was sea green, which Sage said was Elyon's favorite color. The heart shaped pendants 'Best Friends' on the front, and each girl had carved their names on the back.

"Okay, this is really sad," Alyssa said. "All of these things perfectly represent their strong friendship and now Cornelia and Elyon are the only ones who still talk?"

The other agreed as they looked through the box. There were six cuff bracelets, five in the guardian colors and one that was sea green, and then the items differed. Using their memories of Hay Lin's journals, they figured out that the frog keychain and the white hat with two red stripes were Will's. She loved frogs and the hat was Matt's, and he gave it to her when they were sixteen when he left for a few months to go on a rock tour. The expensive paint brushes that Alyssa, Josh, and Chris practically drooled over and cartoon stickers were Hay Lin's. Irma's stuff consisted of a rock CD and a microphone with her name etched on it. Cornelia's stuff was quite obviously the mini make up kit, and a gold medal for ice skating. They could guess that the book of poetry and the basketball keychain were Taranee's. She was on the girls' basketball team in high school and was one of the best players. That meant the silver hair bangles and the picture of Queen Weira holding a baby Elyon just before Phobos overthrew his mother and his sister had to be taken away belonged to Elyon.

The last items were the six envelopes the group first saw when they opened the box. Each envelope had a name on the back.

"So what is this?" Gabi asked.

"Well, it looks like each guardian put in an item that represents them and an item that's important to them. So maybe…maybe it's a time capsule," Alyssa said. "The six of them did it when they were still friends and probably wrote letters to themselves to see how different they were. And that could be why Elyon didn't have the locket or charm bracelet on after she was 17. The girls must've put this together before they started college."

"But isn't a time capsule supposed to be buried somewhere? Why was this in Irma's house?" Caty asked.

"Maybe, by the time they were supposed to dig it up, they weren't friends anymore and Irma just dug it up herself and kept it," Rae suggested.

"It would make the most sense for either Irma or Mom to dig it up," Cara agreed. "I mean, Cornelia and Elyon were still friends, and if they were supposed to dig it up more than seven years ago, Taranee and Cornelia were still friends too. Will might not care anymore because she left Heatherfield and left no trace that she ever existed. Mom probably wanted to dig it up, but Irma might've gotten to it first."

"Okay, so we have a time capsule and a ukulele case filled with pictures. This tells us that Irma clearly still wants to be friends with everyone, but the goal was to find out where Will could be," Gabi said.

"I'll read the journal tonight and see if I find anything," Alyssa said. The others nodded, then gave Gabi the stuff back before Hay Lin could come downstairs to see what they were doing, and left.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"It was just so _stupid_ of me," Caty said to Misha and Nina at the end of the day the following day. The honors kids had a mock trial trip that day and had made it back before the day ended, but they were all excused from all their classes that day, so none of them attended their last class. There were only twenty minutes of the last class left anyway, so they decided to hang out in the halls until the school day was over.

"It wasn't," Nina said. "He deserved it."

"But now he probably won't fall for me," Caty pointed out. She and her friends were talking about Caty's outburst the previous day.

"Caty, I have something to tell you," Misha said, shifting uncomfortably. "The reason Brian did all those things is because of me."

"What do you mean?" Caty asked slowly.

"While we were still fighting, Brian asked me for my help in getting you to like him. And I wanted to mess with you, so I told him to do all these things that would make you mad at him."

"What?" Caty cried.

"Misha, you realize you almost sent Caty to the hospital twice?" Nina, who had no knowledge of this, asked.

"I never meant for you to get hurt!" Misha said quickly. "I tried to be vague about my advice to make him mess up. I told him your favorite flower was the one your mom was named after, but neglected to mention her actual name. I thought he'd get you roses. Wouldn't Rose be the first name your mind jumps to when you know someone is named after a flower? Or Lily or Daisy. I never imagined he'd get you poppies."

"What about the brownies?" Caty asked.

"All I told him was to bake you something. I thought he'd go for those oatmeal raisin cookies he always makes for the Debate Team that you hate. I never imagined he'd choose brownies, which you actually like. And I swear I didn't tell him to bake nuts into them. I wouldn't do that."

"What about him acting like a misogynistic pig and trying to get me to carry the folder instead of the box when we went to get the dramatics materials yesterday?" Caty asked.

"That was because of me too. I told Brian you liked it when boys acted macho and tried to do things for you."

"And the song?"

"I told him you liked public gestures."

"Misha, I got terrible grades on three separate assignments because of all that!"

"I know, and I feel terrible about it! I'm a horrible friend, I know. I'm so sorry Caty! I just wanted to mess with you a little."

Caty groaned. "And now I messed everything up. He was just trying to be nice and get me to like him and I called him a douchebag. What if he hates me now?"

"It looks like this is your chance to find out," Nina said. Caty looked up and saw Brian walking towards them.

Nina and Misha left when Brian reached them.

"Hey Caty," Brian said.

"Hi Brian," Caty mumbled, unable to look at him.

"Listen, I wanted to apologize. I asked Misha to help me win you over, and I guess I misunderstood her advice."

"I'll say," Caty said. "My favorite flowers are irises because my mom's name is Iris. I hate when boys act macho and try to do things for me. I prefer to do things for myself. It leaves me in control. I love brownies, especially if they have M&amp;Ms in them, but I'm allergic to tree nuts. And I get embarrassed really easily, so a big, public gesture like serenading me is never the way to go."

"I know that now," Brian said.

"So…you _wanted _to win me over?"

"Yeah. I know we've always been rivals and we've been at war since kindergarten, but I really like you, and maybe that's why I always did mean things to you. You know how they say boys are mean to girls they like. I only realized it over the summer."

"Oh." Caty blushed, not knowing what to say.

"And you were right yesterday. We _are_ getting along and becoming friends. At least…if you still _want_ to be friends."

"I do," Caty said quickly.

"And that thing you said about thinking you could like me…do you still think you could like me? You already know how I feel."

"Yeah. I still think I could like you," Caty said shyly.

Brian's face lit up and he blushed just as Caty hoped he would. Gabi would be proud.

"So then…do you want to go out with me?"

Caty couldn't believe Brian was being so forward. But this was a huge step in a right direction. Speechless, Caty just nodded.

"Great! How about Wednesday night? I'd say Friday, but my family's going away for Thanksgiving."

"Wednesday works."

"Okay. I have some great ideas of what we could do, and we can walk everywhere, so I can actually pick you up this time. Does 6 work for you?"

"Yeah. Oh, but, I'll be at The Silver Dragon until 6, so could you pick me up there?"

"Sure. But why will you be there?"

"Um…Gabi works there and I sometimes keep her company," Caty said, not wanting to explain the tutor circle excuse she used on her friends.

"Oh okay."

"And if dinner at The Silver Dragon or any Chinese restaurant was one of your great ideas…you might want to rework that. I have way too much Chinese food already."

Brian laughed. "No problem. I had a different type of cuisine in mind anyway."

"Awesome. I can't wait," Caty said, giving him a bright smile.

"Me either," Brian said smiling back before he headed back over to his friends.

Caty's smile stayed in place. She was so excited. She actually carried on a full conversation with Brian…by herself! She didn't need Gabi's help at all. She just remembered all the tips Gabi had given her over the weeks and used them to her advantage. She was getting better at this. Now she just had to make sure she could do the same on their date.

Misha and Nina walked back over to her. After talking it out a bit more. Caty forgave Misha, and told her friends about her conversation and future date with Brian, excited. She might get everything she wanted after all.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you think? I really needed to get some of the stuff in this chapter out of the way so that some of the things I have planned for the future won't seem so random. I had a list of things I had to cover since chapter 17, and now the list has shortened to one thing covered next chapter, so I'm pretty excited. The next chapter will be up soon. In the meantime, please review!**


	31. The Nerds' First Date

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry this took so long, but I've been really sick as of late. My fever broke a few days ago, but until it did, I didn't do a lot of writing, and it's midterms week/advisement week/registration week at school, so I had to deal with. On the upside, this is a double update! Yay! As usual, since this is a double update, the shout outs are split up. This chapter is all about the days before Thanksgiving, and the next one deals with everyone's Thanksgivings, so I hope you enjoy! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**WaterAmulet: Angel's identity is a secret I plan to keep for a long time. Of course, I never planned to erase Jake's memory either. Nothing ever goes according to plan for me. I'll tell you a secret: There are a lot of shocks in the next chapter and none of them were planned except the event that has to do with Ellie. Caty and Brian's date is in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. I actually wrote a lot more about it than I expected to. I think they have better chemistry than I thought they would, so that's good. Ellie's jealousy will also be addressed in this chapter, and carry over to later chapters. Yes, the locket that was mentioned in one of the season 1 episodes is the same one I was talking about, I'm glad you picked up on that. I hope these two chapters are to your liking!**

**Emily: Oh, well I wasn't aware you were my editor, but thank you for that. Yes, a lot of this stuff was lead ins, but since I filled you in on future events, you should be okay with it. Of course she cares about him. I guarantee you that Alyssa would be the LAST person to be in a relationship with someone she doesn't care about. I'm not, but I do love A Walk to Remember. I saw it a few months ago, and it was so cute. I know you'd love to be serenaded. I'm way too shy to enjoy that. Dude, calm down. You know how much I love Alyssa and James. I won't break them up…probably. Caty's a control freak who just found out her dad died an unexpected death. It's a Caroline-esque reaction (yes, that is a TVD reference, and yes, I know that not only do you not watch, but you also pretty much hate TVD). I can't tell you, parce que je ne sais pas, desolee! The date and Michael are both in this chapter. And aren't you impressed that I'm putting out two chapters? Hope you like them (and please finish the editing on chapter 30 soon or else I can't publish this one either).**

**SilvenArrow: Caty has a bit of evil streak, huh? There will definitely be some drama with the two of them in future chapters. I have a possibility of a couple guys for Ellie, and while Adam is in the running, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. Yup, you were the only one who picked up on what Peter's death would mean for Caty. I feel bad too, and I'm the one who did this! Wow, that was a torrent of questions. Unfortunately, I can't answer most of them until future chapters. Good news though: Will's location is revealed in the next chapter, and since this is a double update, you get that chapter right now. I see you reviewed my HP fanfic, so let me reply to that review too. Yup, ever since that little hint in the books, I wanted to see if Rose and Scorpius had any fans, and I was blown away by the support. I read Scorose fanfics all the time, and Juliet Capulet C'est Moi is the first out of four Scorose fanfics I want to write. Let me just say, you're not missing anything by not knowing about ****_Madame Bovary. _****I didn't like that book. Astoria Greengrass is a Slytherin who is two years younger than Draco and Harry and everyone. Her older sister Daphne is also in Slytherin and she's in Harry's year. She was mentioned in one or two of the books. It's canon that Draco marries Astoria, even though it's true they never mentioned her by name in either the books or the movie. Scorpius ending up in Gryffindor is also canon, but I'm putting him in different houses in different fics. I didn't want to do too much with their confession because I'm planning on writing so many Scorose fics. And I actually fixed the spacing issues and reposted haha. I'm glad you liked it. I was worried it wasn't really that good. I had the idea on impulse and had to publish it, but I kind of wish I spent more time on it, not that I really know how to make it better. Anyway, I'm glad you liked chapter 28 of GRACE, and I hope you like these two just as much or more!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Tuesday afternoon, Rae headed to work right after guardian practice. Gabi's brother Michael was arriving at home that evening, so Gabi wanted to finish guardian practice before that. Rae had no problem with that because she had work a couple of hours after school anyway.

Rae was pretty excited to go to work. She loved it there. Mrs. Potter almost always put her and Ronnie on register and Brooke and Lainey on floor, which meant the four of them could talk easily. Rae liked being with all her friends on Team GRACE of course, but Alyssa still hadn't forgiven her, and had taken to making snide remarks every time she or Josh said something. She glared at Rae through all her classes, and during guardian practice today, when Hay Lin decided the guardians should spar against each other, Alyssa had been overwhelmingly violent during her battle with Rae. Down the Rabbit Hole was a place where everyone was nice.

"Hey," Rae said when she arrived, walking up to Ronnie, who was behind the register. "Did you happen to see what I'm doing today?"

"I did. You and Lainey are working floor and Brooke and I are register."

Rae beamed. "I haven't worked floor since my first day here! I love it!"

"Really? You _like_ floor?"

"My first day on floor, over a dozen people came up to me and asked what books I would recommend in order for them to get their kids or grandkids to start reading. I got to recommend books to people! I love that!"

Ronnie laughed at Rae's enthusiasm. "I remember. I think we sold 16 copies of the first Harry Potter book. And 14 of those people also bought the second book."

"Well Harry Potter is the perfect series to get kids hooked on reading. But I also recommended the Percy Jackson series to a couple of people and The Hunger Games trilogy to someone even though I personally am not a fan of The Hunger Games."

"Brooke isn't either," Ronnie said. "She said it's a rip off of a book written before The Hunger Games. Some Japanese book."

"_Battle Royale?_" Rae asked.

"Yeah, that's it!"

"That partially why I don't like the trilogy too," Rae said.

Ronnie rolled her eyes and was about to say something else when Brooke and Lainey joined them.

"Hey guys!" Rae greeted.

Brooke smiled in response, taking her place behind the register. Lainey didn't say anything, which was strange for the usually bubbly girl, but Rae shrugged it off as a customer walked in.

"Hi, can I help you with something?" Rae asked, smiling.

Two hours later, the crowd had died down. Rae walked over to Ronnie and Brooke and started a conversation. Lainey joined them, but worked very hard to avoid eye contact with Rae. When Rae did catch her eye, the blonde would glare at her, and every now and then, Lainey made a snide remark after Rae said something, though hers stung less than Alyssa's. Why was Down the Rabbit Hole starting to feel like guardian practice?

It was nearing closing time when Rae brought it up to Ronnie and Brooke. "Have you noticed Lainey seems to be mad at me?"

"I thought so too," Ronnie said.

"It's strange for her. She rarely gets mad or upset," Brooke said.

"Do you guys know why? Has she said anything?"

"Not that I can think of," Brooke said, and Ronnie shrugged in agreement.

Rae sighed, knowing she'd have to bring it up with Lainey herself. Since Lainey arrived first, she got to leave first. Rae walked over to her as she clocked out on the computer.

"Lainey, did I do something to upset you?" she asked.

"Nope," Lainey replied, not even looking at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yup," she said, her tone cold.

"Okay, because it kind of seems like you're mad at me."

Lainey sighed and looked at the Keeper. "Alright, fine, I _am_ mad at you."

"Why?"

"Because I invited you into my home, thinking you wanted to be friends and help me out, but then I find out that's a big lie!"

"What do you mean? I _do_ want to be friends."

"Well I certainly don't want to be your friend. Not after I found out that there is no Harry Potter club at Sheffield, and three of my mom's most prized possessions disappeared the same day you and your friends came over for lunch."

Rae cringed. She couldn't believe Irma had noticed! Why hadn't Team GRACE considered that possibility?

"Lainey, listen-" Rae started, grateful when Lainey cut her off because she wasn't sure how she was going to finish that sentence.

"No, you listen! I invited you to my house and _stole_ from my family! We have to be civil with each other because we work together, but we are not friends. I want nothing to do with you."

Lainey stalked off, calling out a quick good bye to Ronnie and Brooke before walking out, leaving Rae feeling like the worst person on the planet.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Gabi and Josh got home from guardian practice that afternoon, Gabi ran to her room to change into something nice for Michael's arrival, even though she was sore from sparring with the other guardians and all she wanted to do was take a bubble bath and sleep forever.

Gabi wiped off her make up from the morning, knowing the green eyeshadow and pink lip gloss wouldn't go with whatever she chose to change into. Gabi picked a black Ralph Lauren skirt and a red fuzzy sweater from Silena Shane's semi-formal wear line of last year. Michael's girlfriend Ariel had bought both those pieces for her and she adored them. She also adored Ariel and was upset she wasn't going to be joining the Shays for Thanksgiving, but Ariel had personally promised her to stay with them for Christmas.

Luc walked into Gabi's room just as she was finishing her make up (she put on dark brown eyeliner and red lipstick).

"Hey buddy. You excited to see Michael?"

"Of course!" Luc said. "And I'm excited for Josh to meet him too. I bet they get along great."

"Me too," Gabi said. She knew as long as Michael didn't catch wind of the fact that Josh and Gabi were in a huge fight, he'd like Josh.

"When is Josh leaving?" Luc asked.

"Tomorrow night," Gabi replied. "And he'll be back Saturday night."

"Why is he leaving at night?" Luc asked. "Won't he be really tired when he reaches his grandparent's house?"

That was a really good point. Gabi couldn't tell Luc it was because Sage was going transport herself and Josh to the Hales' apartment.

"Josh and Sage are night owls," Gabi said.

Luc seemed to accept that. He sat on Gabi's bed and told her about his school day until the doorbell rang. They raced to answer it, and saw Daniel was there already.

Josh, Eva, and Sienna joined the Shays just as Daniel opened the door. Michael greeted them with his signature bright smile.

"Dad! It's great to see you," Michael said, stepping inside and giving Daniel a hug.

When he let go, his eyes landed on Gabi and Luc. "Now _there_ are my two favorite people in the world," he said as both his siblings gave him a hug.

"Well, now, don't I feel special," Daniel joked.

"I'm sure you're someone's favorite too Dad," Michael assured him.

_Like Mom's, _Gabi wanted to say but didn't.

"You're sure my favorite," Sienna said, giving Daniel a kiss on the cheek.

Eva and Gabi both pulled the same 'Blech' face. Luc started to laugh before the shock of seeing his sister and the eight-year-old girl who was convinced his sister was a witch make the same face set in.

"It's good to see you again Michael," Sienna continued, giving him a hug.

Michael tensed, and didn't hug her back, but did say, "You too Sienna."

Michael didn't like Sienna any more than Gabi or Luc, but Gabi knew it had to be extra weird for him since Sienna was in his age group. Gabi couldn't understand how her dad didn't see that is was so wrong to date someone closer to his son's age than his own.

When Sienna let go, she said, "I know you and I don't know each other very well. Eva and I had only just officially joined the family when you went back to school. But I hope this weekend will change that."

"I'm sure you'll try your best," Gabi cut in before Michael, who was far too polite to say anything rude to the step monster, would agree to some horrific bonding experience. "But Michael will be too busy spending time with Luc and I, his _real_ family, to get to know you. After all, why would he waste his time with someone who isn't going to be here much longer?"

"_Gabrielle_! Apologize to Sienna _right now_!" Daniel shouted, angrier than Gabi had ever seen him. She had to admit, it scared her a little, but she wasn't about to back down.

"No. I'm only speaking the truth."

"The truth? There is nothing true about that," Daniel said in a low voice. "Sienna and Eva are part of our family and they are here to stay, and you Elena Rose Shay, need to learn to accept that. I don't want to hear another hurtful word out of your mouth."

Josh snorted. He couldn't help it. He tried to cover it up as a cough, but judging by the gleeful look on Eva's face, the glare on Gabi's, and the almost apologetic smile on Luc's, he didn't do a very good job.

Gabi surreptitiously wiggled her fingers, causing an Earthquake on the part of the ground between Josh's feet. He fell flat on his face.

"Oh no!" Sienna cried.

"Man are you clumsy," Gabi taunted.

Josh got up and glared at the Earth guardian. She just gave him a triumphant smile.

Michael cleared his throat. "Uh…who are you?"

"Josh Hart," Josh replied.

"Josh is a friend of mine. His parents used to live in Heatherfield and attended Sheffield and they wanted Josh to finish school at Sheffield, but they live in California now, so he's staying here."

Josh extended his hand toward Michael but Michael ignored it, looking at Gabi incredulously.

"Here as in this house here?"

"Yes."

"He's awesome!" Luc piped up. "I think you're really going to like him."

Michael turned to face Josh, who looked at him expectantly. Michael sighed and finally shook Josh's hand. "Hi," he said in a stiff, un-Michael like way.

"Ow," Josh muttered when Michael dropped his hand.

Gabi looked at him questioningly.

"He crushed my hand," Josh said so only Gabi and Luc could hear.

Gabi and Luc exchanged looks at Michael's strange reaction.

"Are you okay?" Gabi asked.

"Sure," Michael said unconvincingly.

"Well, I think it's just about time for dinner," Sienna said, clearly recognizing the awkwardness and trying to move past it. "Michael, why don't you put your bags in your room and wash up?"

"Yeah, okay," Michael said. He grabbed his two duffels and walked over to his room. Sienna walked to the kitchen and Daniel went to wash up.

"Okay, that was weird right? I'm not just imagining things?" Gabi asked.

"Yeah. Did Michael seem to not like Josh?" Luc asked.

"Well that makes sense," Eva said in her snobbiest tone. "No one in your family has good taste. Otherwise he'd love Josh."

"Oh go jump in a lake you little demon child!" Gabi snapped.

"I'm telling Mommy and Daddy you said that!" Eva cried, running to the kitchen.

In another minute, Daniel's voice boomed, "Gabrielle! In the kitchen, _now_!"

"It's not even like she cares I said that!" Gabi exploded. "She just likes to get me in trouble."

"It'll be okay," Luc soothed. "It's like you said. She and Sienna won't be here much longer."

"You guys are fooling yourselves if you really think that," Josh said.

"What makes you say that?" Luc asked, genuinely curious.

"Because they're in love. For real."

"Oh please," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. "As if you'd know real love."

"I do."

"How?"

"My parents."

Gabi frowned. Okay, so that wasn't the worst defense in the world. In fact, Hay Lin, Eric, and Joel all thought that Cornelia and Caleb's love was written in the stars. They even stayed together after Caleb had an affair and a lovechild. If true love did exist, it was theirs.

Eva skipped into the living room. "Daddy says you have to apologize and you have to drive me wherever I want to go for the next three weekends."

"Fine," Gabi said stiffly. "Sorry."

Eva skipped away happily.

"Don't you have work all day for the next three weekends?" Luc asked.

"Of course," Gabi replied simply, walking into the dining room. Luc laughed as he and Josh followed her.

After dinner, Michael asked Gabi if she wanted to go out for ice cream.

"As if you even have to ask," Gabi laughed. It was a tradition that Michael would take Gabi out for ice cream the night he returned and take Luc to the movies the following afternoon.

"Great. Just give me five minutes," Michael said smiling.

Gabi nodded and rushed to her room to decide touch up her makeup and choose a jacket. She elected the black Calvin Klein cardigan Bree got her for her last birthday. The cardigan wouldn't protect her from the cold, but Gabi always took the 'beauty is pain' saying to heart.

She decided to use the rest of the five minutes to have a conversation with Josh she'd been dying to have. She went to his room, where he was sitting on the bed, reading a book. It looked like _Brave New World_, the current book for the honors English class. Though Gabi would never admit it out loud, she thought it was a fantastic book.

"Josh, can I ask you something?" she asked.

"No."

"Well, I'm going to anyway," Gabi said. "Remember yesterday when you told Caty that some guys act like jerks to girls they like?"

Josh frowned. Why was she asking him that? "Yeah. What about it?"

Gabi was surprised at his curious tone. Usually, when no one else was around, he either insulted her or spoke to her coldly. She didn't question it however. "Well, I was just wondering…why did you say that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…did you say that because you act like a jerk towards girls you like? As in, you're acting like a jerk to me because you like me?"

Josh immediately went red, but said "No! You sure think highly of yourself, don't you?"

Gabi frowned. His tone was cold, but the blush on his face made her question whether or not he was telling the truth.

"I have to finish these chapters by tomorrow. You can leave now," Josh said.

Gabi shook her head. "No! Josh, tell me the truth. Is that why you're suddenly mean to me? Because you like me?"

Josh went redder. "No!" he insisted, but now Gabi found it even less believable.

"Just tell me. Tell me and I'll…I'll let it go! I won't say a word about it, I swear."

Josh looked at Gabi, right into her eyes for the first time since he told her he hated her. Of course Gabi wouldn't let it go if he said he liked her, but he didn't seem to know that.

"Well?"

"Gabi, I…" Josh trailed off, but Gabi felt that she was closer than ever. He hadn't addressed her using her name since the day of Alyssa's party.

"Yeah?"

"Okay, look, the thing is-"

There was a knock at the door and Josh's mouth snapped shut.

"Not to interrupt," Michael said, "but Gabi, are you ready to get going?"

Gabi didn't even turn around.

"Josh?" she prompted, but it looked like the moment had passed now.

For two solid minutes, the two stared at each other while Michael frowned, wondering what was going on. Finally, when it looked like Josh wasn't going to say a word, Gabi sighed, and said, "Yeah. I'm ready. Let's go."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie stuck with Sage for all of rehearsal so that she wouldn't have to deal with Adam or Jade. Jade had been trying to catch Ellie alone since Monday, and so had Adam once he heard what Ellie had said. Ellie exchanged smiles with Milly, but wouldn't even _look_ at Adam or Jade.

After school on Monday, Adam had confronted Ellie while she was gathering stuff from her locker and asked her why she wasn't okay with him and Jade dating. Ellie just told him she thought it was weird and unnatural, which didn't go over to well.

Flashback:

**"What's weird and unnatural about it?" Adam asked.**

** "I don't know. You guys are like brother and sister!"**

** "She said she never saw me that way."**

** "And you? I ****_know _****you saw her that way!"**

** "Yeah I did. But now I don't."**

** "Really? So now you think she's pretty and cute, and you daydream about her and blush when she smiles at you and you want to be with her all the time and hold her hand and put your arm around her and kiss her? Because that's the way you acted when you were into me, so you must be like that with her too, right?"**

** Adam's face showed understanding. "El, is that what this is about? I used to like you and now I like Jade, and you're a little jealous?"**

** "I don't like you Adam!" **

** "I know. You're jealous that you're not the one I'm into anymore. It's okay."**

** "I'm not jealous! I just don't believe you like her. And I don't think she knows you. She calls your smiles rare. She thinks you're sweet once in a blue moon. And she likes those things about you. But you're not like that, are you? Not when you like someone. When you like someone, you smile all the time and you're an absolute sweetheart."**

** "But my smiles and sweet moments were rare with her because I didn't like her. Now that I do, you're right, I'll smile more and always try to be sweet to her. And I just have to hope she likes me that way too. And I think it's really unfair of you to say that you don't believe I like her."**

** "Why not? I'm just expressing my opinion."**

** "Ellie, just admit your jealous. You're being a brat, and lying about how you actually feel. But I'm your best friend, and you aren't supposed to lie to me."**

** "And you aren't supposed to like someone else! And I can't believe you just called me a brat!"**

** "You ****_are_**** a brat. I can like whoever I want. You don't have a right to me. I liked you for as long as I can remember, and you know what Ellie? You ****_never liked me back_****! So what am I supposed to do with that? You want me to pine after you for the rest of my life? I can't do that. I'm sorry if you're unhappy, but I have to move on, and I've chosen to do that with Jade. We're both your best friends, so maybe instead of being petty and childish, you could be gracious."**

** "I ****_can't_****. Mainly because I don't know what gracious means."**

** "It ****_means_**** kind and polite. Just be ****_happy_**** for us El! Be our best friend."**

** "I don't ****_want_**** to be okay with this. I'm ****_not_**** okay with this."**

** "Well you're going to have to be, because this is happening. I'm dating Jade now."**

** "Then I hope you two are very happy together!"**

** Ellie slammed her locker shut and walked away.**

End Flashback.

Ellie saw Adam waiting outside of Applebee's the following day. She wasn't sure if he'd show up to drive her home, even though they, as usual, had the same shift. Either way, it didn't matter. She knew him showing up was his way of saying he wanted to make up, but Ellie resolved that as long as he and Jade were going out, she couldn't be around them, because every time she saw them and thought of them together, her whole being burned in anger, and yes, a little jealousy. So she ignored him.

She'd called her ex-boyfriend Carter Hall, who she was still friends with, and asked if he could pick her up from work, and he'd agreed. So she gave Adam a cold look (which she wasn't sure if he could see in the dark), walked past his car, and into Carter's.

The most awkward part of rehearsal was the kiss Ellie and Adam shared. Their drama advisor liked to use each rehearsal day before their five mandatory dress rehearsals to focus on certain characters. Monday was Cinderella (who was played by Sage), Cinderella's prince, and Cinderella's step mother and step sisters. Tuesday had been Little Red Riding Hood (who was played by Milly), the wolf, Jack, Jack's mother, and the two giants. Today was The Baker and The Baker's Wife, who were played by Adam and Ellie, and they shared a few romantic gestures in their duet "It Takes Two" and at the end, they had to kiss. That was awkward on so many levels.

First off, Ellie didn't even want to do any scenes with Adam, and all the little touches during the song made her super uncomfortable. Then, Jade was worried his kiss with Ellie would bring back his old feelings. Ellie was hoping their kiss would bring Adam to his senses, but once they kissed (which they had to do while laying down because at the end of the scene, they fall down a small knoll while singing the last line and then kiss), he got up and continued the scene. Usually, he blushed and messed up his next line after kissing Ellie. This time though, Ellie was the one who blushed and messed up _her_ line, which never happened to her before. And to her horror, she found she actually _liked_ the kiss. It was almost like…magic.

Ellie always talked about how it was sort of annoying to have this boy like her because he always tried to put his arm around her or kiss her and he asked her out a lot, but in the end she didn't mind because he was the best friend she could ask for. Truthfully though, that was only part of the reason she didn't mind. She also didn't mind that there was this boy who adored her. Who _wouldn't_ want attention like that? What girl wouldn't want a usually quiet, stoic boy to be smiley, and animated, and sweet only to her? Ellie was perfectly content with having Adam like her. He wasn't ever creepy or annoying about it, he only ever wanted her to be happy, and he acted like just a best friend, instead of a best friend with a crush on her, whenever she was dating someone else. But maybe the reason she was so content was because she liked him too.

But of course that was crazy. Adam was right there in front of her for eleven years! If she liked him, they'd be together by now. So there was no way she liked him. He was a good kisser. That's all. That's what she told herself. So she continued to stick with Sage, exchange smiles with Milly, and ignored Adam and Jade, which was probably better for them than the glares they both got from her all through rehearsal the previous day.

After rehearsal, Ellie and Sage started to make their way to The Silver Dragon. Because Ellie and Sage had rehearsal, James and Josh had basketball practice (which Rae, along with some other girls, stayed for to watch their boyfriends or admire their crushes), and Chris and Cara had an after school shift at the restaurant, all of which took a few hours, they decided to start guardian practice late that day. Everyone had to rearrange their plans. Ellie and Rae had to call out of work and Caty had to push back her date.

Before they could leave campus though, Milly called out to Ellie.

Ellie and Sage stopped and turned around. Milly left Adam and Jade, who were making out (which infuriated Ellie to no end) and ran over to them.

"Can we talk?" Milly asked Ellie, giving Sage an apologetic smile to let her know this was a private talk, but she wasn't trying to exclude Sage.

Sage gave her a smile back and walked a few paces before turning back and stopping.

"What's up?" Ellie asked.

"Are you going to tell me why there's so much friction between you, Adam, and Jade?"

"Do you really want to get in the middle?"

"I want us to be friends again. The four of us have been friends for a long time, and we basically inducted Sage into our group immediately. I'm not sure how a cheerleader became friends with us, but that's beside the point. The point is, Sage and I are both really uncomfortable with the situation we're in. We want to hang out _together _again, and since Monday, it's been Adam, Jade, and I, and you and Sage."

"I can't be around them," Ellie said. "And I think we should end this conversation now, before I say something I regret, either to you or about them. Even thinking about them makes me angry."

"Okay. I get that. But what about us? You and I are okay, right?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Milly smiled in relief. She changed the topic to the psychology test they had to take when they came back from Thanksgiving break.

Meanwhile, Jade and Adam had taken a break from making out to talk about their lost friend.

"I feel really bad that Ellie is mad at us," Jade said.

"Me too. But what can we do?"

"Convince her to forgive us?"

"For _what_? Liking each other? Dating? There's nothing to forgive. And frankly, I'm surprised you're being so sensitive about it. You're usually more…"

"Tough? Nasty? Vindictive? Any of those work," Jade said. She smiled. "But I'm taking a page from your book of 'Do whatever it takes to win the forgiveness of a friend.' Plus, I know you're not happy with the way things are. You're closer to Ellie than Milly and I are."

Adam sighed. "I didn't even realize we were really fighting. I was waiting outside Applebee's last night, just like always. I knew we'd have some things to work through, but I didn't think we were in an actual _fight. _We've never been in a fight before."

"Well, what happened on the car ride home?"

"Nothing. She didn't ride with me. She had a ride already. Carter Hall was waiting for her. She went with him."

Jade frowned. "I'm going to go talk to her," she said.

The truth was, she wasn't too happy with Ellie's behavior either, and it went against all her instincts to not be tough, nasty, and vindictive. But she knew if she was any of those things, she'd lose Adam. He may not like Ellie anymore, but they were still best friends, and Adam was always friends first, everyone else second. Besides, as much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't sure Adam was completely over Ellie. Feelings like that don't just disappear overnight. If Ellie was part of the group, she could prove to herself that Adam was really into her—or she could see for herself that he wasn't. And, as much as she wanted to be tough, nasty, and vindictive, she missed her friend. She'd never had a fight with Ellie before either. At least, not one like this. Their fights only lasted a few minutes and were over and forgotten about before anyone realized they were fighting.

Jade jogged over to where Milly and Ellie were talking. Milly proposed a theory that perhaps Ellie was jealous of Jade and Adam's relationship and that's why she was avoiding them.

"Hey Ellie," Jade said tentatively.

"Hi," Ellie said stiffly before jogging over to Sage. The two of them continued on their way.

"Did you see that? She's definitely jealous," Milly said.

"Yeah, but it's her own fault. She's had plenty of chances at Adam," Jade replied.

Milly nodded. That was true. Adam liked Ellie for a long time. She had her chance. Now it was Jade's turn. If she truly liked Adam, then she should go out with him. She deserved to be happy too. Milly just hoped their friendship would get repaired. Ellie was jealous and angry. Sage stuck by Ellie's side because she was closer with Ellie than she was to the rest of the group. And Milly herself was getting bored and uncomfortable with Jade and Adam's romantic moments and constant making out. She wouldn't be able to stand it if Adam and Jade's relationship ruined the group's friendship in the long run.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi walked into The Silver Dragon basement with all her makeup, hair products, and her spa kit.

"Why do you have all that with you?" Caty asked.

"You said you wanted my help getting ready for your date. I want to avoid my house because things with Josh are really weird, so I grabbed all my stuff so we can go directly to your house."

Caty frowned. "My mom only takes an interest in my life when I'm going on a date or doing something else that isn't in my usual routine. I don't need that. I brought my dress with me so we could go directly to _your_ house."

Alyssa giggled. "You guys can come to my house. My room isn't quite as big as Gabi's, but it does have an en suite."

"Sounds good to me," Gabi said. "Is James coming over too?"

"Yeah."

"Even better. We can have a guy's opinion on how you look."

Caty just rolled her eyes.

"You made sure to bring the right dress, right?" Gabi asked.

Caty nodded. "The one piece black dress with the short sleeves and black sash. Bree sure had a _lot_ of black dresses."

"I know, and I hate to say it, but black doesn't even look good on her. She's more of a green person," Gabi said. "What else did you bring?

"I took a pair of black strappy pumps from my mom's closet, and I brought all my jewelry."

"Good. We'll make you look fabulous! Where's Brian taking you?"

"I don't know, but Misha said she gave him some _good_ advice at lunch today to make up for all the damage she did the last time," Caty said.

"Good. It's the _least_ she could do," Alyssa said.

"Although I have to say, that was an ingenious plan to get back at you," Gabi said.

"Shut up Gabi! Besides, all I did was tell her off for being a bitch. She had no reason to get _back_ at me."

Gabi gave her a teasing smile.

Soon, the other members of Team GRACE began to trickle in. First came Ellie and Sage, who stayed after school for rehearsal.

Then came Josh, James, and Rae, who stayed for the boys' basketball practice. Alyssa smiled at James and he immediately greeted her with a kiss. She wanted to stay for basketball practice, but she also didn't want to be around Rae. The two girls had an unspoken agreement to switch off days.

Chris and Cara came in last, after clocking out from their shifts.

Training went better than usual today. Each of the guardians tried some new tricks. Gabi used vines to tie up Chris and Cara's wings while they were sparring. Cara managed to phase through, but Chris was stuck. If they hadn't double teamed Gabi, she could've won easily.

Alyssa's fireballs were getting bigger, and eventually, Caty's water attacks began to evaporate when they collided with Alyssa's fire attacks. Caty was forced to use the water in the pond, remembering too late that using that water was an automatic loss according to Hay Lin's rules.

Rae was the best. Hay Lin put her up against Ellie, which would've normally been a disaster. Ellie was the best flyer on the team, and Rae was the worst on the planet. Ellie usually won easily when they were up against each other. However, today, Rae used Ellie's powers to her advantage. Ellie launched attacks at Rae every time Rae's flying got clumsy because she couldn't beat Rae's element head on. Instead of getting hit, Rae managed to use the air attacks to boost her flying. She still lost, but it was close.

Caty, Gabi, and James headed to Alyssa's house right after practice. Gabi had Caty get dressed before she worked on Caty's hair and makeup. Gabi used pink lip gloss, pink blush, and cobalt eyeliner on the top of Caty's eyelids, telling her eyeshadow usually didn't work for black dresses.

"That's the kind of stuff I would never know," Caty said.

"That's why you have me," Gabi replied. "What do you want to do with your hair?"

"Nothing too complicated," Caty said. "Like that bun you gave me at the dance? One of the pins sprung out and nearly took out Tony's eye while I was dancing with him."

"Is that why your hair was half up, half down during the battle? I was wondering," Gabi said, plugging in her curling iron. "Anyway, I'll just curl your hair this time, and you can wear it down."

"You want me to go back to that frizzy mess?" Caty asked.

"Of course not! Frizzy is the way it came out when it was naturally curly. If we curl it with an iron, we can make it look however we want."

When the iron was finished heating up, Gabi used it to round chunks of Caty's hair to the side instead of wrap it around the iron and curl down the way Lili did when she wanted curly hair.

"These are called princess curls," Gabi said when she was finished.

"Wow Caty, you look so pretty," Alyssa commented.

"This looks so much better than even my straight hair!" Caty gushed.

"Now, for the finishing touches," Gabi said. Sifting through Caty's jewelry box, she grabbed a gorgeous necklace that went perfectly with her dress. The chain was silver, and there were a few black stones in the shapes of diamonds on it. Above each black stone was a small circle with gray stones. She found two pink bangles in Alyssa's jewelry and had Caty wear both on her right hand. Caty had a pair of earrings that matched the bangles perfectly, and put those on.

"Perfect! You're all done. Let's go show James," Gabi said.

"I still can't believe you made him wait downstairs," Alyssa complained.

Taranee's rule was, boys were allowed in Alyssa's room as long as there were more girls than boys. However, in order to get the proper reaction, Gabi told James he had to wait downstairs. James said he didn't mind waiting downstairs and decided to work on some homework. Alyssa was not happy with this arrangement. She wanted to wait downstairs with James, but Gabi insisted Alyssa come upstairs with them.

Alyssa and Gabi went downstairs first.

"Just for today only, because Caty's nervous enough as it is and needs a confidence boost," Alyssa said to her boyfriend, "you are allowed to tell her she's beautiful."

James chuckled.

"Okay Caty, come downstairs!" Gabi called.

Caty descended the stairs slowly, knowing if she went any faster, she'd tumble down the stairs in her pumps.

James let out a whistle. "Whoa. Caty, you look great!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, you're…" He looked at Alyssa and winked. "…beautiful."

Caty's face lit up. If someone who looked like James thought she looked beautiful, Brian would definitely like it.

"You really do look gorgeous," Alyssa said. "Brian might pass out when he sees you."

"I hope not. That would defeat the purpose," Caty said. "I'm so nervous though. What if he sees right through me? What if he realizes I don't actually like him? What if I don't have any fun and he doesn't even want to try anymore? Or what if I go mute?"

"Calm down, you'll be fine," Gabi said. "Alyssa will set up a link for just the two of us. It'll work til someone else, besides Alyssa, tries to enter the conversation. I'll tell you what to say whenever you need it. And you won't be bored. Brian got advice from Misha, right? And you guys like the same nerdy things."

Caty rolled her eyes.

"Yeah Caty, you'll be…" Alyssa trailed off and looked at Gabi, her eyes wide. "Gabi…did you just call me _Alyssa_?"

"Oh. I guess I did," Gabi said shrugging. "Don't get used to it though."

Alyssa just smiled. The bell rang.

"Who's that?" James asked.

"Brian. Since we didn't go to Gabi's house, I told him to pick me up here," Caty said.

"Go get him!" Gabi said, pushing her towards the door.

"And call me after. I want to hear all about it," Alyssa said.

"Me too," Gabi agreed.

Caty nodded and nervously opened the door. She smiled at Brian, who was carrying a bouquet of flowers, dressed in a nice blazer over a polo shirt and suit pants.

Brian's mouth dropped open when he saw Caty.

"_Say hi and tell him he looks nice,"_ Gabi prompted.

"_But why do I have to go first?_"

"_Because he's clearly not going to!_"

"Hi Brian. You look nice," she said.

Brian, gaining control of himself, smiled and said, "So do you."

"Really?" Caty asked, pleased.

"_Never sound like you enjoy his compliments,"_ Gabi chided.

"_Brian is not a jock Gabi. She can't flirt with him the way you do. If he thinks he can't make her feel good, he'll give up,"_ Alyssa said.

"Yeah," Brian insisted. "You're a knockout!"

Caty blushed and smiled wider, doing the exact opposite of what Gabi had just said. She couldn't help it. She _did_ enjoy his compliments and she didn't know how to not show it.

"_Is that gorgeous looking bouquet for me?"_ Gabi prompted.

"Is that gorgeous looking bouquet for me?" Caty repeated.

"Yeah," Brian said, handing them over. "I think you'll actually like them this time."

"Irises!" Caty exclaimed happily.

"I know blue is your favorite color, but Misha said the peach colored irises are your favorite, so I got you those."

"They're lovely Brian, thank you," Caty said.

"_Lovely?_" Gabi snorted.

Caty ignored her.

"I know you can't carry them around on our date, but maybe you can leave them here and Alyssa can give them to you later?"

"Or we can put it in The Silver Dragon," Gabi said.

"No. They're my flowers," Caty said.

"Of course they are. But your house is filled with pretty flowers already because of all the plants your mother got while she was in the hospital. The Silver Dragon basement could use some brightening up. If you want, we could put a label on the vase that says 'Caty's Flowers' on it," Gabi teased.

"Fine. Whatever," Caty said, giving the flowers to Gabi.

"Great. I'll drop these off with Hay Lin on my way home. Have fun you two," Gabi said, slipping out the door and into her car.

"Brian, do you have backpack with you?" Alyssa asked.

"Um, yes. There's stuff in there that we need for our date," Brian said, going a little red.

"It goes great with your blazer," James said.

Brian frowned. "Thanks?" he said questioningly.

"He's not making fun of you," Caty assured him.

"Oh. Okay. So…shall we?" Brian said.

"Oh. Yes," Caty said. She grabbed her purse, waved good bye to Alyssa and James, and closed the door behind her.

"So how is your mom anyway? Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine, and we got to bring her home Monday."

"What happened anyway?"

"Something stupid with the baby," Caty said.

Brian frowned at the way Caty put that, and Caty winced, knowing that was the wrong thing to say. Brian was very close to his family, which meant Caty's distaste of Catherine would be disapproved of. She changed the subject.

"So, where are we going first?"

Brian was smiling again. "Well, I thought we'd start with dinner. I heard you like spicy food."

Caty was surprised, but then figured Misha told him that. "That's right, I do."

"I also heard you love Indian food."

"Right again," Caty said. Misha said Indian food was some of the spiciest, and Misha herself could handle more spice than most Indians. That's how Caty got accustomed to both spicy food and Indian food. Nina liked Indian as well, but didn't make a habit of eating it because she couldn't take the spice as well her friends.

"Well I thought we'd go to the new Indian place that just opened up near Sweet Mistakes."

Sweet Mistakes was a popular bakery located across the street from Down the Rabbit Hole. Rae and her co-workers often got something from there during their breaks and GRACE frequented the bakery when they had early morning practices. There was a new Indian restaurant called Taste of India next door.

"I've been dying to check that place out!" Caty exclaimed.

Brian's grin grew wider.

"_Oh damn, he's really cute!"_ Caty exclaimed in her head to Gabi.

"_No kidding. I'm surprised it took you so long to realize._"

"_I used to _hate_ him_," Caty defended.

"_I thought it was love that made you blind, not hate._"

Caty rolled her eyes.

Brian chattered on excitedly about something or the other as they walked. Caty tried to pay attention, but she was _freezing_! Why had she let Gabi talk her out of wearing a jacket?

"Caty?" Brian asked.

"What?"

"I asked you who you teamed up with for our Opposing Viewpoints essay."

"Oh! Uh, I'm with Rae."

"Instead of Misha or Nina?"

"They paired up together. I told them it was okay because Rae already asked me to be her partner."

"What do the three of you do for partner projects? Cuz with my friends, there are four of us, so no one is ever left out."

"Oh well, we take turns pairing up within the group. Usually, if Misha and I pair up, Nina works with Max, if Nina and I pair up, Misha works with Emma, and if Misha and Nina pair up, I work with…Tony."

"Oh. I don't know Tony all that well. He seems okay."

"He is," Caty agreed. She knew she shouldn't have brought up Tony, but now she couldn't stop thinking about him. She really wanted him back!

"So why Rae this time?"

"Because Rae's usual partner won't talk to her," Caty replied. "It's actually kind of sad to think that just a few weeks ago, Rae and Alyssa were inseparable, and now Alyssa won't even look at her."

"Does their fight have anything to do with Jake? Like, now that Rae and Jake are dating, she's spending too much time with him and Alyssa's jealous?"

Caty laughed softly. "That's an interesting idea, but no. Alyssa and James made their relationship official the same day Rae and Jake did. And they always made sure to hang out just the two of them a lot."

"So what happened?"

"Josh Hart knew a secret about Alyssa and everyone in our friend group knew the secret before Alyssa did, so when she found out, she got mad that we kept it from her. She's okay with most of us now, but she still hasn't forgiven Rae."

"Secrets are tricky," Brian said. "But lying is never the answer."

"Yeah," Caty agreed, thinking of all the secrets she'd been keeping lately and all the lies she'd told. She'd been keeping the GRACE secret from Misha and Nina, and lied to them about a tutor circle. She'd been keeping the fact that she knew her birth parents a secret from her Iris and Jeremy. And of course she was keeping a secret from Brian: the fact that she didn't really like him.

"If you're with Rae, who is Alyssa with?"

"Surprisingly enough, Gabi. They've actually become kind of close in the last couple of weeks. I thought she'd choose to work with Chris, but Chris paired up with Josh, which struck me as kind of weird because they're in a fight, but if they think they can work it out…"

"Well maybe it's good that they're in a fight, for this essay," Brian joked.

Caty laughed. For their honors English class, they'd been assigned an Opposing Viewpoints essay. They had to partner up, then together, look at a list of topics on a database ironically called Opposing Viewpoints. Once they picked a topic, one partner wrote an essay for the issue and the other wrote an essay against it. They had two weeks to write the essays and compare notes. Then, the two partners would do a presentation together on what they learned and turn in the essays. Their teacher used abortion as an example and told them none of them could pick abortion for their topic.

"So what's your topic for the essay?" Brian asked.

"Adoption," Caty said, almost laughing at the irony.

"Are you for or against it?"

"I haven't decided yet. Rae's going to let me choose which side I want to argue for because I'm adopted."

"You _are_?" Brian asked, shocked.

"Yeah. Didn't you know? I assumed everyone in the honors crowd did. Once Shelia found out, she told everyone."

"I really had no idea. I'm sorry."

"About not knowing or about my being adopted?"

"About your _being_ adopted."

"Don't be sorry about that. I love my adoptive parents. It's like I tell everyone. Maybe my real parents didn't want me, but my adoptive ones did. They _chose_ me."

"Like from an orphanage?"

"Not exactly."

Brian gave her questioning look.

She hesitated for a moment longer, then decided there was no harm in telling him. She loved that she got chosen by Iris and Jeremy, but she _didn't_ love the story of _how_ she got chosen. She tried to tell as few people as possible. Misha and Nina were the only ones that knew for a long time. Sophomore year, before everything got messed up with Jake, Caty told him. Then something had possessed her to use that as her secret for Full Disclosure at the GRACE sleepover. Probably because she was getting close enough to them to tell them herself eventually. Out of all the members of GRACE, Caty was the one that had a good relationship with all of them.

"Okay, so it started when I was four," Caty said, and proceeded to tell Brian her story. He asked a lot of questions when she was done, and before she knew it, she'd told him everything. She told him how she got adopted by Iris and Jeremy, why she felt lucky that they chose her, how the new baby was kind of ruining her life, how she'd looked for and found her birth parents, and why she didn't want to contact her birth mother. It felt good to tell someone who wouldn't walk on eggshells and try to be careful around her the way GRACE, Misha, and Nina were. Jake was the only other person who didn't treat her like she was fragile.

"_Well sor-ry Ice Queen!_" Gabi exclaimed.

"_Come on Gabi, do you know how weird it is to be sitting there while you look at me like I'm going to break? It's already annoying enough from the rest of them, but YOU? It's both annoying and unnerving._"

_"Point taken,_" Gabi sighed. "_We just don't want to upset you. You know what happens when a guardian lets their emotions get the better of them. That's how the whole Eva mess got started. Plus, we care about you._"

"_I know, and I love you guys for that, but I'm stronger that I look_."

"_You are strong. But you're also a control freak, and when things start to get crazy the way they did when you found out about your birth parents, you tend to freak out._"

"_I see where you're coming from,_" Caty conceded before turning her attention back to Brian who was moving past the 'raving about Peter Cook and Audrey Pierce being your parents' part and moving into the 'your sister is a blessing, let me tell you all the reasons I love Brianna' part.

"Brian, doesn't it bother you that your sister practically has your name?" Caty asked.

"No. I think it's flattering. Plus a lot of people like to name their children similarly."

Caty sighed wondering why she was the only one who felt this way. Lili didn't care that her sisters Layla and Libby had similar names to her own, Josh said Julia didn't care that Julian was pretty much her name, and Brian _liked_ that his sister was named Brianna.

"Maybe I feel that way because I'm adopted and I feel like the reason they're naming this baby Catherine is so that they don't feel like they wasted their favorite name on someone who isn't really their child. Caitlin was my mother's idea, and it's a form of Catherine. But it's not just that the name is similar, but the nickname. She could decide she wants to go by Caty too. And that's MY name."

"I don't get it Caty. You say your parents _chose_ you, and now you're feeling insecure because they're having a baby? I would get it if it was some other adopted kid that felt that way, but you're right. You're parents _chose_ you. They weren't supposed to be your parents, your grandparents were. But they decided they wanted you. So where's the insecurity coming from?"

Caty sighed. "No one picks up on this part of the story. I've only highlighted it for Nina and Jake. Not even Misha realizes this. But my parents decided to officially adopt me after a doctor told them it was near impossible for them to have children. If Mom actually _was_ pregnant, then they wouldn't have adopted me. It probably wouldn't have even crossed their mind because they'd be too busy with their biological kid. They adopted me because they thought they couldn't have children. And now my mom is pregnant and all she and Dad can talk about is Catherine."

"It sounds like you're saying the only reason they adopted you is because they wanted a kid."

"It is. They didn't want _me_, they wanted a kid. And they couldn't have one."

"No, Caty, if they just wanted a kid, they would've tried to adopt a baby so they could raise her. They picked _you_ because they wanted you specifically. You were ten when they officially adopted you, right? Well I knew you since we were in Pre-K, and I remember you to be pretty awesome. You won the spelling bee in fourth grade, made the travelling soccer team in fifth grade, won class president, and got straight As all your life. They wanted the smart, capable, amazing person that _is_ Caty Lewis."

Caty blushed hard. "Wow Brian, thanks."

"I'm just telling the truth," Brian said, which made the compliment even better.

"And you ever think maybe they wanted another kid so badly so they could have another you? So they could have another smart, capable, amazing daughter?"

"Lili brought that point up too. I don't why everyone thinks that's such a good thing," Caty groaned. "Why do they want to brag about another daughter when they already have me? I'm supposed to be the one they brag about and are proud of. I mean, for six years of my life, I was neglected by the people who were supposed to be my parents, and after then I got adopted I started wondering why my real parents didn't want me. And now I don't know _what_ to think! So is it so wrong for me to want to keep my parents to myself?"

"No, of course it's not wrong," Brian said. "But this baby is coming whether you want it or not. If you're so worried, why don't you just tell your parents how you feel?"

"I've tried. They're always too busy to talk to me or too stressed to pay attention or too excited to actually understand. In the past few months, the only times my mother focused her full attention on me was when Lili gave me that awful makeover, Gabi gave me that good one, and when I told her I was going to the Halloween Dance with you, as my _date_. My dad's always been more proud of my academic achievements. My mom always wished I took more care in my appearance and dated a little more. She wanted to have 'girl talks' with me, which just isn't me. She's probably really excited to have a shopping partner in her new daughter."

"_Second_ daughter," Brian corrected. "Caty, you're still their first kid, and that's more important than you think. And maybe the reason they're naming the baby Catherine is for good luck."

"What do you mean?" Caty asked. She'd read that in some cultures, it's good luck to pick out the name for a baby a few months before it was born, but she wasn't sure that's what Brian was talking about.

"You said your mother was the one who suggested Caitlin. Well, Caitlin Lewis excels at school, soccer, writing, and leadership positions. So maybe they hope if they name their next daughter similarly, she'll turn out just like you."

Caty smiled. She knew that's not what her parents were going for when they chose Catherine, but it was still nice of Brian to say that. She never knew he could be so sweet…or that he even cared. He must really like her.

"_Well duh Ice Queen,"_ Gabi said.

"_Gabi, I know Alyssa set up a link so you could help me, but don't you have anything better to do than mentally spy on my date?_"

"_Until Luc and Michael come back from their movie in two hours? Nope._"

"_Why do you need your brothers? Go bother your friends!_"

"_The people I actually _want_ to hang out with, like Bree or Stella, or the three flyers on the team, are away for Thanksgiving._"

Caty frowned. "_Bree's going away for Thanksgiving? Then why isn't Ellie? She said her dad and Bree's are really into family unity._"

"_I know. I find it weird they're not forced together more often,_" Gabi said. "_But, they only have to be around each other for birthdays and Christmases. They used to spend a lot more time together when they were younger, according to Bree. Maybe their dads stopped pushing it because they know Bree and Ellie don't get along."_

"_Maybe_," Caty said, but she wasn't so sure. She turned her attention back to her date.

"Was it easy for you to adjust after Brianna was born?" Caty asked hopefully.

Brian nodded. "But, I was pretty excited about Brianna."

Caty sighed. She was less than excited about Catherine. And she didn't _want_ Catherine to be like her. She wanted her to be a disappointment so Iris and Jeremy would love Caty more. That was a horrible thing to think, and Caty knew it, but she couldn't help herself. Knowing Brian would disapprove of that comment, she didn't say anything.

"So…do you really think she could die?"

"I don't know," Caty said, feeling like she should add 'I hope not' after it, but deciding against it because she wasn't sure _what_ she hoped for. "In most cases of placental abruption, the baby dies, and it's not even a small rip. It's a full separation. I don't know how it'll turn out."

"Your parents must be devastated."

"My dad is, but he's trying not to show it. My mom is staying super optimistic. That's how she always deals when she gets bad news. But it usually works out for her. She stayed really optimistic when it seemed like Aunt Kristen wouldn't be able to fight off the breast cancer or when grandpa didn't seem to be healing from his hip injury, but they were both fine."

"Then maybe Catherine will be too," Brian said with a smile. "Here we are!"

Caty smiled. She'd talked to Brian through the whole walk, and though the conversation started slowly, there were no weird moments or awkward beats of silences.

Brian opened the door for her and the hostess seated them and placed menus in front of them.

"So I've never had Indian food before. What would you recommend?"

"Oh, there are so many good things here!" Caty replied, delighted. "Should we start with an appetizer?"

"Yes. I'm starving!"

Caty ordered them an appetizer sampler, then explained the menu items to him. After they got their appetizer and placed their entrée order, Brian started asking questions about soccer. He didn't know much about sports, but he did like watching soccer, and he wanted to know the rules of the game.

"_Okay Gabi, I think I'm going to be good,_" Caty said.

"_But I'm bored! Don't cut me out!_" the Earth guardian begged.

"_Alyssa?"_ Caty asked. It took the water guardian a few tries to finally reach the African American.

_"What's up?"_

_"Alyssa, please break our link,"_ Caty said.

Alyssa giggled inside her head, and said, "_Done._"

Caty smiled, satisfied and focused on Brian's questions.

The two decided on ice cream for dessert, and ate in silence, but it was comfortable. Caty was glad this was going so well. Her first date with Brian was the Halloween Dance, but she'd spent half the time dancing with all of Brian's friends and the other half dealing with GRACE business, so she didn't really get to spend any time with him. She wasn't sure if she'd have anything to say, but they seemed to be getting along quite well, and Caty felt comfortable telling him things.

When their waiter brought over their check, Brian wouldn't let Caty even see it, and insisted on paying.

"It's the gentlemanly thing to do," Brian said. "I know you don't like it when people do things for you, but my dad taught me to always pay for a girl's meal."

"That's kind of misogynistic, but okay," Caty said. Truth be told, she didn't have a lot of money. She got an allowance, but it wasn't much. She knew Brian had a job and got a rather big allowance, so she didn't protest.

After dinner, Brian grinned and said, "How do you feel about sugar highs?"

"I love them, why?"

"Because we are certainly going to get one. And can I just say it's so interesting that you love spicy food, but you also have a huge sweet tooth."

"Based on the fact that psychologically, spice is not a taste, but pain in your mouth, it's good to have a balance," Caty said nonchalantly.

Brian laughed a little. "Okay, so this next place is something I just heard about, but when I asked Misha about it, she said it was perfect for you. But just in case I misunderstood, you like to bake, right?"

"Yeah, I love to bake. But now I'm really confused about where you're taking me."

Brian laughed again. "You'll love it, I promise. Come on!"

They two walked for about five minutes and ended up at a bakery called The Cake Lair. They had the most amazing black forest cake here and Caty was obsessed. She got it for her birthday every year.

"Brian, I love this place, but what are we doing here?" Caty asked.

Brian led her inside wordlessly, then began to explain. "There are places opening up where customers can go back into the kitchen where there are all these premade baked goods and the customers can decorate them however they want. Kind of like the bakery version of Build-a-Bear or Color Me Mine. This place wanted to do something like that too, but they decided to kick it up a notch. Most people just decorate the premade stuff, but if you want, you can bake your own."

Caty almost squealed. "Are we going to bake?"

"Yup," Brian confirmed, leading her into one of the kitchens. "What do you want to make?"

"I found this great recipe for something called S'mores Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake that I really wanted to try," Caty offered.

"Sounds great."

Caty was delighted to see they found all the ingredients easily, and she really enjoyed baking a cake with Brian. While they worked, Caty decided it was Brian's turn to talk and asked him jokingly if he had any deep dark secrets.

Brian laughed, then said, "Well there is one thing. It concerns you actually, and I've always known it, but I never wanted to tell you until now."

"What is it?"

"I never wanted to make an enemy out of you. In fact, the first time I saw you, I thought you were cute."

"Really?"

"I was three years old and you were the first red head I saw, so that already made you interesting. And you turned towards me and smiled."

"I don't remember that," Caty admitted.

"Like I said, we were only three. And I think you smiled because Nina was standing right next to me. But I didn't know that then, and even when I got older and figured it out…I never forgot that smile."

Caty blushed.

"But my parents always drilled it into my head that I needed to get good grades because we have nothing else going for us. My family has never been sporty. But my mom has three Masters Degrees in Math, and my dad triple majored in biology, chemistry, and engineering before becoming a doctor."

"Wow," Caty breathed. "That's so impressive."

"Yeah, but that put a lot of pressure on me, especially since my parents were still together when I started first grade, which is when we officially start getting grades, and my brother was 15 and already a disappointment, so all their hopes were put on me. My dad said sometimes it's easier to complete goals if you put some healthy competition into it. He said to find the smartest kid in class and make it my goal to always do better than him or her."

"But…as much I want to be, I'm not the smartest kid in school, nor was I ever. Alyssa's the smartest, and then there's Jake."

"Alyssa and Jake were also very quiet about their smarts. You'd never know it by looking at them. Alyssa's best friend was Ellie Kramer who was loud and energetic, and a little silly. So I figured Alyssa and Adam were a lot like Ellie and their little group just cared about having fun. And Jake was always in trouble in elementary school, because he'd always cause a disruption by bringing a basketball or soccer ball to school."

Caty laughed. "Right. There was this one time he brought a football and passed it to Trey Prescott during art class-"

"And it ended up crashing into Mandy Pickett's clay dinosaur instead!" Brian finished, laughing. "I remember. Maybe that's why Jake chose _not_ to add football to his list of sports. But anyway, you were very obvious about your smarts, so of course I chose you as my competition. It wasn't until we got to Sheffiled that we figured out Alyssa and Jake were smarter when us."

Caty nodded. She went through several years of her life thinking she was the smartest girl in school and Brian was her only rival. Then, in seventh grade, when it came time to pick the two students who would get to take the SAT and ACT in seventh grade, Alyssa and Jake got picked. And then Jake got the scholar athlete award for the best athlete with the highest, which Caty was certain would go to Kristen James, class ranked number 6 and captain of three of the middle school sports teams. And Alyssa was moved up to the honors ninth grade math class within the first week. Getting moved up to the honors class one grade level above your own, the way Rae and Jake did, was amazing enough. Getting moved of the honors class two grade levels up was almost unheard of. That's hadn't happened since Alyssa's mother attended Sheffield. It became apparent that Caty wasn't as smart as she thought.

"But by that time, I'd already been competing against you for so long that I couldn't choose a new rival. Besides, I'm already working so much harder than I thought I could competing against you. There's no way I could get on the level of Alyssa or even Jake," Brian explained. "You push me to be better than I ever thought I could be."

"You do too Brian, really. I always thought of academics as a competition, and even though I didn't try to pick a rival like you did, once I realized you were on the same level as me, I worked harder than ever before and that's why I'm as good as I am."

"That's actually what attracted me to you…once I started to like you I mean. I admire your drive and intelligence."

That sounded familiar. That's what Nina said Brian probably liked about her back when they first thought of this plan.

"And of course, you inspire me."

"Inspire you?" Caty squeaked.

"Every day. You don't just push me to do my best, but you got me to try so many different activities. I was just trying to one up you and ended up loving most of them. Debate Team has been one of my favorite things in the world, and the only reason I even joined the team was because of you."

Caty blushed and said, "Well you're really good. You deserve to be president by the way. I don't think I ever said congratulations."

"I know you were bummed you lost," Brian said. He looked at the recipe and said, "I think we're good. Time to bake."

While they were waiting for their cake to finish baking, the two got to sample several different treats. When their cake was done, they split it into two large pieces and boxed them up.

"Ready for our next activity?" Brian asked.

"Oh, there's more?" Caty asked.

"Of course."

Brian shrugged off his backpack, took out a plastic bag, and handed it to her. Peeking inside, Caty saw a pair of sweatpants, a sweatshirt, long socks, and soccer cleats.

"Um…" Caty said, unsure of where this was going.

"Those are some clothes you left at Misha's house. She gave them to me with the advice of where to go next. My house is right around the corner if you want to change there, but I did bring the backpack so we wouldn't have to go to my house. I love my sister and step mother, but they're so nosy!"

Caty laughed. "I don't mind changing in the bakery bathroom," she assured him. She'd been to The Cake Lair before and they're bathrooms were surprisingly sanitary. Brian held on to their cakes while they changed, then he informed her he too needed to change. When he came out of the bathroom, he was wearing a track suit and sneakers. Caty resisted the urge to laugh.

"What are we doing?" she asked curiously.

"You'll see," Brian replied as they walked out of the bakery.

Caty shivered. She wished she'd worn a jacket, but Gabi said there was no way she was allowed to cover her dress with a jacket, and it didn't matter if she was cold because beauty is pain.

"Cold?" Brain asked.

Caty nodded as she saw goosebumps all over her arms.

"Here." Brian shrugged off his blazer and put it over her shoulders.

"Thanks," Caty whispered.

"So," Brian said in a tone that made it clear he was going to ask a big question. "When did you realize you liked me?"

Caty wasn't expecting that. What was she supposed to say? When she realized she needed him to fall for her so she could get a good eval? And even that wouldn't be the whole truth because she didn't _like_ him. At least, not like that.

"Um…I don't know. Things just seemed different between us when the school year started," Caty mumbled.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…it got tiresome, always fighting with you." That was partly true. She had enough people-or monsters-to fight with now. "And so I wondered how things would be different if we were nice to each other. And after the initial awkwardness after the dance, we actually started to become friends and it was…nice."

If Brian noticed that she didn't explicitly say she liked him, he didn't say anything. He just said, "I started to develop a crush on you over the summer. I've always admired you and been inspired by you. But I didn't really _know_ you. Then, this summer, Misha and Nina thought it would be cool if you three hung out with Will, Travis, Nick, and I outside of school and I got to know you and thought you were amazing. If you noticed, I didn't fight with you all summer."

"I noticed," Caty said. Brian didn't even fight back when she picked a fight with him. It was boring and confusing.

"I didn't want to fight anymore either. I wanted to see if I could get you to like me too. I guess I succeeded?"

"Yeah," Caty said, hoping she sounded believable. "Brian, why are we at school?"

"You'll see," Brian said again, leading her to the back. They walked to the soccer field. Brian shrugged his backpack off again and took out a soccer ball.

"Um…" Caty said, not sure what was going on.

"By the time we get back to school, soccer will be over, and you won't be able to play again until February. So I thought it'd be fun if we played a one on one game now. I'll admit I don't really play a lot and I won't be much of a challenge, but it'll at least warm us up. Unless you think this is a lame idea?"

Caty grinned. "First to ten wins," she replied.

The game did warm them up, especially Brian because he had to work hard to keep up with Caty. He wasn't an athlete. In the end, Caty scored six goals in a row before there was a bit of stalemate. Brian scored a goal, so Caty stepped it up and scored three more. Brian almost scored one more, but was so tired, he missed the goal, and Caty scored the last goal she needed to win.

They both smiled at each other and sat down to catch their breath. After twenty minutes, Brian suggested they end the night with some coffee. Caty agreed and they walked to Starbucks. Brian ordered a latte and Caty ordered black coffee. Brian suggested they drink them as he walked her home because it was getting late. Caty agreed, but said she needed a minute. She took the lid off of her coffee, grabbed the large sugar shaker, and poured in a small mountain.

Brian watched her, his eyes growing wider. "Caty, do you want some coffee with that sugar?" he asked.

Caty laughed. "I _hate_ coffee," she said, not letting up on the sugar. "I need a bunch of sugar just to make it tolerable, but I drink it because it keeps me awake when I need to stay up late to study or finish a project."

"Why don't you just drink a latte or something? Like, this one that I got is called a caffe mocha. It tastes like chocolate."

"Isn't that unhealthy though?"

"As opposed to you drowning your coffee in sugar?" Brian challenged.

Caty grinned. "I really hate coffee," she said.

"Me too," Brian admitted. "That's why I always get some sort of chocolate-y drink whenever I come here."

"I guess I know what to do for next time," Caty said, finally putting the lid back on.

Brian laughed and the two engaged in the idle small talk they skipped at the beginning of the date as they headed to Caty's house.

"I had an awesome time," Caty said when Brian walked her to the door. "That was like the perfect date."

"Well, I had a lot of help from your friend. Next time though, I'll plan the whole thing."

"Next time, huh? Aren't you presumptuous?" Caty teased, then went red, hardly believing she'd said that.

Brian laughed nervously, also going red. "Um, I just meant…I didn't mean to suggest-"

"It's okay," Caty broke in quickly. "I'd love to go out again."

Brian grinned. "Great!" he said.

There was a silence until Brian said, "Good night Caty."

Caty knew he couldn't let him leave without kissing him. Gabi had told her as much. She needed him to fall head over heels so she had to do this. Her first kiss was in seventh grade. Tony kissed her a few weeks before they got together because they played spin the bottle at Misha's thirteenth birthday party. Caty and Tony had kissed a few times after, but since then, she'd never kissed anybody. What if she wasn't any good?

But Gabi told her no one was a _bad_ kisser. There was just different levels of experience.

'Channel Gabi,' Caty told herself.

She leaned forward and gave Brian a quick kiss. "Good night Brian," she said.

Brian went even redder and looked shocked for a minute. "Uh…uh…yeah…good night."

"You said that already," Caty giggled, willing herself not to blush. It had to seem like she had the upper hand.

"Oh…sorry."

"Don't apologize. Thank you so much for tonight."

"A-anytime. Glad you had fun," Brian said with a shy smile. He gave her the bag that held her dress and heels, waved to her, and left.

Caty quietly slipped inside, hoping she wouldn't be stopped by an overexcited Iris on an overprotective Jeremy. Luckily, it seemed like her parents were shut up in their room. Caty went into her own room, shut the door, changed into pajamas, and called Alyssa, as she promised she'd do.

"So, how was it?" Alyssa asked without even greeting her.

Caty laughed and it said. "Good."

"Just good?"

"Oh Alyssa, it _so_ good!" Caty cried happily. "He knew exactly where to take me and what to do and I was able to carry a conversation, and I actually had a good time. My face hurts from smiling so much!"

"Sounds to me like you're actually falling for him," Alyssa teased.

Caty rolled her eyes, not even considering that idea. "Please. I'm just glad this is going to be easier and less cringe worthy than I originally thought. I might actually make a friend out of this, I'll admit, but I could never really like him. He's not my type."

"Oh, you have a type?"

"Don't make fun of me!" Caty snapped. "And no, I guess I don't have a _type_ exactly."

"So then…a specific guy?"

"Tony DeLuca," Caty said, seeing no reason to hide it.

"Oooh, he's _cute_!" Alyssa cried. "And a good friend of yours, so there's no awkwardness. Does he like you too?"

"I hope so. We used to date once, did you know?"

"I did not. How did I not know this? I know everything that goes on at Sheffield!"

"I had no idea you were privy to the gossip."

"I'm not," Alyssa said, and Caty knew she was rolling her eyes. "But being friendless for so many years gave me the opportunity to develop a skill at people watching."

"People watching is a skill?" Caty asked dubiously.

"Not people watching per se. Just the way I did it. I was able to find out all sorts of information."

"Well Tony and I only dated for three weeks." Caty explained, telling Alyssa why they didn't last. "But we stayed friends and he's always giving me compliments and calling me beautiful and flirting with me."

"That's adorable! I'm happy for you Caty," Alyssa said. "Just make sure you don't make your interest in him obvious or else Brian will give up."

"I know. But I also don't want my fake interest in Brian to make Tony give up."

"Maybe you should tell Tony."

"He'd think so badly of me."

"It's a sticky situation," Alyssa agreed. She was quiet for a moment before saying, "Listen, I'm glad you and Brian are sort of becoming friends, but be careful. Don't get too attached. He may figure out what you're doing and then he'd want nothing to do with you."

"If he finds out, he'll tell everybody. So I'm going to make sure he never does."

Alyssa sighed and Caty knew she didn't really approve of her plan, so the water guardian reminded the African American of all the awful things Brian did to her. "Remember how he stole the diamond earrings my mom let me borrow for the eighth grade dance? And how he gave me alcohol instead of punch during the Valentine's Day gala last year?"

"You're right, you're right. He deserves this," Alyssa amended. "So, what exactly did you guys do?"

The smile returned to Caty's face and she described the date to Alyssa. After the two said good night, Caty called Nina, then Misha, and finally Gabi and told them about the date too. When she finally went to bed, the smile didn't disappear.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Alright, so that's part one. The next chapter will be about Thanksgiving and Ellie's secret, which I'm sure most of you have figured out by now. For those of you interested, the link to Caty's dress is in my profile, and if you want to see how Ellie and Adam have to perform the "It Takes Two" scene, that link is on my profile too. It's the James Corden and Emily Blunt version from the new Into the Woods movie. I thought it would be the best (best as in most awkward) thing for Adam and Ellie to endure while they're fighting.**


	32. Thanksgiving GRACE Style

**A/N: Alright guys, here's the other update. The rest of the shout-outs are here. If I wrote this chapter as well as I hoped, then this chapter should raise a lot of questions, which of course had to happen, because instead of answering your questions about things like Angel, I enjoy giving you even more things to wonder about. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it! **

**One big thing: If you have any guesses about Angel's identity, feel free to tell me. However, I will not confirm or deny anyone's guesses UNLESS THEY PM ME. I don't want to ruin for people who haven't guessed correctly or don't want to know.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: Monday was one heck of a day, wasn't it? Lol. It's okay, only one reviewer realized about Peter. I wasn't expecting many people to pick up on it. Ellie's jealousy was explored a little in the last chapter, and will be explored more in future chapters. As for if she really likes him or not, I can't tell you. Adam is a possible love interest for Ellie, but not the only person I have in mind for her. It'll be a while before we learn about what split the old guardians up, but this chapter reveals where Will has been hiding all this time…sort of. And as of right now, Caty is still just using Brian. We'll see where the character takes me. At this point, she has to tell me how she feels about Brian. Hope you like this chapter, and hope you liked the last one!**

**Taylor: You're right about that, this update is only one day after you reviewed. Yes, I actually looked up some Earth guardian powers to see what I could have Gabi work on and found out Cornelia's hair thing was an actual power. I hope you liked their date from the previous chapter. You saw some new developments with Ellie and Adam in the last chapter, but as of right now, I don't know for sure who she'll end up with. I hope you enjoy these chapters!**

**Misa: Want to know something funny? I had just uploaded this document to the fanfiction site when I got your review, so I went back to type out your shout-out so that I could make sure you got it. So anyway, I'm glad you liked it so much. You're the only one who commented on how funny the Caty/Brian thing was, which I found weird, because it was ****_meant_**** to be funny. I guess most people want to see them get together. And Ellie's jealousy is explored further in future chapters, as is Caty's eventual relationship with Audrey. Hope you like this and the last chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Nice dress El," Gabi said the next day when Ellie arrived.

The brunette was wearing a cream one piece dress with navy blue leaves all over it.

"Thanks. Forever 21."

Gabi stifled a laugh. Forever 21 was far too cheap a store for someone like Gabi to shop at, but it was still a really cute dress.

Gabi led Ellie to her room and put on some music in the background. The first song that played was I Love It by Icona Pop, a song Gabi hated, but she was too lazy to get up off her bed and change it.

"Where's everyone else?" Ellie asked.

"Dad and the step-monster went to go get the turkey," Gabi said, rolling her eyes. "Whatever they get won't be as good as Mom's though. This is the first year we're not trying to cook it with all of Mom's special add-ons because Dad's letting Sienna do whatever she wants."

"Maybe Sienna's will be good too," Ellie said.

"My mother cooked for a living. I highly doubt it," Gabi replied. "Anyway, the she-devil is watching TV in Dad and Sienna's bedroom, and Michael and Luc are at the mall so Luc can pick out his late birthday present."

"Luc picks out his own present?"

"That's a tradition the three of us have. Instead of doing guess work, we always pick out our own presents and the other siblings buy it. That's how I always knew which video game to buy Luc."

"That's a really good idea. I should do that with Jason because I never know what he wants. I'd just feel bad because he always knows what I want," Ellie said. "Like, last year, when I turned 16, he got me this huge gift basket and in it was this lavender pillow with my name on it and five adjectives that describe me all starting with 'E.' And there was matching throw and ten DVDs of my ten favorite musicals and candy and popcorn and it was perfect!"

"That does sound great," Gabi admitted. "I didn't have anything specific in mind last year, so I told Michael I wanted new earrings and he bought the most gorgeous, most _expensive_ white gold hoops you ever saw." Gabi opened up her jewelry box and took them out. They really were pretty. Half of the hoop was covered in diamonds.

"Are those real?" Ellie asked.

"Of course!"

"Whoa. No way a boy picked these out."

Gabi laughed. "I honestly think it was his girlfriend Ariel who picked them out, but he insists he did it on his own."

Ellie laughed too, and the doorbell rang.

"Aunt Carrie!" Eva cried gleefully.

Gabi rolled her eyes, but paused her music and went into the foyer with Ellie to open the door before Eva could, in case it wasn't Sienna's sister at the door, but a serial killer or, more likely, a guardian hating monster.

It was clear the woman at the door was Sienna's sister once Gabi opened it. The two could practice be twins. They had the same long brown hair, the same blue eyes, and all the same facial features. The three girls with the woman looked just like their mother, and the youngest one looked like she could be Eva's twin.

"Aunt Carrie, you're here!" Eva cried, giving the woman a hug.

"It's so good to see you Eva," Carrie replied. Gabi was slightly surprised to hear Carrie's British accent before remembering Sienna said she and Carrie were born in England. When their parents got divorced, Sienna and her mother moved to the States and Carrie and her father stayed in England. Sienna was only five, which is why her British accent disappeared. Carrie moved to the States six years ago when her husband died.

"Hey, what about me?" the oldest girl joked.

Eva hugged her too, then the middle girl. She smiled brightly at the youngest and said, "Come on Mari, you have to come see my room!"

The two ran in the direction of Eva's bedroom. Gabi and Ellie stepped aside so Carrie and her other daughters could come in.

"And you must be Gabi," Carrie said, moving in for a hug.

"Yes," Gabi said, stepping back. "And I don't touch anyone associated with the two faced whore my dad had the bad judgement to marry."

Carrie looked like she was just slapped in the face. Her daughters looked shocked and even Ellie was surprised Gabi would be that rude to a person she just met.

The oldest girl finally gave Gabi a glare and looked ready to tell her step cousin off. Before she could, Michael and Luc walked through the still open door. Ellie remembered that Michael was hot when he still attended Sheffield, but he was even better looking now. Her whole face went red when he smiled at her.

"Gabi, look what I got!" Luc cried excitedly. He stopped when he saw the three strangers. "Hi?" he said questioningly.

"Luc, this is the step-monster's sister and her daughters," Gabi said.

"Gabi, don't be rude," Michael admonished lightly. He shook Carrie's hand. "I'm Michael. That's my little sister Gabi and her friend, uh…"

"Ellie!" the air guardian said, too eager.

Michael chuckled, clearly picking up on Ellie's sudden infatuation. "Right. Ellie," he said. "And my little brother Luc."

"Pleased to meet you," Carrie said. "I'm Caroline, but you can call me Carrie. And these are my daughters. My oldest, Melanie, and Marci."

"Hi," Michael said and both girls went a little red and exchanged looks.

"I thought you had three daughters?" Luc spoke up.

"Yes. My youngest Marina is with Eva. Marina's only six, so she and Eva have always been close. Melanie and Marci are 18 and 14, so they can't exactly _play_ with Eva."

"Gabi's 17, and Ellie is…you're 16, right?" Michael asked.

"Yes," Ellie said quickly.

"I think you guys will get along great with Melanie and Marci," Michael said with a smile and Gabi suppressed a groan. She wished Michael didn't always have to be so cordial and polite all the time. It made it hard for her to be a bitch.

"Why don't you guys go to Gabi's room?" Michael suggested. "And Carrie, can I get some coffee while we wait for Dad and Sienna?"

"That sounds lovely," Carrie said, following Michael to the kitchen.

Gabi groaned and rolled her eyes. She walked to her room without checking whether Melanie, Marci, or even Ellie were following. Gabi started her music again. When she took a seat on her bed, she saw they all were. Ellie came in last and closed the door behind her.

Melanie and Marci's mouths dropped open. "This is your room? It's as big as a banquet hall!" Marci cried.

"Please. That's _such_ an exaggeration," Gabi scoffed. "Besides, Michael's room is bigger."

Ellie giggled. "Michael's _so_ cute Gabi! I mean, even more so than he was when he went to Sheffield."

"Ew Ellie, that's my _brother_! It's already weird enough that most of my friends have a crush on him."

"I know how that is. All my friends likes Jason too," Ellie said, putting her hands up in a surrender gesture. "But still!"

Gabi rolled her eyes and looked at her step cousins. "As for you two, I know you think he's cute too, which is gross. We're related!"

"Not by blood," Melanie said. "But you're right anyway. But he's quite charming, isn't he?"

Gabi didn't reply.

"I like your accent. How come only you and your mother have it?" Ellie asked.

"My little sister Marina was born here, and Marci was eight when we moved here, so she could mimic the American accent."

"You can hear it every now and then," Marci said. "Sometimes when I say a certain word or phrase, it comes out in a British accent, but it's rare."

"I was twelve when we moved, so even though I still have my accent, it's light," Melanie went on. "My mom lived in England all her life, so she has a thick accent."

"Where in England did you live?" Ellie asked.

"We lived in London," Marci said.

"I bet that so cool!" Ellie breathed.

"Hardly. It rains all the time," Gabi said.

"You've been there?" Melanie challenged.

"We spent the summer there when I was ten," Gabi replied breezily.

Gabi's phone beeped and Ellie, who was closest to it, looked at it. "Gabi, you have Alyssa in your contacts as Classless-a Klutzcroft?"

"Yeah. And I have Rae as New Girl and you as Drama Freak. I put you guys into my contacts when I still hated you."

"What about Caty?"

"She was Encyclopediork," Gabi said. "But she went into my phone last night and changed it to Ice Queen while I was working on her hair."

"Oh yeah, how did her date go?"

"Great. I think she actually likes Brian. Not like, romantically or anything, but she could see them becoming friends."

"It's going to be so weird seeing them as a couple. Even before we were friends with Caty, we knew them as bitter enemies."

"Maybe you did. All I knew them as was Queen Nerd and Dorkzilla," Gabi replied. "So what did Classless-a say anyway?"

"Oh, she wants to know when you're free for, uhm…_work_, tomorrow. To tell Hay Lin."

Gabi could tell by the way Ellie said work, what she meant was guardian training. "Tell her I'm good at any time. But later would be better on Sunday so that I can see Michael off."

"Josh and Sage won't be back til around 7 anyway," Ellie said. She picked up Gabi's phone. "Password the same?"

Gabi nodded. She didn't have anything to hide from anyone on her phone, so she told everyone her password. Once she did have something to hide, she'd change it.

Ellie unlocked it and typed replied to Alyssa. Gabi looked at her step cousins, who were typing away on their phones, probably bored with the conversation Gabi and Ellie were having.

The song Emotionless by Good Charlotte came on. This was one of Gabi's favorites, so she turned up the volume.

Ellie immediately began to sing along. Gabi was surprised by the sadness and bitterness in Ellie's voice. She knew the song was sad and bitter, but Ellie sounded like she could actually relate to it. Then again, she was an actress, and she often sounded like she related to a song she was singing.

When the song was over, Gabi turned the volume down and Melanie and Marci stared at Ellie open mouthed. Gabi hid a smirk. That was the same reaction everyone had the first time they heard Ellie sing.

"You're…_amazing_," Melanie said.

Ellie smiled brightly. "You think? I thought I could've done better."

"No, Mel's right, you sounded great," Marci said earnestly. "You have a beautiful voice."

"Thank you," Ellie said.

"We're back," Gabi heard Daniel call.

Mel and Marci looked at Gabi questioningly.

"That's just my dad," she said.

Her step cousins got up to go greet Sienna and their step uncle, but came back to Gabi's room in a few minutes.

Mel, Marci, and Ellie got along pretty well and talked amongst themselves while Gabi texted Bree. But she was listening to what the other three were saying and decided Mel was actually okay. She had a good sense of fashion, even though she couldn't afford any designer clothes, she liked the same bands Gabi did, and she, like Gabi, liked to write. She was going to NYU, Gabi's dream school, on a soccer scholarship as a creative writing student. As for Marci, she had a sunny disposition that reminded Gabi of Cara Lyndon, and she wanted to be a cheerleader in high school. So maybe Sienna's nieces weren't so bad. That didn't make Gabi like Sienna anymore.

After lunch, the girls headed back to Gabi's room, and this time, Gabi also participated in the conversation. They all laughed a lot. A couple of hours later, Gabi showed Marci some cheerleading formations, Ellie rooted through Gabi's closet looking for a pair of black pumps Gabi said she could borrow, and Mel looked through Gabi's photo albums.

"Gabi you have really pretty eyes," Mel said as she was looking at a selfie Gabi took with Bree a few years ago. "Were they inherited?"

"Yeah, from my mom," Gabi said. "Except hers turned blue, green, and gray, and mine turn blue, green, and brown."

"Do you miss her?" Marci asked.

"Of course. You miss your dad, right?"

"Yeah, all the time. Mom tells us lots of stories about him though," Mel said.

"My dad doesn't tell me anything about my mom," Gabi said. "I was only six when she died, so I didn't know a lot about her, and when I got older and started to ask questions, my dad completely shut down. Michael doesn't even know that much more about her than me and when Luc asks us questions, there are so few things we can actually answer."

"Why do you think that is?" Mel asked.

Gabi shrugged. "Maybe it makes him sad to think about her so he doesn't like to?"

"Mom used to pause in front of pictures of Dad we had around the house and tell us the story of each picture," Marci said. "You dad doesn't even do that?"

"We don't even have pictures of my mom around the house. I only have one on my nightstand. If I didn't have that, I would've forgotten how she looked. A few weeks ago, your aunt gave me a manila folder filled with pictures of my mom. There were so many of them. Some from when she was really little, but most of them were of her and her friends in college and her and my dad when they first met."

"Wait, Aunt Sienna gave you those pictures?" Mel asked.

"Yeah."

"But not your dad?"

"No," Gabi said slowly, wondering why Mel was suddenly so demanding.

"Well then maybe-" Mel started, but was interrupted by her sister.

"Stop Mel. No more," Marci begged. She turned to Gabi and Ellie. "Mel thinks there are secrets and conspiracies everywhere. But don't worry. I won't let her turn your parents into one."

"Conspiracy?" Gabi repeated. She and Ellie exchanged looks. They knew from experience that everything is better out in the open. If their lives were free of secrets, everyone would know they were guardians, Rae and Alyssa would be still be friends, and they'd know who Angel, who was apparently going to be an enemy really soon, was. "Actually, I think whatever Mel's theory is might be worth hearing."

Marci rolled her eyes, but Mel gave Gabi a smile. "Well, I was just thinking, maybe your mom had a secret. Something your dad hated about her or doesn't want you and your brothers to know about and that's why he doesn't talk about her or put up pictures. Because he's afraid you might find out."

"But my Grandma Patricia loved her," Gabi said. "And it's really hard to impress her. If Mom had a deep, dark secret, I doubt she'd get Grandma's approval."

"Maybe your grandma doesn't know," Mel shrugged.

"Is there a way for you to find out if your mom had a secret or not?" Ellie asked.

Gabi nodded slowly. "I'm pretty sure all the pictures and stuff of mom are in my dad's study. He keeps the door locked when he's not in there."

"Didn't Mom, Aunt Sienna, and your dad just head out a few minutes ago?" Mel asked.

"And they said they wouldn't be back for a couple of hours," Gabi realized, a smile breaking out on her face.

"But we don't have a key for your dad's study," Marci protested.

"Are you forgetting how good I am at picking locks little sister?" Mel asked teasingly.

"No. I was hoping you did though," Marci replied, making them all laugh.

"Well? Up for it?" Mel asked Gabi.

"Definitely!"

Marci sighed, but got up. Ellie just giggled at Marci's attitude and got up as well.

While Mel worked on the lock with Ellie, Marci made sure Eva and Marina were occupied. Gabi knew Eva would rat them out, and Mel and Marci agreed Marina might not tell Carrie on her own, but would be happy to rat them out under Eva's influence. Gabi told Michael and Luc what she was doing. They wanted to come with her, but she told she needed them to make sure Marina and Eva didn't come looking for them.

Marci and Gabi joined the others just as Mel finished with the lock. "Got it," she said, opening the door.

The girls stepped inside and closed the door in case Daniel came back early.

"Okay, so what are we looking for?" Ellie asked.

"And can we find it and get out of here?" Marci begged.

"Gabi, are any of these drawers or file cabinets locked?" Mel asked. "Because that's where we start."

"Smart," Gabi replied. "I don't know about the drawers though."

"Then we try them all," Mel said.

Marci groaned, but helped Gabi, Ellie, and Mel as they poked around.

"Here," Gabi said as she tried one of the drawers of Daniel's desk. "It's locked."

Mel picked the lock and they looked inside. There was an old journal inside. It had a brown leather cover and gold trim.

Gabi picked it up and opened it. "It's Mom's," she said. "It's a diary of hers from when she was in college."

Mel and Ellie slapped high fives, and even Marci smiled, glad they'd actually found something.

"Okay, let's look through everything that's open and leave the other locked things for last," Mel instructed.

After looking around for another hour, they only had one drawer in the file cabinet and the doors of a pantry left. Both were locked.

Mel headed to the pantry first, saying that file cabinets took a long time to unlock. While Mel worked on the pantry with Marci by her side, Gabi and Ellie headed to the file cabinet. "Mel's not the only one who can pick a lock," Gabi said, making Ellie smile. Gabi put her hand on the file cabinet and using her telekinesis, she managed to undo the lock. At the same time, the pantry's doors open.

"Empty," Mel declared.

"I've got the file cabinet," Gabi said, pulling the drawer open. Mel and Marci rushed over.

The drawer was filled with manila envelopes. Most of them were work related, but a few of them had more pictures of Alexandra. There were baby pictures, pictures of her school days at Heatherfield Elementary and at Sheffield, pictures of Alexandra and Daniel's wedding day, and even pictures of Alexandra in the hospital after Michael and Gabi were born.

"I can't believe Dad hid this from me," Gabi whispered, taking all the files with pictures in them. Mel closed the door as Gabi put the files on the desk and put the journal on top of them.

"Are we done?" Marci asked hopefully.

"That's up to Gabi," Mel said. "If you still want to, your dad's computer is on and I kept moving the mouse to make sure it doesn't lock on us."

Gabi grinned and immediately sat in front of the computer. The other girls crowded around her. Gabi looked through all of Daniel's files. She found their wedding video as well as a few home movies she'd never seen. All the home movies they watched were the ones of when Luc was little, meaning Alexandra wasn't in them. Gabi e-mailed all the videos to herself.

"I think we'd call this a successful mission," Mel grinned.

"I think we shouldn't call it a mission," Marci replied.

"I think that's all we're going to find," Gabi said.

"Wait, what's that?" Ellie asked, pointing to a file called Magical Legends Research Alexandra Ar…

Gabi clicked on it and saw the full name was Magical Legends Research Alexandra Arch-Shay.

It was a 300 page word document starting with a cover page. The second page was a table of contents.

"Looks like your mother was into magic," Mel commented as the girls read through the table of contents.

At first the headings just seemed run of the mill. Teleportation, superhuman abilities, superheroes. Then it got more specific. Magical kingdoms, magical royals, different dimensions.

"Gabi," Ellie said, sucking in a breath. "Look."

She pointed to one of the headings and Gabi swore her heart skipped a beat. The heading said 'Guardians of the Veil.'

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"This is really nice Lil," Caty said, admiring the drawing.

"You think?" Lili asked hopefully.

"Oh yeah. Did you show it to anyone else?"

"Bree. She loved it."

"I'll bet. It looks like something she and other cheerleaders would wear." Caty's phone beeped and Caty looked at it. "And Gabi just texted me back saying she liked it."

"How does she know about it?"

"I picture texted it to her."

"Well if Gabi likes it, then maybe it is good."

"Does that mean you're going to sew for more than five minutes at a time?" Caty asked teasingly, making Lili pout.

Caty and Lili, after having a great Thanksgiving lunch, were hanging out in Lili's room. Lili was working on her audition piece that went along with the application for Silena Shane's internship. She would stop every five minutes and yell out, "This is such shit!", interrupting Caty, who was telling Lili everything she found out about her birth parents. Finally, Caty asked if she could see the sketch of the piece Lili was working on and was actually really impressed.

Lili was working on a loose top that was really cute. The sleeves and neck down to the chest was made of black lace, and the rest of it was solid, maroon colored silk. It would definitely be something Caty herself would wear if she could afford it. And clearly two of the best dressed girls in school liked it.

"So how's your mom doing really?" Lili asked. "She said she was fine, but didn't tell me what was actually wrong."

Caty sighed. She'd tried to distract Lili by telling her about her date with Brian, some of the interesting guardian history, and about her birth parents so Lili wouldn't ask that question. But now there was no way to avoid it. Caty told her about the placental abruption, and how she may have caused it. Lili was shocked, as Caty predicted, but like Alyssa, Gabi, and Ellie, she didn't look at Caty any differently.

"Why can't you just fix it?" Lili asked.

"Because…it's complicated."

"How?"

"Well…like I said, I wished for the placental abruption, but that's not when it happened. When it happened was when I demanded for the baby to cause a placental abruption. My mind control only works on live things. I can't control the placenta, just the baby. The baby can cause the abruption, but it can't repair the abruption. Besides, it was an accident. I'm not sure how I did it. I may have demanded the baby to do it, but I didn't actually think it would work. I didn't even know I was using my mind control."

"Wow. Scary," Lili commented.

"I know. Besides, this isn't just a partial abruption, which happens sometimes. The placenta is completely detached from the uterus, and that can't be fixed."

Lili frowned. "Caty, why does it seem like you're sort of okay with that? Your sister might die."

"She's not my sister!" Caty burst out. "At least…not yet."

Now Lili was looking at her differently. "Caty…you are not saying what I think you're saying."

"What do you think I'm saying?"

"That maybe you don't care. That maybe you're okay with this because you didn't want a sister in the first place."

"That's not what I'm saying! I mean…I don't know _what_ I want. I know that's terrible and there's no excuse but…"

Lili shook her head and gave Caty her best death glare. "You listen to me Caitlin Irene Lewis-"

"My middle name is not Irene," Caty interrupted. Caty didn't have a middle name, so Lili liked to insert random names in that spot, and it was never the same one.

"No interruptions Caitlin Joanne Lewis," Lili snapped. "Whether you like it or not, this baby is coming. And now, because of you, she may come out dead. Now, I'm not blaming you for that, because like you said, it was an accident. I can understand you being bitter about Catherine. I can understand you being more bitter about than most people because of your adoption vs. biological kid insecurities. But think about your parents and how devastated they'll be if Catherine actually is dead. Or how much harder it'll be if she's alive, but she has some sort of defect because of the abruption?"

"Lili-"

"NO interruptions!" Lili insisted, yelling a little. "No matter what, your mother will have this baby, and she will be part of your life whether she survives or not, and no matter what, she _will_ be you sister. And you need to not only accept that, but appreciate that. And you know why? Because having a sister is a wonderful gift. I should know, I have two."

"Like you've ever been that close with Libby and Layla," Caty scoffed.

"Caty, what part of no interruptions do you not understand?" Lili snapped, annoyed. "Anyway, no, I'm not that close with Libby and Layla, but that's because they were born as twins, so they were closer with each other than with me. But I see the way they interact with each other. I see my friends with their sisters. Aunt Kristen acted like a sister to Aunt Alexia even though they're only related because Uncle Josh married Aunt Kristen. The best example of sisterhood that I have is Mom and Aunt Iris. You see how they are. They do everything together, from house hunting to ultrasounds. And they weren't even that close when they were younger."

That was true. Aunt Dawn and Iris weren't that far apart in age, but they were completely different. Iris was the responsible model child. She worked hard in school, helped out around the house, took care of Alexia, the baby of the family, and hung out with her friends at tame places like the movies and the mall. Dawn was wild and rebellious, always going to parties, failing all her classes, and getting into trouble. She had Lili when she was thirteen, but Lili's dad had custody, which is why Dawn still lived at her mother's house and had the freedom to do whatever she wanted. Iris and Dawn fought a lot because Iris acted like her mother and lectured her on her "reckless behavior." But as they got older, they grew much closer.

"And," Lili went on, "even though I'm not that close with Libby and Layla, I know how it is to have a sister. Because of you." She looked at Caty.

"Me?" Caty asked, before remembering she wasn't supposed to interrupt.

Lili didn't seem to mind this time though. "I know we've kind of grown apart, but we were close once. You moved in with Grandma and Grandpa when you were four, and I still remember the first time I met you, when Daddy brought me over to see Mom and Grandma and Grandpa. And we grew so attached to each other that Grandma or Aunt Iris would bring you over every week, and Dad would bring me over every week so we'd see each other twice and we were like…"

"Friends?" Caty asked.

"Sisters," Lili corrected. "I still think of you as a sister. My bossy, perfectionist, parental incredibly annoying sister."

Caty rolled her eyes.

"But also as my talented, smart, confident, helpful sister. And that's what Catherine is going to think of you too."

"It's different though. You and I are basically the same age. Layla and Libby _are_ the same age. Mom and Aunt Dawn are only a few years apart. Catherine and I will be _17_ years apart."

"So she'll be like your baby sister all your life," Lili said. "So what? My brother and I will be 17 years apart too. She'll still be your sister and she'll _love_ you. She'll always be there for you, and have your back. She'll be the only one who understands how crazy your parents really are."

Caty laughed at this and Lili smiled triumphantly before continuing.

"She'll look up to you. And she'll love you unconditionally. And that's what will be so special about her. You will love having a sister. But first, you need to get over yourself!"

Caty looked at her cousin in shock. "Lili!" she cried.

"What? It's true. You are so full of it Caty! You're being selfish. You're not really worried that your parents will love this baby more. What you're can't stand is that your parents will have to split their attention between you and someone else. You won't be as special anymore. Well, I have five siblings, and I'm about to have one more. My dad lives across the country, and my mom will have to split her attention seven ways. You should be happy you have two parents who will always stay together, and that they'll only have to split their attention two ways. Don't keep Aunt Iris and Uncle Jeremy all to yourself. That's not fair. Tis baby-your _sister_\- is coming. Time to face reality and accept it."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"It just doesn't make sense," Alyssa said for the millionth time that morning. "I mean, they were _such_ good friends. _Best_ friends. Like _sisters_. And now they want nothing to do with each other? Why?"

"Like Josh said, they got into a fight. You just have to figure out what the fight was about," James said.

"Do I? I mean, what's the point?"

"To get them back together. _You're_ the one who wanted to do it."

"I know, but-"

"Lyssa, you can't tell me you lied your way into Irma's house, _stole_ from her, and accidentally made Rae's co-worker to hate her for nothing."

"James, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Will is nowhere to be found. We thought Irma's stuff would help pinpoint a location, but it didn't. All it did was show us how close they once were. And my mom and Cornelia _hate_ each other. Or, at least, Cornelia hates my mom. I wanted a reunion, not a bloodbath."

James sighed, but didn't say anything. Alyssa was right. They wanted to get WITCH back together when they assumed they just had a run of the mill falling out. Now they realized, with the bond WITCH and Elyon seemed to share, whatever split them up was more than just a falling out. And Cornelia and Taranee did have their own problem with each other. Plus, according to Sage's description of her mother, Elyon wasn't the same girl the guardians knew.

John came downstairs and looked at the table. "Why is there an extra place setting?"

"What do you mean?" Alyssa asked. The truth was, they were two short of lunch today. James and his parents were invited for Thanksgiving, but his parents cancelled when they got invited over by James' aunt. However, she had no kids and James didn't like her much, so his parents gave him permission to spend Thanksgiving with Alyssa if he preferred.

"There are four of us here plus Aunt Audrey makes five. Why are there six places set?"

Alyssa shrugged just as the front door opened. In walked Nigel.

"Dad!" John and Alyssa cried together in delight.

Alyssa leapt over the couch to hug him. He hugged her back. "Hey sweetheart," he whispered in her ear. "I've missed you."

"Me too," Alyssa replied, feeling tears prick the corners of her eyes.

When Alyssa let go, John ran to get his hug.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Your mother invited me, and I missed you guys, so I had to come," Nigel explained.

"So that's who the sixth place is for," James said.

Nigel looked over at the brunette and noticed the box sitting on the coffee table. "What's that?" he asked.

"Time capsule!" Alyssa cried, blurting out the first words that came into her mind as James shut the box, locking it. "Uhm…time capsule project. For school."

"I thought the time capsule project was in senior year," Nigel said.

"It is. It's my project. I'm a senior," James said.

"But the time capsule project is a video project, isn't it?"

"Not anymore," James lied smoothly. "Now everyone puts something in a box like a good old fashioned time capsule. I get it for the night, and I have to give it to someone else tomorrow."

"Oh. Well, what are you going to put in?" Nigel asked.

"Most people put in pictures of themselves with the most important people they met during their time at Sheffiled. I'll probably do that," James shrugged.

"Do you have any idea who that person is?"

James looked at Alyssa. "Yeah," he said smiling. "I think I have a pretty good idea."

Alyssa giggled and blushed, flattered even though the "time capsule" thing was a lie.

"Dad, do you want to see my science project?" John asked. "I got an A!"

"Sure buddy."

"Wait here, I'll bring it down so I can show Aunt Audrey too," John said, running upstairs.

"So Dad…what Mom told you…does that change anything between us?"

"No sweetie, nothing," Nigel promised, giving Alyssa another hug. "I love you and I always will. No matter what, I am still your father."

Alyssa beamed at him. "I'm so glad. What about you and Mom? Does this change things between you guys?"

"Yes," Nigel said. "But for the sake of you and your brother, we are going to try to work things out."

"I don't think you should," Alyssa said stubbornly. "She cheated and then lied about it. She doesn't deserve your forgiveness or the chance to work things out."

"Alyssa, she is your mother. You shouldn't be so hard on her," Nigel said.

"Dad, she lied to me my entire life, kept me away from my brother, and when I did find out, she erased my memories. I can't forgive her for that."

"Lyssa-" Nigel started, but Alyssa cut him off.

"I don't want to talk about Mom," she said. "While she's picking up Aunt Audrey from the airport, I want to ask you some questions."

"Okay," Nigel said, perplexed.

"Why didn't Aunt Audrey and Uncle Peter have any kids?"

James gave his girlfriend a look that screamed, 'Are you crazy?!' That was _way_ too direct. Alyssa didn't care. She was determined to get to the bottom of things. First was to get Nigel to admit Audrey and Peter did have a kid, then get Nigel to tell her why they gave the kid up. She wanted to find out for Caty.

"Well I guess it's just because your Uncle Peter died before they could think of having kids."

"But Uncle Peter and Aunt Audrey are three years older than you guys, so wouldn't they have kids before you?"

"I guess they didn't," Nigel shrugged. "Your uncle was in the NBA, so he commuted from here to Charlotte every week. They probably wanted a kid when they were in a more stable place, after Peter was out of the NBA."

"But I did some research and Uncle Peter lost his contract when he 26 because of an irreparable knee injury."

Nigel's eyes widened and he finally seemed to falter. "Why did you look that up?"

Alyssa shrugged. She was about to say something else when John came back downstairs with his project. Then the backdoor opened and Taranee walked in with Audrey behind her.

"Aunt Audrey!" Alyssa cried, giving her aunt a hug.

"Good to see you Alyssa," Audrey said.

"What about me?" John asked, giving Audrey a hug.

James sucked in a breath. "Alyssa," he said as Audrey exchanged pleasantries with Nigel. "Are you saying it never occurred to you that your aunt could be Caty's mom?"

"No, why?"

"Because she looks _exactly _like Caty."

Alyssa surveyed her aunt. From her curly red hair to her alabaster skin to her bright blue eyes, she realized James was right. How had she never noticed this before?

"And who is this?" Audrey asked, looking at James.

"James Mason," James said immediately, extending his hand. Audrey shook it.

"James is a new student at Sheffield. He's my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend? Well, it's very nice to meet you," Audrey said.

"You too," James said with that oh-so-charming smile that made most girls melt.

When the family sat down to lunch, Alyssa decided to see if she could trap her aunt.

"How have you been Aunt Audrey?" Alyssa started.

"I'm doing very well. I just got assigned a piece on the artist Gerard Richter."

Alyssa's eyes lit up. "I love him!" she cried.

"I know. If you want, I can see if he'll look at a painting of yours."

"Really? Oh that would be wonderful!" Alyssa cried. Gerard Richter was her favorite painter. Chris never appreciated him quite as much as Alyssa did, but when she showed Josh some of his pieces, he was very impressed. "Actually, I have a friend who's an artist, and I'm sure he'd love it if…" Alyssa stopped. No. She and Josh weren't anything anymore. "Uh…never mind."

Taranee frowned, knowing exactly who Alyssa was talking about. James grabbed her hand and gave her an encouraging smile, which Alyssa was grateful for.

"How are your friends doing Alyssa?" Audrey asked. "What were their names again, Ellie and Alex?"

"Adam," Alyssa corrected. Audrey had met Ellie and Adam a few times, but hadn't seen them recently for obvious reasons. "Um, I'm sure he's fine. He just started dating someone. I don't know. He and I aren't really close anymore…or friends really. But Ellie's good."

"Did you make any new friends?" Audrey asked.

"Actually, there's this new girl who…" Alyssa stopped again. Rae wasn't her friend anymore either. "Um, a few," she finished lamely. "Actually, there are two girls that I've known for a long time, but only became friends with this year. And they both love you."

"Really?" Audrey seemed pleased. "I love that some high schoolers read my pieces."

Alyssa nodded. "One of them is named Misha and you're her hero. She's co-editor-in-chief of the newspaper even though she's only a junior. You were the only one in Sheffield history to become editor-in-chief as a junior, right Aunt Audrey?"

"I guess so. Until this Misha anyway."

"Misha wants to go to Columbia to study journalism like you. The other editor-in-chief is also a junior. She's the other friend that loves you. She thinks you're a great writer. Her name is Caty."

"Why are they _co_-editors-in-chief?" Audrey asked.

"The old editor-in-chief let a slam piece into the paper, and though no one's sure if the girl who wrote it snuck it past her or had her help, the advisors removed her from the position and gave it to Caty. Caty knew Misha wanted it more, so she offered to share the position."

"A slam piece?" Nigel asked.

"That's an article that insults someone," Audrey explained.

"Who was it about?" Nigel asked curiously.

"Some new girl," Alyssa replied breezily. "You know something weird Aunt Audrey? My friend Caty looks exactly like you."

"Oh?" Audrey asked, seemingly nervous.

"Yeah. It's like you could be an older version of her or something. You guys both have curly red hair and bright blue eyes, and all the same facial features. It's like you're her mother or something, which is funny because she's adopted, so she actually doesn't know her real mom."

Audrey began to choke on her water and Taranee and Nigel exchanged nervous looks. None of this went unnoticed by Alyssa or James.

"How come you and Uncle Peter never had children?" Alyssa asked innocently.

"Alyssa," Nigel said warningly. "That's personal."

"No, it's alright," Audrey said, giving Alyssa a weak smile. "It just wasn't ever the right time sweetie. Your uncle passed away just a few weeks after we decided to try for a kid."

Alyssa nodded, but since she was listening for a lie, she could hear it. She knew James did as well. Audrey wasn't a very good liar.

"So my friend Caty really wanted to find her birth parents for a little while," Alyssa said. "But then she found out who they were. They were both really successful people, kind of like you and Uncle Peter. And her father was dead. He also died young. And she doesn't want to find them anymore, because she thinks they had the means to support her but they didn't keep her, so they're probably horrible, selfish people. What do you think Aunt Audrey?"

Audrey looked like she was the verge of a nervous breakdown. Taranee and Nigel now exchanged suspicious looks. They knew when their daughter with digging for something.

"Alyssa," Taranee said slowly. "Maybe you should just let your aunt eat."

"Conversation with family you barely see is part of the Thanksgiving tradition," Alyssa said.

"Well you haven't seen me for a while. Why not converse with me?" Nigel suggested.

"That's not the same Dad. I haven't seen Aunt Audrey since Mom's birthday back in March. It's been a long time. Coincidentally, my friend Caty's birthday is also in March. March 13th to be exact."

Now Taranee choked on her water. Alyssa hoped it was because she remembered Irma's birthday was March 13th as well, but it also could've been because she knew Audrey's child had been born that day.

Audrey had gone pale. Her mouth opened and closed.

"Are you okay?" Alyssa asked innocently.

"Okay, _enough_," James said so only Alyssa could hear. "You proved your point."

Alyssa concentrated hard, trying to get inside James' head. "_Can you hear me?_" she asked

James nodded almost imperceptibly.

"_I can't stop now. She's so close to confessing!_"

"_Why do we need her to confess? It's pretty obvious Caty is her child. You're making her and your parents really uncomfortable._"

"_We need her to confess so she can tell us _why_ she gave Caty up in the first place. Caty thinks her mother is selfish, but I know Aunt Audrey is a good person, and that's what _I'm _trying to prove._ _And I also want to find out why for Caty. She deserves to know_."

"_Then she should find out on her own._"

"_She can't. She doesn't want to see her mother because in her mind, Aunt Audrey didn't just give her up-she gave her _away_._"

"_Then that's _her_ problem. I like Caty, honestly. I think she's the one I'm closest to out of all of Team GRACE besides you. But this conversation is painful and awkward both for the participants and the bystanders. Your aunt looks like she wants the ground to open up and swallow her and adults rarely let feelings like that show. You've gone as far as you can in one day. At least let this go for today and pick it up later. She's staying with you for a while, right? Just ask her more about it tomorrow."_

Alyssa sighed but nodded and broke their connection. She didn't bring up Caty for the rest of lunch. After lunch, Taranee showed Audrey to one of the guest rooms. Then, she and Nigel decided to go out for coffee and talk things over. Alyssa knew it would take a lot more than coffee to work things out, and she selfishly hoped they never would. Taranee didn't deserve Nigel.

Alyssa and James went up to Alyssa's room, even though it was against house rules to let James in her room without another girl present. What Taranee didn't know wouldn't hurt her. James picked up Irma's journal, which was on Alyssa's nightstand. "Have you read this yet?"

"I haven't had a chance," Alyssa admitted.

James opened it up and skimmed the first few pages. "This isn't a traditional journal. It looks like this profiles the life of everyone who was part of WITCH."

"What do you mean?" Alyssa asked.

"These first few pages have the story of the guardians and how she and her friends became guardians. And their first adventure, like all stuff about Phobos."

"And then what?" Alyssa asked, walking next to him.

The next few pages each had a color photo of one of the members of WITCH and a complete profile of them. Their full names, ages, birthdays, life story. The journal included Matt, Lillian, Napoleon, a little bit on Huggles, Will's brother William, and Elyon. Halfway through, Irma wrote a large heading on a page: 'New Developments.'

"New developments?" Alyssa asked.

"She put in all the new things about her friends. Like, she wrote those bios when they were all thirteen and fourteen. But things change. Like, it said Hay Lin wanted to go to college for art. But in the new developments section, it says Hay Lin is 18, and she went to college for business and culinary arts. And it says Cornelia is 18 and works as a model. I guess that's when she was helping Rae's mom. But a few pages later, it says Cornelia is now 20 and she works at a make-up store."

Alyssa took the journal and flipped through it. "This has information up until a few months ago. According to Hay Lin, Elyon was captured and Meridian was taken over in June. June of this year is the same time Irma stopped writing. A quarter of these pages are blank."

"This is so strange," James mused.

"This journal has the correct date of when Cornelia moved to Meridian," Alyssa gasped.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, everyone, even Hay Lin, thought that Cornelia and Caleb moved to Meridian six years ago. Josh told us that that's not true. It's just what they wanted everyone to think. The truth is, Cornelia and Caleb moved to Meridian before Josh was even born. And according to this journal, Irma knew that. She had to be the only one."

"If she has that information," James said slowly, "maybe she knows where Will lives now."

Alyssa nodded. In Will's original profile, it said that she was born in a place called Fadden Hills, but lived in Heatherfield. Alyssa checked the new developments pages.

"Here," she said. "This is the most recent thing she has on Will, from five years ago. Age: 40. Spouse: Matthew Olsen. Children: Daughter Melody, age 15, son Thomas, age 12, daughter Emma, age 8. Lives in…" Alyssa trailed off.

"Where?" James asked.

"Some place called…Jumelle."

"Where's that?"

"I don't know," Alyssa frowned. She opened up her laptop and google searched Jumelle.

"It's a French word meaning twin," Alyssa said. "But no place exists under the name of Jumelle."

"Maybe no place on Earth," James said slowly.

"You don't mean…?"

"Well, think about it. Cornelia didn't stay either. She moved to Meridian. So maybe…"

"Maybe Will moved to another world too," Alyssa finished.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae grabbed a cookie from the plate in front of her and broke into little pieces before starting to eat it.

Silena sighed, knowing Rae only did that with her cookies when she was upset. "What's wrong sweetie?" she asked.

"He's not coming, is he?" Rae responded. It wasn't really a question.

"I'm sure that he is," Silena replied. "He always makes sure to call if he can't make it."

"That's why my phone is glued to my hand," Rae replied.

Silena wasn't sure what to say. She and Frank didn't get along, but she always invited him over for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Rae's birthday. He only showed up half the time. That's part of the reason Silena could not stand him. He never did enough to show his daughter he cared for her. But this year, after everything Silena told him, she really thought he'd come. But she couldn't tell Rae any of what she told Frank, even if it was to reassure her daughter.

Their doorbell rang and Rae's face lit up. "He's here!" she cried.

She leapt up and answered the door. Her face fell when she saw who was at the door, but then the smile came back when she met the person's hazel eyes.

"Hi Jake," she said.

"Hi Rae," Jake replied, smiling. His parents were behind him. "We brought potato salad."

Rae laughed lightly and gave him a hug.

"You must really like potato salad," Jake joked.

Rae let go and laughed again. "It's just really good to see you. Come in."

Jake led his parents into the house. Mrs. Sanders smiled warmly at Rae and gave her a hug. "It's so nice to finally meet you," she said. "Jake's been talking about you since the first day of school."

"Mom!" Jake cried, going red.

Mr. Saunders laughed and shook Rae's hand. "You're just as pretty as Jake said."

"Aww, you said I was pretty?" Rae asked, glowing.

"You _are_ pretty," Jake replied, giving her a kiss.

Silena came into the living room. "Jake, it's good to see you again," she said.

"Good to see you too Ms. Shane," Jake said pleasantly.

"When did you two meet?" Rae asked, confused.

"Remember sweetie, I told you he came over and asked for you all that time ago," Silena said. She then exchanged pleasantries with Jake's parents.

"Oh yeah. How did you know where I lived anyway? And how did you know about Harvey?"

"I was walking home from Gabi's when I saw you moving into this house. This house used to belong to Jeff Boudreau and his family. Jeff was a really popular Sheffiled alum, so everyone wanted to know who was going to buy his house next. I met Harvey that day. When I realized you were knew, I figured this was your house."

"That makes sense. I thought you were a creepy stalker when I first heard you knew where I lived," Rae laughed. "Hey, so, I thought your sister was coming?"

"She is. She had a paper due last night, so she stayed at school to work on it. She hasn't come home yet. She's coming here directly."

"I can't wait to meet her. She sounds cool," Rae said.

"She is," Jake said. "She's really excited that I'm spending Thanksgiving somewhere different this time."

"Different?"

"We usually go to Gabi's house for Thanksgiving. Or, we have for the past five years anyway. Brittany would always grin and bear it, but she never liked Gabi. You should've seen her face when she found out we were dating. I think her heart literally broke."

Rae laughed. "I'm not Gabi's biggest fan either, but she's not _that_ bad."

"It's not really _Gabi_ she doesn't like. She used to date Gabi's brother Michael. They were dating for two years, and that's why we started going there for Thanksgiving anyway, because Gabi and I only got close after they broke up. But anyway, Brittany didn't take it well when Michael broke up with her, so she kind of held a grudge against the entire family after that."

"That's a little extreme, isn't it?"

"She's under the impression that someone in the family made Michael break up with her, because we're not from a rich family like they are. And it could be true. I know Gabi's grandmother is pretty uptight about that sort of stuff. I also know she loves Michael's current girlfriend, who is from a very rich family."

"Is she as snobbish as Gabi?" Rae asked.

Jake laughed. "No. I've met Ariel, and she down to Earth like you wouldn't believe. Like you. And Gabi adores her."

"Now if only Gabi adored me," Rae joked.

"That would make whatever it is you and the rest of The Basement Gang are doing a whole lot easier, wouldn't it?"

"Could we _not_ talk about this today?" Rae begged.

"We _never_ talk about it," Jake protested. "Rae, what is it that you guys are doing that it's such a secret? Why do you have to keep it from me?"

"Because…" Rae said, but didn't know how to finish. She just sighed and looked at the door.

Jake rolled his eyes but let it go. Rae had been talking non-stop about her father joining them for Thanksgiving, but it was clear he wasn't here. Maybe he was late, but maybe he wasn't coming. Jake was not going to upset Rae when it was clear she was already thinking her father wouldn't be coming after all.

After half an hour, Brittany came to join them. She was just as cool as Jake said she was, and Rae really liked her. Brittany liked all the same bands and TV shows as Rae, and she was almost as huge a Harry Potter fan.

It was another hour before Silena announced lunch was ready. Just as they were about to sit down, the doorbell rang. Silena and Rae exchanged looks. The only other person invited was Frank.

"I got it!" Rae cried, jumping up. She threw open the door.

"Hi princess," Frank said with a smile. "I missed you."

Rae's mouth dropped open. It was her dad, and she knew it was her dad, but for some reason, she was still shocked. It had been _two years_ since she'd seen him last. Of course, there was the first day of school, but that didn't really count. He was only around for the ten minute drive.

"Are…you going to invite me in?" Frank asked.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry! Come in Daddy. I missed you!"

Frank stepped inside and gave his daughter a hug. When he let go, Silena joined them.

"Frank," she said in a clipped tone.

"Silena," he acknowledged, nodding.

"Nice to see you actually made it," Silena said.

Rae could tell Frank wanted to say something to defend himself, something like 'Of course I came, I wouldn't miss this,' or 'I always come when my daughter wants me to' but couldn't. None of that would be true.

Silena led Rae and Frank back into the dining room and they all sat down.

"Dad," Rae said, "this is my boyfriend, Jake Saunders. Jake, this is my father."

"It's really nice to meet you Mr. Dylan," Jake said eagerly.

"Boyfriend? I didn't know you had a boyfriend. You never mentioned him," Frank said.

"Never?" Jake asked Rae, feigning hurt. Or maybe that was real hurt.

"I didn't want to tell you when there's a chance you might never meet him," Rae replied, her tone slightly cold.

Her dad looked stunned, and Rae understood why. She'd always understood his absence before. But that was before she met Sage. Frank missed half of Rae's birthdays and who knows how many Thanksgivings and Christmases, but he always showed up for Sage's birthdays. What did that mean?

Frank cleared his throat and exchanged pleasantries with Jake's parents and sister. The rest of lunch passed peacefully. After lunch, Brittany and Mr. Saunders headed home. Mrs. Saunders helped Silena clean up. The two seemed to get along really well, which was good. The longer Mrs. Saunders stayed at Rae's house, the longer Jake could stay. Between school, work, and guardian training, Rae didn't get to see Jake much outside of school. They hadn't had a proper date in a while.

While Silena and Mrs. Saunders cleaned up and chatted, Frank talked to Jake and Rae in the living room. It was Frank's way of getting to know Jake.

"Do you play any sports?" he asked at one point.

"He plays all of them," Rae said rolling her eyes.

"Four," Jake corrected. "But to your daughter, that's all of them."

Frank laughed. "What do you play?"

"Lacrosse, basketball, soccer, and baseball. I'm on Varsity for all of them, although I don't know how. I'll admit I'm pretty good at basketball and soccer. I'm going to be captain for basketball next year, and I'm co-captain of the soccer team now. But I'm only average at lacrosse and baseball."

"Basketball was my best sport as well. I played shooting guard."

"I'm power forward," Jake said. "I think the best player on our team is the center though."

"Who's that?" Rae asked.

Jake rolled his eyes. "You come to every game and most practices and you don't even know who plays center?"

"I'm new to the school. I don't know most of the team."

"I'll give you a hint. He looks like he's never seen a basketball before in his life."

"Oh!" Rae looked at her dad. "My friend Josh is also on the team. And it's true, he's never played basketball before in his life. But he's really good." She smirked at her dad. "But it's surprising. He really has no idea what he's doing. It's like he's from a different world."

Frank just laughed, either not getting, or choosing not to notice, Rae's pointed comment.

"There are two other juniors who play point guard and shooting guard," Jake said. "The rest of the team is seniors."

"Then you must be really good," Frank said, looking impressed. "What sports don't you play?"

"Football and hockey. I love watching both of them, but they're not my thing to play. I would like to run track, but I can only play four sports a year, and I like the four I've chosen more."

"Ew, I hate running!" Rae exclaimed.

Jake laughed.

"Are you keeping up with your tennis?" Frank asked.

"Yes Dad," Rae sighed. Rae used to love tennis, but now she wasn't so sure. She only kept playing partly to add to her activity resume for college and partly because Frank loved tennis, and one of his favorite things to do with Rae was to play.

"Apparently she practices every afternoon," Jake said dryly. Rae had tried telling Jake she practiced tennis when he asked about GRACE last week to get him off her back. It wasn't until she said it that she realized it made no sense for ten people to gather in the basement of a Chinese restaurant for Rae to practice tennis. Needless to say, Jake didn't believe her.

Frank beamed at his daughter however. "That's great. Maybe you could even play tennis in college!"

"I told you Dad, it's too much to play tennis and study physics and chemistry at Yale. They have a bunch of invitationals at LA every year, and I can't just go to LA with all the LAB classes I have to take."

"Maybe you should study something easier so you can focus on tennis in college. You could go pro if you wanted to!"

Rae nearly groaned out loud and sighed in relief when Frank excused himself to use the bathroom.

"He's really into the tennis thing huh?" Jake asked.

"Yeah. The truth is, I only play tennis to make him happy. I used to really love it, but I don't anymore. And I _could_ go pro. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm really good. And no, my friends and I don't hang out in the basement so that I can practice tennis, but I _do_ practice every afternoon."

"But you don't love it enough to go pro?"

"No."

"But Rae, you once freaked out about not having a special talent. But you do. Tennis is your talent."

"I _hate_ tennis Jake. Like, I _really_ hate it. I don't do it for myself anymore."

"Maybe you should tell your dad that."

"It's only two more years. It's not a huge deal," Rae sighed.

Jake was about to protest, but Frank rejoined them. For another hour or so, Frank, Rae, and Jake had an enjoyable conversation. Then, Jake excused himself to use the bathroom.

Frank looked at Rae. "How's school? Are you doing well? Making friends?"

"Yeah. Straight As, as usual. I'm ranked number 4 in the junior class."

"Very impressive."

"Thanks. Jake's number two. And two of my best friends, Alyssa and Caty, are number 1 and 3 respectively. Caty's actually tied at number 3 with someone."

"You seem to have surrounded yourself with intelligent friends."

"Some of them."

"So you have a lot of friends?"

Rae figured it couldn't hurt to tell him about the members of Team GRACE.

"Yeah. There's Alyssa, who I told you about. She's ranked number 1, and she's a really good artist and she's really nice. And Caty, who's sort of a know-it-all. She's part of like every academic club in Sheffield. I'm also friends with her best friends Nina and Misha. And there's this girl Gabi. She's a cheerleader and a really good writer. We don't get along perfectly, but she is part of my friend group. Then there's Ellie. She's an actress, and she's an amazing singer, and she's really funny. Chris is also an artist, and he likes English and History. Cara's only fourteen, but she's hilarious and spunky and really fun. And James. He's a senior and Alyssa's boyfriend. He's into politics like Caty, and he's really easy to talk to. And of course you know about Josh."

What she meant was that Frank knew about Josh since he'd met him before, but Frank just said, "Right, you told me about him. That's a pretty big group."

"Well, I'm not done," Rae said. She looked right into Frank's eyes as he took a sip of the coffee Silena had given him. "I'm also friends with this other girl who's into drama and music like Ellie, but is also a cheerleader like Gabi. Her name is Sage Martin."

Frank started coughing violently. When he calmed down he said, "I'm glad you're making such good friends."

Rae nodded.

"Listen Rachel," Frank said, and Rae straightened up. Frank only called her Rachel when he had something serious to tell her. "I wanted to tell you, it's fun playing superhero, but don't put yourself in unnecessary danger."

"What?" Rae asked.

"Also wanted to let you know…it's impossible for you to learn every skill, especially if there's a part of yourself you only recently discovered. So you need to figure out what's important, and focus on perfecting that."

Rae frowned. What did that mean?

"Leading a group can be really stressful, but you can't let that get to you," Frank went on.

Rae furrowed her brows. "Dad are you…" She trailed off, not wanting to voice her question in case she was wrong. But he sounded like he was talking about the guardians. Like he knew she was one.

Jake came back into the room, and Frank got up.

"Are you leaving Mr. Dylan?" Jake asked.

"Yes, I must go. It was nice to meet you."

"You too," Jake said, shaking Frank's hand.

"Bye princess," Frank said, hugging Rae.

"Bye Daddy. I love you."

"I love you too," Frank said. "I want to leave you with a little bit more advice. Accepting help isn't a bad thing, especially when the alternative is failure. And just because you're weary of someone, doesn't mean you can't trust them."

"What do you mean?" Rae asked, still trying to figure out if he was talking about the guardians or if he was just spewing off random advice for no reason.

"When people aren't straightforward, it seems like they're untrustworthy. But that's not true. I can tell you right now that I know who the dodgiest person in your life is. And even though she seems to be evasive, I _promise_ you that you can trust her."

"Um…"

"Also, listen to you mother honey. Be good. And trust her. I know she can be a bit overprotective sometimes, but she only has your best interests at heart."

Rae nodded. Frank said that at the end of all of his visits.

"I will," she said. Frank smiled at her and left.

"That was some strange advice," Jake commented.

"Yeah," Rae agreed.

She thought about it. Frank said he knew who the most evasive person in her life was. And he was definitely alluding to the guardians. He knew all about Meridian and the guardians. He was friends with Cornelia and Elyon. But what did he mean?

Then everything clicked into place. Frank was best friends with Elyon. And the most evasive person is Rae's life was loyal to Elyon, so Frank must know her as well. And Frank _promised_ that Rae could trust this person. He was talking about…

Angel.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Friday afternoon, Caty checked her phone and saw seven missed calls from Ellie. She sighed, knowing Ellie had eight or nine missed calls from Caty as well. They'd missed each other all day yesterday, but Ellie was dying to hear about Caty's date from Caty herself, and Caty was dying to tell her, as well as fill her in on what Lili had said to her after lunch.

Caty got dressed, deciding she could shower that night. It was already 2pm anyway. She had guardian training in an hour and a half. She decided to go visit Ellie so they could talk in person and head to The Silver Dragon together.

When Caty knocked on Ellie's door, no one answered. Caty frowned. Ellie had said she'd be home all day Friday. That's why she was free for guardian training at any time. Caty knocked again, rang the doorbell a few times even though she remembered Ellie telling her it didn't work, and even tried to see if she could see something through the peephole, even though peepholes technically one worked one way. Nothing.

Caty called Ellie, but got her voicemail. She texted her, 'Where are you?' but got no response. That's when she heard a painful squeal behind the door. There was a sharp female yell and a frustrated male voice, but she couldn't make out the words.

There was a dismissive female voice, a loud sob that sounded like it could be coming from the same person, and in the next minute, all the voices were gone. Caty stood in front of the door for a good five minutes, shocked and scared before banging on the door. No answer.

Caty ran outside and did something she never thought she'd do. She ran _up_ the fire escape. If Ellie was on the fifth floor, that meant she had to run up five flights of fire escape stairs. Luckily, she already knew the fire escape window she was in front of peeked into Ellie's room.

Caty peered inside and saw it was empty. For a couple of minutes, Caty stood there freezing. Then, Ellie walked inside and looked at herself in the mirror. Caty ducked down so Ellie wouldn't see her reflection, then rose a little, hoping she could see Ellie without Ellie catching sight of her. Caty gasped when at the sight she was met with. She could see Ellie's reflection in the mirror and it was horrifying. There was a gash on the left side of Ellie's forehead and blood was dripping down from it. There was a bruise under her right eye, and a slight cut on her chin. The cut on her cheek that Ellie's had gotten from sparring practice on Wednesday that should've been healing was opened and bleeding again. Her left eye looked swollen, and some skin was peeling off the bridge of her nose.

Ellie left the room and Caty stood outside for five more minutes wondering if she should try the door again, or continue spying like a creeper. Spying won out when Ellie came back into the room. She's cleaned up the blood and put a Band-Aids on the cuts. Caty ducked down so Ellie wouldn't see her. When she rose again, she saw Ellie was sitting with her back to the bed (and Caty). Her shoulders were shaking, and Caty knew she was crying. In the next instant, someone else entered the room. Caty ducked again, and when she rose, she was surprised to see a boy sitting next to Ellie, his arm around her. He had light brown hair, like Jason's, and he had a few inches on Ellie. But he was definitely shorter and more built than Jason. That was _not_ Ellie's brother. Caty knew Jason was working today, so the frustrated male voice she heard when she was at the door must've belonged to this boy.

Caty felt anger burn inside of her. She knew _exactly_ who this boy was and what happened to Ellie. She couldn't let it happen again.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: What did you think? I hope you guys liked it and enjoyed the double update because I have some bad news. I'm going to be taking a break from this story for a week or so. I've been neglecting my schoolwork for this story, so I need to do some major catching up if I want to keep my grades up (which I do). On top of that, I need two extra days after the catching up in order to write a different story. I published a Harry Potter one-shot recently and even though it got pretty good reception considering it wasn't really that good. I got another idea for another Harry Potter one-shot with the same pairing, so I want to get that out before I get to the next chapter of this story. And for those of you who read my first Scorose fic, I hope you'll like the next one too! Thank you guys in advance for your patience, I love you all!**


	33. Alessia Cook

**A/N: Hey guys! I want to thank you all for being so patient with this update! This isn't **_**really**_** a double update. More of a 'when I finally finished this chapter, it was so long, I was afraid your eyes would bleed or the length would turn you off so I split it up' update. Like with chapter 3, which I split up into 'The Silver Dragon' and 'The Guardians of the Veil' if anyone remembers that. Anyway, I'd like to say a big thank you to my new reviewers, dmzbcutee, and Guest, whoever you may be. I'd also like to thank GreenGardenFairy for favoriting this story and ZayaMartinForever1995 for favoriting and following this story. And finally, I'd like to give a HUGE thank you to Evemoon016 for following, favoriting, **_**and**_** reviewing this story.**

**As usual with double updates, your shout-outs are split up. Hope you guys enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Guest: First of all, thank you for reviewing. I hope you're liking the story. I'm not going to confirm or deny Angel's identity to anyone unless they PM me, so I don't ruin it for anyone, but I did previously say it's not Will, so unfortunately, you're wrong. I am surprised at the fact that more than one person thought it was Will, and that's a very good guess. And there's more on Audrey being Caty's mother in this chapter. I hope you enjoy the new installments!**

**Emily: Well, then, you must be really surprised about this one. I managed to split it like I wanted. It was getting way too long, so I'm glad I found a good way to split it up and still have it flow. Ah, the Gabi and Josh moment. I was pleasantly surprised at how much people were frustrated at Michael for interrupting that since not too many people were vocal about that couple. Whoa, calm down. You know how much I like James and Alyssa together. Besides, or else what? Lol. In the words of my ex-best friend, I do what I like. No, my perfect date would be a wine and cheese tasting actually, but Caty's date would be a close second (besides the soccer field). And it's actually COFFEE with that SUGAR, thank you. Typo, I'm sure. And yes, it is me. To be honest, I forgot that I chose Marisa, and went with Marci since I didn't write it down anywhere. And even though I said Melody, I thought about her as Melanie for the rest of the time. And it just seemed lame if their mother was another 'M' name, so I chose Caroline. Idk exactly what I'm doing with Alexandra yet lol. Yeah, I wouldn't be able to ask my aunt questions like that, although I'd probably be too shy to even know where to start and wouldn't ask anyway. And now for your comments on my Scorose story: You know I adore Rose and have this need to make her perfect. Thanks! It's all I could think of. I was still watching The Tomorrow People as I wrote that, so I had Robbie in my brain and with him comes Stephen. I couldn't either, but with Vic being in on the pranking scene, I didn't know any way I could characterize Dom as being cool without having her teach them Exploding Snap. Lol, it reminded me of the granola bar fight too. Weird. Yes, that's you, but you proved you didn't read the revised chapter because I switched your last name to Levlin and made Link Scorpius's fake last name for Sammy. I like Clark too. If I continue, he and Harper will probably be a thing. Glad you liked it! And I think this is the longest shout out I'vve written yet.**

**Taylor: Then you'll like that I published two chapters this time too, though really it was one chapter that was so long that I decided to split it up to spare people's eyes. I really liked the fight too, it was my favorite thing that I've written so far. I'm glad you liked it. Besides the soccer field, I'd really like that date too. I actually toyed with the idea of Sage and Rae confronting Silena, and even wrote some of it out, but decided it was pointless. It wouldn't help the story any to have her admit it. You'll find out more about Ellie's abusive boyfriend in this chapter. And as for your comments on my Scorose story: I'm so glad you liked it. Scorpius and Rose are only 11, so I only emphasized friendship. They'll fall in love much later. It's supposed to be a slow moving fic chronicling their lives in Hogwarts with a few events from each year of school. In the other two HP/Scorose fics I'm planning, they don't meet on the train. In one, they meet during the Sorting and are already boyfriend and girlfriend at the start of the story, and in the other, they meet during class, and the story explores first year til after Christmas, and then jumps to seventh year, so I wanted them to meet on the train in this one. I'm so glad you liked it, and don't worry, any update for that story or first chapter to the other stories will only come AFTER this story is finished.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Chris! I'm freaking out!" Alyssa yelled Friday morning as she barged into The Silver Dragon with her art portfolio in tow. The restaurant was open, but no customers were there yet. Hay Lin was cleaning the bar counters and Cara prepping the host stand.

"Good morning Alyssa," Hay Lin smiled. "Is Chris expecting you?"

"Uh, no, not really."

"He's upstairs," Cara said. "And I'm sure he'll be happy to see you regardless."

Alyssa smiled triumphantly. "Good, because I need him."

"Ew, that's my _brother_!" Cara joked, making Alyssa roll her eyes.

"Yeah, and I have a _boyfriend_," she replied, smiling.

Cara laughed, then went back to the host stand.

Alyssa went upstairs, dragging her portfolio with her. She walked into Chris's room and saw him setting up his easel.

"Hey," she said, plopping down on his bed.

"Alyssa! Hi," Chris said, surprised.

Alyssa didn't blame him. She'd never come over of her own accord. Usually, people came to her house, and before GRACE, even though Alyssa and Chris were friends, they were never really the 'hang out outside of school and go to each other's house' type of friends.

"I hope you don't mind that I dropped by, but I need your help."

"Sure, what's up?"

Alyssa sighed and got up. "My aunt gets to interview Gerhard Richter in a couple of weeks and she offered to take a couple of my paintings with her to show him and see if he'd give her his thoughts on them."

"That's amazing Lyss!" Chris cried. "You know I don't care much for him, but he _is_ a great artist, and I know how much _you_ love him."

"The problem is, I don't know what to show him. I was so excited when Aunt Audrey told me yesterday, but that was before I realized all of pieces suck."

Chris rolled his eyes gently. "You're art doesn't suck. You're just nervous."

"I knew you would say that. And I was hoping that you could maybe help me pick out a few pieces."

Chris's eyes lit up. "Yeah, definitely!"

Alyssa smiled. "Thanks so much! I wanted to ask James originally, but he's not an artist. You're the only one who'd understand."

Chris sighed. He didn't want to ruin this moment, but he also had a duty to help his friend. "I'm not the only one," he said quietly.

Alyssa got down on her knees and started to open up her portfolio. She acted like she didn't hear Chris, but he knew she did.

He sat down next to her. "Alyssa," he said seriously.

She sighed. "Chris, why are you pushing this?"

"He's your brother. And before that, he was your best friend. And he's _my_ best friend. I have to help him."

"How about instead, you help me and never bring him up again?" Alyssa suggested, her voice taking on a hard edge.

Chris sighed and said, "The Child of Fire's final stand/Use all you must, even breath/or lose one you love to a fate worse than death."

"Are you quoting the prophecy?" Alyssa asked.

Chris nodded. "We don't know what it means. We don't know what's going to happen to you or me or anyone. So why do you insist on holding on to this grudge? You need to let it go. You need to talk to him."

"No thanks," Alyssa said, rolling her eyes.

Chris let out a frustrated breath, but said no more, knowing he had no hope of convincing Alyssa to talk to Josh if she didn't want to.

"I was toying with giving Aunt Audrey this one," Alyssa said, showing Chris the watercolor she'd done of Elyon's palace, before Kasson dethroned her.

"It seems like a lifetime since Queen Elyon's palace looked like that," Chris said. "And it's a good painting, but I know you can do better."

Alyssa nodded, and took out another piece. "I kind of like this one," she said. It was a drawing of a winter wonderland. It was done on black paper with white charcoal.

"It's nice, but you can _definitely_ do better."

"I _did_ do it in seventh grade," Alyssa admitted.

"For the charcoal season scene assignment. I remember," Chris nodded. "Definitely use something you did more recently."

"Well, what about this?" Alyssa showed him drawing of the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors done in one point perspective.

"Oh, this is cool," Chris commented.

"Some of my favorite Richter drawings are his perspective rooms," Alyssa said. "I did this for our perspective assignment in freshman year."

"It's awesome. This is definitely in the running."

Alyssa laughed and took out another piece. It was a black and white watercolor of Chris, Cara, and Eric in their regent forms. Chris and Eric were both turned slightly to one side, their arms crossed, their black wings folded in with a few feathers falling, their masks expressionless like they were supposed to be. Cara was facing forward, in between her brother and father, her white wings stretched out fully, a triumphant smile on her face.

"Whoa," Chris whispered.

Alyssa smiled. "The first time you turned into Shagon…I was blown away. I know you have black wings, but they were still beautiful. And that cool gold mask. And your father is the same. You guys are both buffer and taller too. And then Cara's wings are angel white, which is a really cool contrast with the two of you. I just had to capture it."

"This is amazing. This has to be one of the pieces you choose, and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it."

Alyssa laughed. They spent another hour going over Alyssa's art. In the end, Alyssa chose to give her aunt three pieces: the watercolor of the regents, the sketch of the Hall of Mirrors, and a Fauvist piece she did with fancy oil pastels of Meridian. Cornelia and Caleb's house was the main focus and the background was the other houses and shops near Cornelia's and Caleb's place. Off to the left side was Aldarn, and almost out of the painting on the right was Cornelia with baby Julian in her arms.

Alyssa then asked to see Chris's art. She'd seen the stuff he'd done for class, but she hadn't seen any of his personal pieces since fifth grade.

Chris enjoyed doing sci-fi and fantasy scenes with acrylic paints the most, but there were a few charcoal sketches of Meridian, Elyon's palace, the old guardians, and the old regents.

"These are really good," Alyssa said.

"Thanks. The guardians used to fascinate me all my life. They still do. That's why I incorporate them into my art so much."

"I know what you mean. Ever since I became a guardian, all this Meridian stuff has been in my art too. I turned in a piece of WITCH in their guardian forms for a project, I have another painting of Elyon's castle after Kasson took over, and I just finished two personal pieces."

"Can I see?" Chris asked.

Alyssa nodded and took out her two newest works of art. One was an acrylic piece with Snake Dude's side profile front and center. Flying above him was GRACE. In the background was the post-takeover version of Elyon's castle. In the upper right corner, in the distance, was Angel, flying towards the guardians.

The other piece was done with colored pencils. It was a huge drawing of the Heart, glowing pink as usual. Inside the heart were dim sketches of GRACE, with Rae in front and as the biggest figure. Each girl had their respective elemental color glow surrounding their left hand, as if getting ready to shoot energy blasts.

"These are really great Alyssa, especially this one of you guys in the Heart," Chris complimented.

"Thanks," Alyssa said glowing. She looked back at some of Chris's pieces. "Can I keep looking through these?"

"Of course," Chris said.

As Alyssa looked through his pieces and laughed at the ones that were meant to be funny and smiled sadly at the ones that were meant to be heartbreaking, Chris couldn't help but stare at her. He'd been friends with Alyssa since they were little kids. They met in pre-school. They were the best finger painters in their class. They weren't in the same class again until third grade, and the summer between third and fourth grade, they both took a summer art class that cemented their friendship.

The Sheffield cliques were already starting to form. Chris was already friends with several kids that ended up in the Sheffield art geek clique and Alyssa, Ellie, and Adam had formed their own little group. Chris tried to persuade Alyssa to join his group by hanging around her and ended up becoming friends with Ellie and Adam as well (although that friendship would dissolve in the following years).

Even after everyone from her supposed best friends to her tutoring students to her art admires abandoned her, Chris stayed friends with her, and somewhere along the line, developed a crush on her. He dismissed it as just a little crush and dated other girls, but when he and Alyssa became close again this year, he realized his 'little crush' didn't go away. It just became bigger. Chris resolved to grow closer to Alyssa. Then Alyssa became best friends with Rae, began to befriend Josh, and met James, and it didn't look like Chris could cement the relationship he wanted.

Soon enough, Alyssa and Josh bonded through art, and even though Chris already knew by that point that Josh was her brother, he was still jealous. Just a few weeks later, Alyssa and James started a relationship, and Chris was beyond jealous, even though he couldn't express it to anyone. By the time Alyssa and James started dating, the only person who knew his true feelings towards Alyssa was Josh, and the two of them were fighting.

Chris could tell Alyssa loved James, and he didn't want to come between them. He wanted Alyssa to be happy. He was just glad he and Alyssa were getting closer, and they were finally bonding as well.

"Chris! I need your help!" Cara called from downstairs.

"Sorry, I'll be right back," Chris said.

Alyssa just nodded, still looking through his art. She smiled at a cool watercolor of two scuba divers underwater who found a glowing green rock. From John's comic books, she realized it might be kryptonite.

She picked up another piece and was startled to see it was oil pastel portrait of her. Alyssa's face dominated the canvas. With the makeup and jewelry details Chris had drawn, Alyssa recognized it as the way she dressed up for the eighth grade dinner dance. That was an amazing night. Alyssa hadn't planned on going, but Chris actually asked her to go with him-as friends-and despite getting some mean comments from Gabi and Lana, she also got a lot of compliments from people who usually avoided her. She and Chris had an amazing time-it was the first time in a long time that she felt connected to him-and she and Ellie even exchanged tentative smiles and pleasantries.

Looking closer at the drawing, Alyssa saw that inside her eyes was a faded picture of Chris giving Alyssa a bouquet of red roses. Alyssa was blushing shyly.

Alyssa suddenly felt nervous and slightly sick. When Ellie told her the previous week that Chris liked her, she agreed with Ellie to stop having that conversation, then dismissed it. She'd known Chris for a long time, and there was no way he liked her. But seeing this portrait…for the first time, she thought it _was_ possible that Chris had a crush on her. Which was definitely trouble.

Alyssa couldn't deny Chris was hot and really sweet, and she loved spending time with him. But her heart belonged to James, and wild horses couldn't drag her away from that boy. And the last thing she wanted was for Chris to cause any trouble between her and James. James already backed off once because of Josh's overprotectiveness. She didn't want anything to make him distance himself again. No one stayed forever, but Alyssa was determined to keep James in her life as long as possible.

She heard Chris coming up the stairs. She hid her portrait behind four other paintings, then packed up her portfolio.

"Hey. Are you leaving?" Chris asked.

"Uh yeah. I just remembered I promised John I'd help him with his history project, so I have to go. I'll see you this afternoon for practice though," Alyssa said hurriedly. She gave him a weak smile and ran downstairs.

"Did you have fun?" Cara asked when she got to the main floor.

"I'm not sure that's what I'd call it," Alyssa replied, then hurried out of the restaurant, leaving Cara to stare after her, confused.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Any pressing business before we get to training?" Hay Lin asked that afternoon.

"Definitely," Gabi said. "Ellie and I found something very interesting on my dad's computer yesterday."

"Interesting and slightly disturbing," Ellie agreed.

"What's slightly is disturbing is the number of Band-Aids on your face," Rae said bluntly.

"Yeah. What's up with _that_ Ellie?" Alyssa asked pointedly, clearly trying to tell her she knew exactly what was going on.

"That's what I'd like to know," Caty said, her voice serious and slightly demanding. After seeing what she'd seen just an hour ago, Caty left and headed to The Silver Dragon early, anxiously waiting for Ellie. She was hoping Ellie would arrive early and Caty could talk to her about what she saw, but Ellie was the last to arrive.

"Is that really important?" Gabi asked, typing away on the laptop she brought with her. "Here. I need you guys to look at this."

The guardians gathered around the computer. The others gathered behind them, trying to see.

"Table of Contents? Gabi, what is this?" Alyssa asked.

"Gabi's mother had an interest in magic," Ellie announced.

"This is a 300 page document my mother made that was saved on my dad's computer. Just read through the table of contents, and you'll see why it's so freaky," Gabi said. She and Ellie wormed their way out of the group, and Hay Lin made her way toward the computer.

Alyssa was the fastest reader, and the first one to see what Ellie and Gabi were so freaked out by.

"The Guardians of the Veil," she read out loud. "Why are we a part of your mother's table of contents?"

"I don't know. But when I went to read about it, she had all the information about the guardians. Who they are, what they can do, how they are chosen. She knew about Kandrakar and the Oracle and MAGIC and Thousand Year Guardians. Everything that has to do with guardians is in this document," Gabi said.

Rae grabbed the laptop and sat down with it.

The others asked Gabi a torrent of questions, wondering how her mother knew about all this and if she had any magic or powers. Gabi had no idea and turned to Hay Lin for answers, but the older woman had nothing to offer either.

"Guys, that's not the only freaky thing," Rae said twenty minutes later. "I think I just figured out who Angel is. Not her identity, but I know _what_ she is."

"What do you mean by that?" Chris asked.

"The whole 'Magical Royals' thing looked interesting and there's a whole section of the queens of Meridian. According to this, the current Meridian Royal Family is the most powerful yet. That includes Elyon's late mother, Queen Weira, Elyon herself of course, and Sage and her siblings. And it says that sometimes, these queens give away their powers. There's a specific passage in here about Elyon's brother Phobos. It says he gave a bit of his powers to Lord Cedric, the original Snake Dude, so that Cedric could defeat the guardians and give Phobos control of Kandrakar. But when Cedric won, and Phobos started to enter a newly conquered Kandrakar, Cedric swallowed him whole, gaining all his powers."

"Ew!" Ellie cried. "That's disgusting!"

"I'll say," Caty said, looking a little green.

"There's more. There's a passage about Queen Weira. It says her parents died when she was 16, so she was put on the throne at a young age. She was afraid of all the power she had, so put some of it in a precious object and stored it away safely. When she got older, she stopped fearing her power and took it back."

"What does any of that have to do with Angel?" Cara asked.

"There's this one passage about magic transferal. It only works with powerful sorcerers, and Elyon is one. She can put some of her magic in a precious object and store it away. Then she can put an invisible seal on a person she trusts. That person can take the magic stored in the object should they need to. At that time, that person becomes a regent of the person's magic they took, and they become scarily loyal to that person."

"So, you think Angel is a regent of Elyon?" Caty asked.

Rae nodded.

"That actually makes sense," Alyssa said. "Elyon might've stored magic in a precious object in case something like Kasson's attack happened and put that seal on a person she trusts. When Elyon was captured, that person took the magic from the object, and became a regent of her magic."

"And that's Angel?" James asked.

"If anyone's scarily loyal to anyone, it's Angel to Elyon," Chris said. "She always insists that she's loyal to Queen Elyon, meaning if Elyon were to switch sides in this war, Angel would as well."

"But that still doesn't tell us _who_ she actually is," Cara said.

"Does it really matter who she is?" Caty asked. "I mean, how does knowing her identity help us in any way?"

"It doesn't, but it might help me make sense of what my dad said," Rae said. Everyone looked at her and she explained to the team what Frank told her.

"I know he never explicitly stated it was Angel, but she _is_ the dodgiest person in my life and he insists we can trust her."

"So you think he knows her identity?" Caty asked.

"But then why wouldn't he tell you who it is?" James asked when Rae nodded.

"He didn't even directly tell you he knows you're a guardian. He may have just been rambling nonsense," Gabi said.

"It sounds like he was alluding to the guardians," Alyssa said. "Because what he said wouldn't make sense unless he was talking about the guardians."

"And you're sure your father's not a lunatic New Girl?" Gabi asked.

"Do you want me to electrocute you?" Rae replied.

Gabi rolled her eyes, but shut up.

"So what now?" Caty asked. "I mean…do we trust Angel or not? Rae's dad is best friends with Elyon, so if he knows Angel's identity and thinks we can trust her, maybe we can."

"But in Ellie's dream, Angel turned on us, meaning Rae's dad thinks we can trust her for now, which we probably can. But sometime between now and the time when Ellie's dream comes true, Elyon will switch sides, meaning Angel will too. And we can't trust her after that," Alyssa said.

"But my dad wouldn't tell me to trust Angel if he thinks she could switch sides," Rae protested. "Meaning he probably thinks she won't. Maybe he knows something we don't. Maybe he or Angel herself found a way to prevent Angel from switching sides."

"So what, you trust her completely?" Gabi asked.

"That's not wise Rae," Hay Lin advised. "I warn you guys to be as weary of Angel as possible."

"You're the one who's sort of untrusting in the first place," Ellie pointed out.

"Well maybe I'm tired of that," Rae muttered, but said no more about the topic.

"Anything else?" Hay Lin asked.

Alyssa and James exchanged looks. They knew where Will was. But they couldn't mention that in front of Hay Lin, so they shook their heads along with everyone else, and the former air guardian started practice.

After practice, Hay Lin went upstairs and Alyssa took that opportunity to tell everyone about Will.

"Why is she on a different dimension?" Ellie asked.

"In," Caty corrected.

"What?"

"The grammatically correct question is why is she _in_ a different dimension," Caty explained.

"Know-it-all," Ellie and Gabi muttered in unison.

Caty rolled her eyes.

"I don't know," Alyssa said. "But I think that's the end guys. Anyway, as long as Elyon is locked up, Cornelia won't want to do a reunion, not to mention she probably hates my mom. Irma seems to be holding on too tight, and if we organize a reunion it might hurt her if it doesn't go as smoothly as she hopes."

"Mom would feel the same way," Cara agreed.

"And Will's on another world and the only way to find out more about that world is to ask Hay Lin. But if we ask, she'll want to know how we found out about Jumelle in the first place, which we can't explain without telling her we stole from Irma," James said.

"Maybe it's just not worth it. At least not right now," Alyssa said.

"_Besides_," she continued in James' head, "_I started this whole thing because I wanted to believe that Rae and I could be friends forever. But now Rae and I aren't friends anymore and we never will be again. I don't need proof anymore. People don't stay forever. You taught me that._"

"_I never should've said that,_" James replied, sighing inaudibly.

Alyssa just rolled her eyes. "We have work soon," she said aloud.

James nodded and the two of them left. One by one, each of the guardians left. Caty exchanged a look with Gabi, indicating she needed Gabi to stay back for a moment. When the water guardian and Earth guardian were alone in the basement, Caty told Gabi everything about Ellie, from what she originally suspected to what she saw. Caty knew she needed to confront Ellie about everything. Alyssa was a preferable ally to have in this situation, but she didn't seem to want to help, so Caty decided she needed Gabi instead. One way or another, she was going to save Ellie from herself.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Sunday afternoon, there was a knock at Gabi's door early in the afternoon. The Shays had just finished lunch. When she opened the door, she saw Josh and Sage.

"Hey guys," she said, giving Sage a hug. "What are you doing here?"

Josh pushed past Gabi, taking his duffel bag to his room.

Sage smiled apologetically and told Gabi what was going on. "We got back early. Josh told Caleb about what happened with Alyssa, and turns out not only did Jilly and Julia not know but Lillian, Chris, and Josh's grandparents didn't either, and there were huge fights breaking out. The twins were mad at their dad, and so was Lillian and Mrs. and Mr. Hale. Cornelia was mad at Josh because she didn't expect this to come out. Caleb and Cornelia got into a fight because Caleb wanted to know how Alyssa, Taranee, and Nigel were doing, and then the twins got mad at Cornelia for staying with Caleb, and Cornelia got mad at them, saying they had no right to talk about things they didn't know about. And Chris just wanted to stay out of the whole thing, which made Lillian mad at him, and their kids are little and they were crying the entire time because they hated hearing all the yelling."

"Wow. Drama," Gabi said.

Sage nodded. "I dropped my stuff off at Rae's. I would've stayed there, except Rae is at work, so Josh invited me here. I hope that's okay."

"You're one of my best friends. Of course it's okay," Gabi said. "And now you can meet Michael!"

"Sounds good to me," Sage said.

While Michael helped Luc with an assignment, Gabi filled Josh and Sage in on everything that happened during guardian practice of Friday. Sage said Elyon actually did say she stored her power in an object that she kept with a friend back on Earth, and she did put the transferal seal on someone.

"Who do you think it is?" Gabi asked.

"Maybe Aunt Alchemy," Sage said.

"And she is…?"

"A good friend of Mom's," Sage said.

"Of both our mothers," Josh said. "Aunt Alchemy was friends with Mom and Elyon since first grade. She had other friends too, so she wasn't part of the WITCH group, but she did eventually become close with all the members of WITCH, and Elyon told Aunt Alchemy about Meridian around the same time she told Frank."

"Aunt Alchemy visits us all the time," Sage added. "Her kids and husband don't know anything about Meridian, but that doesn't mean she isn't the Angel of Magic."

Gabi nodded. "But does Frank know Alchemy?"

"A little. But to be perfectly honest, they only hung out in groups," Josh said. "They never really became friends in their own right. They're just two people that wouldn't mesh well if they hung out on their own."

"Like me with New Girl," Gabi said.

"Rae," Josh corrected, rolling his eyes.

"Oh what_ever_," Gabi replied.

"You're a really terrible person," Josh said, but for the first time since their fight, his voice didn't sound so cold.

"Only to people who deserve it," Gabi said.

"Like Alyssa deserved it? And Ellie? And Caty?"

"Okay, okay, point taken. I was a bitch. But I'm different now."

"And we _all_ like you for that," Sage said, looking pointedly at Josh.

Josh just rolled his eyes.

Gabi rolled her eyes too, and said, "There's one more thing. Alyssa doesn't want to reunite the guardians anymore. It might be better that way anyway. Cornelia probably wants Taranee dead, and forgive me for bringing this up again Sage, but you mom is still missing. Regardless though, we found out where Will is."

"Really? Where?" Sage asked.

"And did you just call her _Alyssa_?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, she and I are actually friends now," Gabi said dismissively. "Anyway, about Will. She's in a place called Jumelle. We think it's another world. She's there with her husband and kids. She did marry Matt Olsen. Have you heard of this place?"

Sage nodded. "Yeah. Jumelle is one of the worlds the guardians saved when they were around 21. Jumelle's queen had died and the next in line was her daughter, but she was only six at the time. So the queen sister acted as regent. The power went to her head, and she wreaked havoc. Will and Hay Lin went to Jumelle alone because they couldn't round up the others, but everything turned out okay. All the queens of Jumelle get their powers through something called the Orb of Quintessence, and in order for the queen to lose her powers, the orb needs to be shut down. As the guardian of Quintessence, Will was able to do that. They she and Hay Lin locked up the aunt, and for a while, Will stayed there."

"What did she do?" Gabi asked.

"She acted as regent until the original queen's daughter was old enough to take over."

"And then she moved back?"

"Yeah, she was around for Sage's introduction party," Josh said. "There are pictures. I guess they moved back?"

"What if Angel is Will?" Gabi asked. "I mean, Angel can create portals, so maybe that's what Will is doing."

"It can't be Will. There's a veil put up between Meridian, Earth, and all the other worlds. No one on any other world can travel to Meridian or Earth until the veil is brought down," Josh said. "Portals cannot be opened to closed words like Meridian and Earth."

"How come we can open portals to Meridian then?" Gabi asked.

"The Heart of Kandrakar can open portals between closed worlds," Sage replied.

Gabi sighed. "So…did either of you know my mom? That's her picture of my nightstand."

The two looked at the picture, even though Josh already knew what she looked like, and shook their heads.

Gabi sighed again, wondering where her mother's interest in magic came from and how she knew so much.

After a little while, Sage met Michael and they hit it off really well. Michael told her she was beautiful.

"Is he _flirting_ with her?" Josh asked angrily, clenching his fist.

"Does it bother you?"

"I'm just protective of her," Josh said.

"Sage is probably the last person on Earth to need anyone's protection," Gabi replied. "And in any case, no, he's not flirting with her. Sage _is_ beautiful, and Michael always compliments people. But he has a girlfriend who he loves and who I love and he'd never flirt with another girl."

"Guys flirt with other girls all the time, even if they have girlfriends."

"Trust me, if you met Ariel, you'd understand. No one would dare even look at another girl if they got the chance to be with her."

"Is she like, unbelievably gorgeous?"

"No. She's really pretty, but a lot of my cheerleaders are prettier. Ariel's just…cool. Like, _really_ cool. She's like perfection. She's hilarious and kind and smart and…she's just everything. And she has this effect on people. When she talks to them, she can make them feel like they are the most special person in the world. You feel so important when she just looks at you. It's almost like magic. Every guy wants to date her and every girl wants to _be_ her. And she doesn't even realize that she's that popular."

"Wow," Josh said.

"She sounds amazing, huh?" Gabi asked, smiling at just the thought of the girl she saw as her big sister.

"Yeah," Josh said, shrugging. "But my comment was directed at you, and the way you talked just then. With so much passion and conviction. It's the way you talk about Luc and your mom. It's…enchanting."

Gabi went bright red, but said, "Thanks."

Josh gave her a smile, then went to his room. He came out half an hour later, and acted as if that conversation had never happened, and just like that, they were back to fighting. But now Gabi knew Josh didn't really hate her. He was resisting being friends for some reason. So she didn't fight back.

It was 6:30 when Michael had has bags packed and was ready to leave. The family, plus Sage, had dinner, and in about ten minutes, Gabi, Sage, and Josh would leave themselves for guardian training.

Michael politely said good bye to Sienna and Eva. Sienna hugged Michael. Eva just rolled her eyes at him, and muttered the word bye. Sage hugged Michael as well.

"I hope we see you at Christmas. My girlfriend would love to meet you," he said to Sage.

"I'd love to meet her too," Sage said sincerely.

"I'll see you," Michael said to Josh.

"Yeah," Josh said lamely.

The two shook hands again. Once again it seemed like Michael crushed Josh's hand.

Michael said a lengthy good bye to Daniel and Luc, then it was Gabi's turn. He hugged her, told her he loved her and would miss her and would call her soon and would be back for Christmas with Ariel.

"Can I ask you something?" Gabi asked.

"Anything."

"You don't like Josh. Why?"

Michael sighed. "So you picked up on that, huh?"

"People on the moon picked up on that Michael," Gabi said. "You made it so obvious."

"Look, I can't exactly judge a guy on looks, but even I can tell he's the kind of guy all the girls fall for. And I can tell just by the way you look at him that you like him too. Like, really like him, the way you used to like Jake. I _liked_ Jake. He was polite and intelligent, and I knew he'd treat you right."

"Josh is intelligent too. And maybe he's not polite exactly, but he's really sweet."

"Maybe so. But I can also tell you two are in a fight, and you're covering it up. I'm guessing that's for Luc's sake, because you want him to continue to have a good relationship with Josh. But I can see how rude he's being to you, and that's not okay. I'm also not okay with him living with you when you like him."

Gabi wanted to roll her eyes, but stopped herself. Michael had always been there to take care of her. She didn't want to disrespect him.

"I'll be careful," she said.

"That's all I ask," Michael replied. "I'd tell you take care of Luc, but you don't need me to tell you that."

"You take care of me, I take care of him. That's how it's always been," Gabi said with a slight smile.

"That's how it'll always be," Michael replied, more serious. He hugged her again, Gabi gave him a kiss on the cheek, and Michael left.

Gabi checked her watch. "Sage, Josh, we gotta go now too. Dad, we're headed to Caty Lewis's house. She's tutoring us in…biology."

"Okay. Don't be too late," Daniel said.

Gabi nodded, and the three of them left.

Gabi frowned when they arrived at The Silver Dragon. Caty and Ellie were sitting in a booth. Sage and Josh sat at the bar, ordered milkshakes, and waited for the others. Caty looked at Gabi, and motioned to the basement with her eyes. Gabi sighed. She knew they'd have to eventually confront Ellie about what Caty saw. She was hoping she'd have a little more time to process. Oh well.

Caty got up, and Ellie and Gabi followed her downstairs.

"Wait up here for the others," Gabi told the Meridianites.

"Okay guys, what's up?" Ellie asked when the three got downstairs. "Caty says you need to talk to me about something, but wouldn't tell me what."

Caty took a deep breath and said, "I went over your house on Friday."

Ellie's face scrunched up in confusion. "What? No you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"Did you ring the doorbell? Cuz it still doesn't work. My landlord hasn't gotten around to fixing it yet. Half the doorbells on my floor don't work."

"I did ring the doorbell," Caty said, "but only after I knocked a few times and no one opened the door. I also called you, and texted you, and then I heard people behind the door. It sounded like people were having a fight or something, so I…" Caty stopped here.

"You…what?" Ellie asked.

"I climbed up your fire escape and peeked through your window and saw all your bruises."

"You were _spying_ on me?"

"I was worried about you. And don't get angry, you have no right to be mad at me!"

"You spied on me but I'm not allowed to get angry? How does that make _any_ sense?"

Gabi had to agree with that.

"Ellie, was I wrong to assume we're close?" Caty asked. "Because I consider you one of my best friends. I tell you things I don't even tell Misha and Nina. But you didn't trust me enough to tell me what was going on with you?"

"Caty, I have no idea what you're talking about," Ellie said, and with her, it was hard to tell whether she was playing dumb or she really didn't know.

Caty sighed. "Do you think I'm an idiot? Or unobservant? Do you think I never realized you kept getting fresh bruises and cuts every week? Did you think I thought it was from guardian practice? I knew it wasn't. Did you think I didn't notice when you started limping one morning when you were fine the night before? Or when your shoulder hurt one afternoon when it was fine that same morning? Did you think you were being discreet? Because you weren't."

Ellie's face scrunched up in confusion. "What does discreet mean?" she asked.

Caty very pointedly ignored the question. "Don't deflect," she said, her voice cold. "I know what's been going on. I know why you're always hurt. So why don't you just confess?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ellie replied, and if she was lying, her acting didn't betray a thing.

"Oh my God!" Gabi cried, over the dodgy conversation. "Ellie, look at me."

Caty noticed Ellie was looking very pointedly at the ground.

"No."

" .Me," Gabi demanded, her voice like ice.

Immediately, Ellie looked up.

Gabi used her telekinesis to blow back Ellie's hair. A new bruise was on her face.

"What happened?" Gabi asked, making it very obvious she knew exactly what had happened.

"I walked into a pole," Ellie deadpanned.

"Do you think this is _funny_?"

"That you guys can't seem to mind your own business? Yeah, it's freaking hilarious!" Ellie snapped, losing her cool.

"Do you really expect us to believe you walked into a pole or fell down the stairs or all of the other bullshit excuses you give us? Do you expect us not to investigate? We're your friends Ellie, we care about you. All we want to know is why you get hurt all the time."

"It's because I spend my spare time wrestling crocodiles," Ellie said, and although that was a blatant lie, Ellie made it sound believable.

"I'm going to take a breather to mention Ellie could sell any story she wants to," Gabi said. "And now I'll get back on topic. El, people treat you like you're stupid. I never have, because I never thought you were. But maybe I was wrong. How can you just let yourself get slapped around by some guy?"

"_Guy_?" Ellie asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "What guy?"

"The one that put his arm around you after you cleaned up your cuts and brusies," Caty said, rolling her eyes.

"Your older, abusive boyfriend," Gabi added.

Ellie looked terrifyingly confused when everything suddenly clicked into place, and she began to laugh. "Boyfriend? Guys, that's my _brother_!"

"Don't lie to me Ellie. That guy has darker hair than Jason and he's shorter."

Ellie glared at Caty. "Well genius, chew on this: Just like Gabi, I happen to have more than one brother!"

Caty looked flabbergasted. "What?"

"His name's Gavin. He's 16 like me, and he came home from Princeton for Thanksgiving. He's my twin, but he got bumped up two grades, so he's in his freshman year of college already."

"But…we don't know him," Caty said. "Everyone knows everyone at Sheffield. We all only know one brother. How did we miss this one, especially if he's your _twin_?!"

"Because Gavin never went to Sheffield. He had really good Standardized test scores in second grade, so they bumped him up to fourth grade, and when they realized he was too smart for even that, he got into Little Learner's Academy for the rest of elementary school, then attended Briarwood Academy for middle and high school."

Caty's mouth dropped open. Little Learner's and Briarwood were two of the best schools in the country. She used to _dream_ about going there. Her parents couldn't afford either school, even though she was invited to both.

"Does anyone else know him?" Gabi challenged.

"_Yes_. Milly and Jade have never met him, but have seen pictures. Adam and Alyssa both know him. Yes, that's right, _Alyssa_, knows him. You can ask her yourself if you don't believe me. Maybe next time you guys want to poke around in my business, you can get your facts straight," Ellie said. "I'm going downstairs."

"Nice going Ice Queen. Looks like your imagination went wild," Gabi muttered.

Caty rolled her eyes and glared at Gabi. "Don't be stupid. So that guy is her brother, so what? That doesn't erase the fact that she's still getting smacked around. It just brings be back to my original theory."

"Which is…?"

"Her parents are the ones abusing her."

"Oh please."

"Ask Alyssa."

"Did she tell you that?"

"No, but she knows exactly what's going on. She won't tell, but under the right amount of pressure, maybe she'll crack."

"What do you want me to do, dangle her by her ankle with vines until she talks?" Gabi asked sarcastically.

"As appealing as _that_ idea is," Caty said dryly, "it's not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking more along the lines of pretend we know what's really going on so she reveals what she knows."

"You're losing your touch Ice Queen. Alyssa can _read our minds_. How is she not going to see right through us?"

Caty sighed, realizing Gabi was right.

"Well, we have to do _something_."

"Until Ellie tells us the truth, there's nothing we can do."

"Do you think Bree knows about what's going on behind closed doors?"

"No. If she knew, she'd definitely say something. She and Ellie don't _hate_ each other, they just don't get along. But they're still cousins."

"Maybe Ellie will talk to Bree."

"That's a terrible idea."

"It's worth a try though. We can't just let Ellie get hurt."

Gabi sighed. "Okay. I'll talk to her. But no promises."

"But you'll try your hardest?"

"Naturally."

"That's all I ask."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Alyssa, Audrey sent you a letter," Taranee said that afternoon when Alyssa got home after guardian practice.

Alyssa took it. "Thanks," she muttered stiffly before going up to her room. She heard a mother heave a sigh and chose to ignore it.

Alyssa opened the letter and saw Audrey had written down everything Gerard Richter had said about each of the pieces Audrey had shown him. Overall, he seemed impressed with her work, and hoped she'd never give up. Alyssa was pleased. She was also glad Audrey had sent this letter to her. The way she and her aunt had left things, Alyssa was worried she'd never hear from her again. Alyssa wasn't very kind on the last day of Audrey's stay when she confronted her.

_"Aunt Audrey?" Alyssa tried to appear timid as she entered her aunt's room._

_ Audrey gave Alyssa a smile. "Come in Lyss. Is there something you wanted to talk about?"_

_ "Um, yeah actually. You're a reporter so I'm sure you have good research skills. I wanted to know…if someone is adopted, how would they go about finding their birth parents?"_

_ Audrey's face paled a little. "Does this have anything to do with that friend of yours that you mentioned?"_

_ "Caty. Yeah."_

_ Audrey let out a slightly shuddering breath before saying, "Well, you can check public birth records to find their names-"_

_ "But I would need Caty's given name for that, and I don't have it. Caty's parents left her on a doorstep when she was four and they left a letter with her age, birthday, and all kinds of other information, but not why they gave her up, and not her real name, first or last. Caitlin is the name her adoptive parents gave her."_

_ "Well, that's a tricky situation," Audrey said, seemingly more comfortable. Alyssa guessed she was getting her story down. "Since her parents left her on a doorstep, there won't be any official paperwork or records."_

_ "Seems like her parents didn't want to be found," Alyssa muttered._

_ "Maybe you should leave well enough alone."_

_ "But why would her parents go through so much trouble to hide their identities? And why did they gave Caty up when they did? What changed between the time she was born and the time she turned four that made them decide to give her…away?"_

_ "Don't say that. Away," Audrey said. "I'm sure they had their reasons."_

_ "Like what?" Alyssa asked._

_ Audrey shrugged. "I don't know."_

_ "Well, if you had to think of something, what would you say?"_

_ "The only reason I could think of is for her own safety. To give the child her best chance."_

_ "What do you mean?"_

_ "Maybe she wasn't safe with her real parents and she never would be, and that's why they gave her up and concealed their identity. For her safety."_

_ Alyssa considered this. Maybe there was a good reason that Audrey gave Caty up. Maybe she was some trouble or something. But she was fine now. She had to be. And if she wasn't…well, Caty could protect herself now. She deserved to know her mother._

_ Alyssa couldn't think of a way to beat around the bush anymore, so she decided to be direct, with a little embellishment._

_ "What about a DNA test? Could that help?" she asked._

_ "I suppose, but you'd need DNA to compare it to, so it would mainly be for proof of relation."_

_ "Well, you look just like her Aunt Audrey. So we did a home DNA test, and found out we're related. Unless you had an affair with my dad and she's secretly my sister, she'd have to be the child you had with Uncle Peter."_

_ Audrey's whole face went white, and she kept opening and closing her mouth, not sure what to say. Alyssa cringed as she mentally went over what she said. She was kind of crass._

_ "I'm sorry. That lacked tact," Alyssa said. "But you can't really deny it any longer. Caty's real father is Uncle Peter and her real mother is you."_

_ "Yes," Aunt Audrey whispered finally, tears in her eyes. "I had a daughter sixteen years ago, with you Uncle Peter. He was already dead by the time she was born."_

_ "What was her name? Her real name?"_

_ "We called her Alessia, as a variant of your name. You were born a few months before her. You two were supposed to grow up together."_

_ "But you gave her up. What kind of danger were you in?"_

_ "I'm sorry. I can't tell you. I'll answer any other questions you have, but not that one."_

_ Alyssa frowned, but went on, "Will you meet her?"_

_ "No. She'll be in more danger if we meet. I can't. Maybe someday, but not right now."_

_ Alyssa's frown deepened, but maybe that was for the best. Caty didn't want to meet her anyway. _

_ "Why did you choose to leave her on a doorstep instead of at an orphanage or something?"_

_ "I couldn't be sure what kind of family she'd end up with if I did that. Iris Levlin, who I guess would be Caty's adoptive sister, was my sister's best friend. They liked to hang out with me and my friends, and the way Iris turned out…I knew she had to have amazing parents. So when Caty turned four, and I realized she'd never be safe with me, that's where I chose to leave her. Taranee wasn't supportive of doing things that way. She was always so by the book. But she also understood this was my kid."_

_ Alyssa nodded. "Why didn't Mom offer to take Caty?"_

_ "She did. But I felt even that would be unsafe. I'm sure the people that were…after us…knew about her too. I didn't want to endanger you or put Alessia in an environment that I wasn't sure was safe. Is she happy?"_

_ "She's happy. And safe. But things didn't turn out the way you expected. Iris may have turned out great, but her parents had problems with all their other children. Caty was ignored for the first few months she was there, but then Iris and her boyfriend Jeremy noticed and treated her like their own child. When Caty turned ten and Iris and Jeremy found a place of their own, they officially adopted Caty."_

_ Audrey's mouth dropped open and tears freely rolled down her cheeks. "I had no idea," she sobbed. "I wanted her to have a good life."_

_ "She did. I mean, she was ill-treated or anything. And Iris's parents-Caty's grandparents I guess-fed and clothed her and sent her to school, and Iris parented her. And she loves Iris and Jeremy. She's very happy with them. They have a nice house and she has her own room and even though they're young, Iris and Jeremy have been good parents to her."_

_ "Will you tell me about her?"_

_ "Sure. She's smart. Very smart. She's number three in class rank, tied with a boy named Brian. She's the vice president of the junior class, and she's in a bunch of clubs. Debate Team, Academic Decathalon, Key Club. She keeps busy."_

_ "Does she like sports? Peter would've wanted her on the basketball team."_

_ "She hates basketball actually," Alyssa said, and Audrey let out a watery laugh. "She plays soccer though. She's good. She's on Varsity this year."_

_ "Wow. My little girl," Audrey whispered. "Does she have friends? What about a boyfriend?"_

_ "She has two best friends, Nina and Misha. And of course me and some of my other friends. Ellie's one of her best friends too. And she's dating the boy I mentioned before, Brian. He's her first boyfriend since seventh grade. She's still good friends with Tony, the boy she dated in seventh grade."_

_ "So she has a normal life?"_

_ Alyssa nodded. No, Caty did not have a normal life, but she wasn't about to tell Audrey about the guardians. Instead, she just told Audrey more about Caty, and did not mention that Iris and Jeremy were going to have another kid and Caty was feeling insecure about it. Why stress her out? Audrey seemed very happy with the way Caty turned out and didn't need to know about any negatives._

When Audrey left later that day, she handed Alyssa an envelope, saying it was a letter for Caty. Alyssa had given it Caty, but Caty had yet to open it. After giving Alyssa the letter, Audrey gave her a tentative smile, but Alyssa was still worried she was angry. She was happy to be wrong for once. She did wonder, however, what the danger Audrey was in was. Figuring that out would be Alyssa's next mission.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that and I hope you'll like the next chapter. It features an event that a lot of people have been looking forward to!**


	34. Redemption

**A/N: And here's chapter 32, AKA the second half of chapter 31. Hope you guys enjoy it! The rest of the shout outs are below.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Misa: Don't worry, I don't mind. And yes, glad you picked up on that. Lainey knowing means Irma knows. That'll come to light later. Well, you saw somewhat of a Josh/Gabi moment in the last chapter. I love best friend couples too, they're my favorite. I have a plan for Ellie, but I can't tell you what it is yet. Caty and Brian are too stiff with each other because they were always fighting with each other. Even being friends would be new territory so them, so imagine how weird dating must be! They'll get better. I've been planning this one scene with the two of them for a while that shows how comfortable they've gotten with each other. I hope you like what I've come up with!**

**SilvenArrow: There is of course a reconciliation in Josh and Gabi's future. I just don't know when. They had a little moment in the last chapter. I'm glad you liked their fight because that was my favorite part to write and read over. I haven't decided who to put Ellie with yet, but it's between Chris and Adam. You don't have to tell me. I ADORE James and Alyssa, I'm very pleased with the way they turned out. I have no real plans for Alexandra and the document past what I wrote in the previous chapter. I'll have to figure something out for that. It was a huge spur of the moment thing. I hope you enjoyed everything Alyssa found out from Audrey in the previous chapter. I knew it was pointless to have her dodge and play dumb when it was clear to everyone she's Caty's mom, so I had her confess instead. I'm glad you mentioned the whole Piper thing and Elyon in cages just because I put in more about Piper, Kylie, and Dean in this chapter and I was wondering if anyone even remembered them. And you saw what happened with Ellie's "abusive boyfriend." I also want to answer your review for Who I Am. I'm glad you found Scorpius lovable, because that's what I was going for. I adore any fic that characterizes Scorpius as the sweet and insecure boy. All of her cousins are real, as are Lorcan and Lysander Scamander. It's the ages that are a bit fuzzy. I'm not entirely sure how old Molly, Lucy, Fred, Roxy, Lorcan, and Lysander are. Other than that, all the family friends, and marriages (except for Neville and Hannah's) are fake. The stuff on the card wasn't made up either. All the work she did with house elves and purebloods with the Ministry is all real. I used all the canon information to create the entry on the card and modeled it after Dumbledore's. I'm not a huge TKAM fan, but I like it enough to include a character named after Harper Lee. I like Clark too. Should I choose to continue, Harper and Clark will definitely have a bigger role, and they'll probably end up together. I'm glad you liked it, and as for GRACE, I hope you enjoy this chapter and enjoyed the previous one.**

**Shay: Ellie and Adam aren't even a couple! But I know what you mean. They are really cute, and they are now tied with James and Alyssa as my favorite. I hope you liked the little Gabi/Josh moment in the previous chapter. And I'm glad you liked their date since that was most of the chapter. I still have to figure out what connection Gabi's mother has with the guardians. I thought about having Rae and Sage confront Silena, and even wrote it out, but saw no reason to include it since it doesn't move the story along at all. You'll see how Rae feels about Angel in this chapter. And you were right about Ellie's "abusive boyfriend" so we'll see how that develops.**

**dmzbcutee: Thanks, I'm so glad you like it! You reviewed Playing the Player too, didn't you? I hope you liked these two new chapters!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Adam making out with someone has got to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen!" Alyssa declared.

"Why, because you've never seen it before?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah."

"I agree," Ellie said. "He should've been making out with _me_!"

Alyssa gave Ellie a strange look. "Ellie, are you sure you're just petty jealous? I mean, is it possible that you're _jealous_ jealous?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, maybe you actually _like_ Adam."

"I don't," Ellie said, shaking her head.

"Are you sure? I mean, you guys _would_ make a cute couple."

"He's been asking me out since kindergarten, and I've always said no. I never wanted to date him," Ellie said, but she didn't sound very convincing. Ellie was supposed to be a _good_ liar.

Alyssa just rolled her eyes and said nothing. It was Monday afternoon. They'd had guardian training right after school. James was scheduled to work that day, but Alyssa wasn't, so she asked if Ellie wanted to come over. They had spent the last couple of hours sitting on the steps in Alyssa's house, just talking. It was something they used to do when they were friends before. They'd always sit on the stairs with a bag of Cheetos and pour their hearts out. Today was no different, except the 'pour their heart out' session lasted for two hours after the Cheetos were finished.

Alyssa told Ellie about the painting she'd seen in Chris's house, and Ellie complained about Adam and Jade.

"I'm thinking about just getting myself a date for the Hollidazzle Dance," Ellie said.

"Who?"

"Can I borrow your boyfriend?"

"Absolutely not."

Ellie laughed. "Then Jimmy Sanders."

"Oh, he's cute. Why him though? This is the first time I've ever heard you mention him."

"He's the guy Jade used to like before she started dating Adam."

"And you want to what? Ask him out to make Jade jealous?"

"Jimmy likes Jade too. Maybe if she sees him with me, she'll understand how I feel. Jimmy is _supposed_ to like her, like Adam is _supposed_ to like me."

"No one is _supposed_ to like anyone," Alyssa disagreed. "And even if Jade _does_ understand how you feel, what do you think will happen? If you think Jade's going to break up with Adam, you need to reevaluate."

"What does reevaluate mean?"

"I'm just saying things might not go the way you expect them to. And you need to stop trying to get revenge."

"But-"

"Don't make me make Caty use her powers on you."

Ellie scowled at the thought of Caty-she was still mad at both the water guardian and the Earth guardian-and sighed. "Alright, alright. But now I _really_ don't want to go. Stupid music class making me perform."

Alyssa laughed. The front door opened and Nigel walked in with a plastic bag.

"Hi Mr. Ashcroft!" Ellie said as Alyssa gave her father a hug.

Nigel hugged his daughter back and smiled at the air guardian. "Hi Ellie. It's nice to see you're presence here is a normality again."

"I'm glad to be back too," Ellie smiled.

"And I'm glad to have you back," Alyssa said. "I'm not glad that we ran out of Cheetos though."

Nigel laughed. "Good to see somethings haven't changed. Here."

Alyssa took the plastic bag Nigel offered her. Inside was a six pack of Sierra Mist, and a big bag of Cheetos.

"Dad, you're the best!" Alyssa cried, showing Ellie the bag.

"Oh, excellent! I have to get home, but I'll totally take the soda to go."

Alyssa laughed, cut two cans loose, and grabbed her jacket. "I have to go to Down the Rabbit Hole. It's on the way to your house, so I'll just come with you."

Ellie nodded.

"Bye Mr. Ashcroft."

"Bye Dad!"

"Bye girls. I'll see you tomorrow sweetie."

"So what's your dad doing home?" Ellie asked when they were outside. She knew that he'd come over for Thanksgiving lunch, and according to Nigel, coffee had gone well, but no news since then.

"Mom and Dad are spending the night in a hotel they used to go to all the time before John and I were born. Something about rekindling their romance."

"Okay, ew. TMI," Ellie declared.

"TME too," Alyssa said. "Too Much Effort. I hate that my dad is trying so hard. She doesn't deserve him."

"I can't believe you're not happy that your parents are trying. You're probably the only person in the world whose mother cheated on her husband with his best friend and had a child and might still stay together with her husband."

"I want my dad to be happy. How can he be with someone as unfaithful as my mom?"

"Your mother is not the only person in the world that's been unfaithful. So she made a mistake. So what? Your father still loves you, so as hurt and betrayed he feels, you're a silver lining in this for him. He can't be too mad because at least he got you. Your parents were in love before your dad knew about the affair. And those feelings don't just go away. They're still in love, and the other makes them happy. How can you deny them that?"

Alyssa bit her lip. Ellie was right, as much as she hated to admit it. If Taranee really made Nigel happy, she should accept it instead of giving Nigel such a hard time.

"And you know what else?" Ellie asked, and immediately Alyssa knew Ellie was not talking about her parents anymore. "Adam used to be in love with me, and like I just said, those feelings don't just go away. He may be dating Jade now, and it's _possible_ that he could _sort of_ like her, but he's probably still into me."

"I'm sure he has lingering feelings for you. You never forget your first love, and you're always going to love them. That's not the same thing as him wanting to be with you though."

"I don't get it Lyssa! Why doesn't he want to be with me?"

"Because you said no! You rejected him Ellie, over and over again. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. You were usually gentle and sweet about it, and he couldn't blame you for not liking him. But he had to move on. He can't be in love with you for the rest of his life when he knows you're never going to feel the same way."

"He's my best friend Lyssa. But if he's dating Jade, he's going to spend all of his time with her, and I'm going to lose him."

"The only thing that'll cause you to lose him is if you continue being a bitter brat about this."

"Lyssa!"

"Sorry, but you _are_ kind of being a brat. That's not only going to drive _him_ away, but also Jade, and maybe even Milly. And last time I checked, Jade was one of your best friends too. You don't have to _like_ their relationship, or even be okay with it, but you have to pretend, or at least don't hate on them. Continue being their friend, and you'll never lose Adam. And by the way, he's not your only best friend. You have me now too."

Ellie smiled. "I know. And I'm so glad. I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too," Alyssa said. "And, I'm not the only one either. You and Caty are really close too."

Ellie's face darkened as she rolled her eyes. "Well, we're kind of in a fight right now, but whatever. We'll get over it, I guess."

"Yeah, I noticed you two weren't getting along. What happened?"

"She was spying on me."

"When? How?"

"She came over on Friday, and when I didn't answer the door, she spied on me through my window."

Alyssa remained silent. She knew why Caty did what she did.

"And she sees Gavin and assumes he's hitting me."

"Oh Gavin's back? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you always had a creepy crush on him."

"It's not creepy! He's really smart and I like that."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "He thought you were super creepy when we were little."

"I was a nine year old girl with a crush and he was a nine year old boy who thought all girls besides his mother and sister were gross and weird, of course he thought I was creepy. But now I'm more mature and I have a boyfriend."

"Then there's no reason for you to want to see Gavin in the first place," Ellie said. "So why are you headed to the bookstore?"

"Ronnie said she has a book she thinks I'd be interested in so she wants me to come by."

"Since when are you and Ronnie friends?"

"Since I started working at her family's company. She's really cool."

"She's an athlete and you hate sports."

"Yeah, but she also knows a lot about art."

"Then here we are," Ellie said as they stopped in front of Down the Rabbit Hole. "I'll see you tomorrow Lyss."

"Okay, bye El. Think about what I said about Adam and Jade," Alyssa said, hugging the air guardian good bye.

Ellie didn't reply. She just waved and went on her way.

Alyssa sighed and walked into the store. It was almost closing time, so only Rae and Ronnie, who were closing up register, and Brooke, who was finishing up floor, were still there.

"Hey Alyssa!" Ronnie said happily when the fire guardian walked in.

Rae looked up, surprised. She didn't know Alyssa was coming.

"Hey Ronnie. What's up?"

"I'm so tired," Ronnie whined. "Somehow, I _always_ get stuck with closing shifts and Lainey always gets the first shift and gets to go home early."

"That's because Lainey's not allowed to stay this late," Brooke said. She ducked under the register to grab her stuff. "And now I'm done too, so I'm out. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Brooke," all three girls chorused.

"I need to clean the break room, and then we can get out of here too," Rae said.

Ronnie nodded, and Rae headed to the break room.

"So, yesterday we just got a new shipment of biographies, and I thought you'd like this one." Ronnie put a book on the counter.

Alyssa picked it up and gasped. "This is the new Claude Monet biography I wanted to read."

Ronnie nodded, smiling. "I know you said it was too expensive, and you asked if I could get it down with my employee discount. It's already 30% off, plus I get another 50%, for being an employee, so it came out to $17.50."

"Oh, that's amazing!" Alyssa cried. She pulled out $20 and gave it to Ronnie. "Keep it, as a thank you for remembering I wanted this. I'm so excited to read it!"

Ronnie laughed. "Honestly, the only other person that gets so excited about books is Rae. No wonder you guys are best friends."

Alyssa's smile waned, but she nodded just the same. It seemed like Ronnie didn't know Alyssa and Rae were no longer friends. There was no need to correct her. It would just make things awkward.

Ronnie looked around for her bag, then remembered it was in the break room. Alyssa followed her in.

"I'm done," Rae announced when she saw them.

"Great. I'm just going to use the bathroom really quick and then we can close up," Ronnie said. "You guys can leave though, if you want."

"Mrs. P gave me the key, and you know how she hates it if someone else returns it to her the next morning," Rae sighed.

Ronnie let out a short laugh and nodded, then headed towards the bathroom.

For a minute, Alyssa and Rae stood in deafening silence. Just when Rae was about to try to apologize-_again_\- the girls heard a familiar chiming noise.

Alyssa turned around and the Heart around Rae's neck vibrated.

"No. Not here," she muttered.

"Here," Alyssa said as a portal opened up.

The girls backed up and monsters came out in pairs. They were different than the usual ones. They had green skin, long noses covered with warts, and wore dark blue ripped shorts. Instead of clubs, they carried scythes, one in each arm.

"Rae, Rae, the portal!" Alyssa cried.

Rae lifted the Heart. Thirteen pairs of monsters had already entered, and the fourteenth pair was trying to get through as Rae closed the portal. One monster did get through, but his partner got stuck halfway. Rae's eyes widened, trying to figure out how to close the portal and stick the last monster in Meridian. Alyssa would've found this site funny if she wasn't so scared, trying to figure how two guardians could take down 25 monsters on their own.

While Rae struggled with the portal, Alyssa tried to contact the others, but no one answered. She took out her phone, but to her dismay, it was dead. It was just going to be the two of them.

"Yes!" Rae cried. Alyssa looked up and saw the portal had closed and the last monster had been sucked back into Meridian. The other monsters growled fiercely at them. One charged, but Rae was quick.

"Guardians, unite!" she cried, and the light and energy from the Heart threw the monster back.

"Fire!"

"Quintessence!"

A few of the monsters charged again. Immediately, Rae grabbed one of them and even though it didn't look like she did anything, the monster was clearly being electrocuted. He was dead within seconds.

'Wow,' Alyssa thought before defeating a monster of her own. She was getting really good at microwaves and was able to kill monsters with them.

Rae flew up as high as she could and shot lightning balls at the monsters. Three of them hit, and that made a total of five monsters down.

"I don't supposed we'll be getting help from any of the others?" Rae asked, landing next to Alyssa.

"I couldn't reach anyone. Think we can handle this?"

"I hope so. I also hope we can finish this before Ronnie comes out of the bathroom."

"I forgot about her!" Alyssa exclaimed, killing another monster. "But these guys don't seem as tough as the brown ones."

Just as she finished talking, one monster came up from behind her and pressed his scythe to her neck.

Rae grabbed him and electrocuted him.

"You were saying?" she said.

"Ooops," Alyssa said.

Rae rolled her eyes playfully before launching a lightning bolt at another monster. It missed.

"Rae, how are we explaining the damages from this battle?" Alyssa asked, flying to dodge another monster's scythe.

"Earthquake?" Rae asked questioningly.

"How has Ronnie not heard this yet?"

"The bathroom is soundproof."

Alyssa gave Rae a strange look, nearly getting taken out by a monster because of it before Rae shot a lightning ball at it.

"Not on purpose," Rae said. "It just happens to be soundproof."

"Weird," Alyssa commented, using a large fire ball to burn two of them alive.

Rae electrocuted another one, then began breathing hard.

"What's wrong?"

"That's a new trick I learned and it takes a lot out of me," Rae said.

Three monsters, noticing that Rae was weakened, charged at her. Luckily, Alyssa managed to throw a fireball at them, killing one, and scaring the other two.

"You shouldn't have used the trick then."

"It's more effective than shooting balls of lightning and hoping they hit," Rae snapped.

Alyssa bit her lip to stop herself from snapping back. For a moment, it seemed like they were going back to being friends, and it was kind of nice, but now the atmosphere was frosty again.

For a few minutes, the girls fought in silence, Alyssa sticking close to Rae to protect her since Rae was still tired. When Rae got some juice back, she killed a monster with a ball of lightning just as he was about to chop off Alyssa's arm with his scythe.

"Remember how you and James got attacked at Lange's, and you said that monster wanted to capture you, but didn't want to kill you?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I think this is a completely different battle. These monsters _want_ to kill us. I just keep wondering why we get hunted down by different monsters with different goals. How come some want to kill us and other's want to capture us?"

"I think that's something we can discuss when we get rid of these seven remaining monsters," Alyssa said, though she was itching to tell Rae her theory.

"Get behind me, I have an idea," Rae said.

Alyssa flew over to Rae and landed behind her.

The Heart, as usual, fused with Rae when she changed them, but she could still use its powers. "Spord lartsa," she said. As she suspected, two astral drops, one of Rae, and one of Alyssa, appeared. Astral drops were mindless copies and didn't have powers, but since she created them while in guardian form, they appeared wearing the guardian costume, complete with wings.

Alyssa and Rae moved behind the astral drops, and Rae whispered, "Spord lastra," once again. Two more astral drops appeared.

"You can create more than one?" Alyssa asked.

"I can create as many as I want."

"When did you learn all these things?"

"Hay Lin taught me the electrocuting trick when you were still mad at us and stopped coming to practice, but I learned the astral drop trick from one of the diaries of the Keeper of a set of Thousand Year Guardians."

As Rae said it, the copies disappeared.

"Oh no," Rae moaned, realizing she said 'astral drop' which made the copies disappear.

Rae knew the monsters were confused the first time, but wasn't sure if they'd fall for it again. But they still seemed confused, wondering how the copies had disappeared, so Rae tested her luck.

"Spord lartsa," she said, and a copy of herself and a copy of Alyssa appeared.

Rae created eight more sets of astral drops and ordered them to charge at the monsters. The astral drops did as they were told, and for a couple of minutes, the monsters, who had no idea that astral drops didn't have powers, were distracted and scared. It gave Alyssa and Rae the advantage they needed to take down some of the other monsters.

Alyssa and Rae took down three of them before the monsters knocked over all of the astral drops.

Rae and Alyssa stood at the ready, but were so tired that they weren't fast enough. Two of the monster grabbed them while the other two pressed their scythes to their necks. They were ready to take the girls' heads clean off when some movement at the window caught their eye. They loosened their grip, enough so that Alyssa and Rae could turn their heads to see what caught the monsters' attention, but not enough for them to escape. There, flying in front of the window, was Angel.

"Never thought I'd actually be _glad_ to see her," Alyssa muttered.

Angel used her phasing ability to get through the window and disintegrated the monsters.

"Are you alright?" she asked in her echo-y voice.

"Yeah," Alyssa whispered, breathing hard. She touched the side of her neck and saw blood on her fingers.

"I don't feel so good," Rae moaned.

Looking at her, Alyssa realized her wound was much deeper.

"She's going to pass out. She's losing a lot of blood," Alyssa said

Angel waved her arm over Rae's wound. Immediately, it closed up. Then she waved her arm over Rae's whole body, and she began to look better, like she regained all the strength she'd lost during the battle. Angel did the same for Alyssa, and Alyssa _felt_ reenergized, and understood why Rae looked so much better.

"Thank you," Alyssa said.

Angel just nodded.

"Astral drop," Rae said, remembering the clones that were still lying on the ground. Their copies disappeared. Rae changed the girls back into human form and they surveyed the damage.

"The tables and chairs are all broken, that stand fell over, one of the shelves in the bookcase is broken and there are open cracks on the ground," Alyssa said.

"You're the guardian of fire. Use your power to weld these things back together."

"That's only a temporary solution," Angel said. "Let me offer a more permanent one."

Using her magic Angel fixed everything that was broken and lifted everything that fell. The room looked better than it did before the portal opened by the time she was done.

"Thank you so much for coming to help us. We would've died if you hadn't been there," Rae said gratefully.

She expected Angel to say something along the lines of 'my allegiance is with Queen Elyon, and therefore with you' but she didn't. Instead Angel surprised her by smiling for the first time since Rae met her and said, "I will always protect you."

"Me?" Rae squeaked, wondering if Angel was really talking about her in general.

"The heroes," Angel clarified.

"What does that mean?" Alyssa asked.

"You will get my help for as long as I can provide it," Angel said, which didn't really answer the question. Before either girl could call her out on it, Angel phased through the window and flew away.

For a couple of minutes, Rae and Alyssa stared silently after her. Then the fire guardian broke the silence.

"More than one enemy," she said, sinking into a chair.

"What?" Rae asked, sitting down herself.

"You asked why different monsters were sent after us to do different things. It's because we have more than one enemy. Between Kasson and the prophecy, we already have two. I think altogether, we have three. Ellie said in her dream, she thought the traitor was talking to Kasson, but maybe she was wrong. She said the man in her dream was the epitome of evil."

"She used the world epitome?"

"Well no, I put that in there," Alyssa admitted, and both girls laughed. "Anyway, what my point is, is that Kasson only became the kind of man who wants to take over a land under the influence of his wife. So I don't think he's evil, just easily manipulated. Snake Dude is probably his monster. He was sent to test us. The green guys we fought today and the brown guys we fought during Halloween and at Ellie's house are probably the monsters of whoever wants to take over Kandrakar, trying to kill us and get us out of the way since the prophecy says we're the only ones that can stop him…or her…or them."

"That still leaves the monster that came after you in the clayhouse."

"That's our mystery third enemy. I think the guy in Ellie's dream is the one who wants to take over Kandrakar…epitome of evil and all. This third guy…I don't know what he's doing, but he wanted to capture me, and he probably wants to capture the rest of the guardians too."

"Well what do you make of Angel?" Rae asked.

"I think she knows more than she's telling us. She may even be watching us," Alyssa said.

"Okay, slightly creepy. What makes you say that?"

"She's always saved us from certain death. _Only_ from certain death."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when Snake Dude attacked, that would've a great time for someone as powerful as Angel to step in, especially because, at first, there were only two of you in the battle. But she didn't, and in the end, we realized Snake Dude was only testing us. Then there was the monster that attacked James and I at Lange's. That would've been another good time for Angel to step in, since I was powerless, and even with a sword, James was losing. But she didn't, and in the end, the monster was only trying to capture me, not kill me. The times she did step in-Halloween, at Ellie's house, now-these were all battles against monsters who actually wanted to kill us. Those were the only times she stepped in. It's too much of a coincidence that the three times she helped us were the three times we were faced with monsters that wanted to kill us for it to be luck. She had to be watching us."

"I know she said she'll always protect heroes, whatever that means, but I think at first, she literally meant me, as a person. She'd always protect _me_. And she changed it to heroes because she remembered you were here. My dad told me to trust Angel, and if she's friends with my dad, then that would explain why she would want to protect me personally."

"So what are you saying?"

"I know what Ellie dreamt, but I trust Angel. I mean, everything can't come true exactly how it happened, right? In the dream, Caty needed Ellie's help to make ice both times. But at guardian practice today, Caty finally made ice herself. She'll get it in just a couple more practices, and unless we go to Meridian to face Snake Dude tomorrow or the day after, Caty won't need Ellie's help."

"Well, I do think you just jinxed us, but okay," Alyssa joked.

Rae rolled her eyes, but smiled. "And we agreed we wouldn't go to Meridian without at least two other members of Team GRACE, but they weren't in the dream either. So if Caty doesn't need Ellie's help to make ice and we take more members with us, then maybe Angel won't betray us either. My dad said we can trust her, so maybe she found a way to break free from the intense loyalty she has for Elyon. Usually she always says she helped us because she's loyal to Elyon. Today, she didn't even mention her. I think Angel can be trusted."

In the back of her mind, Alyssa knew that wasn't wise, but she'd almost died today, and Angel was the reason she was still alive and having this conversation.

"I trust her too," she declared.

Rae flashed her a grateful smile.

Ronnie came out of the bathroom then.

"Sorry it took so long. I realized the toilet paper in two stalls, the paper towels, and the soap dispenser had to be put in, so I did it. I have the opening shift tomorrow, so it would've been my job anyway."

"That's fine. Let's go," Rae said.

The three girls grabbed their stuff and headed out. Rae locked up, and the three walked home. Ronnie lived on Pillar Drive, the street just before Larson. The houses on Pillar were just as big as the ones on Larson, but not quite as fancy. The bedrooms were all big, but they didn't have en suites or walk in closets like the bedrooms of the houses on Larson did.

Ronnie lived in the house at the end of the street, literally a minute and half walk to Alyssa's house.

"So, what's our status after this nearly fatal battle?" Rae asked after Ronnie went inside her house.

"Mine is fully healed. I feel great," Alyssa said.

"You know that's not what I mean," Rae said. "I hoping this battle gave you a 'life is short' attitude and you want to forgive me."

"Every one of our battles gives me a 'life is short' attitude. We're into some messed up stuff," Alyssa said.

"You make it sound like we fight monsters at Guardians of the Veil on purpose."

"Well, it's not like you or I really tried to run away from it."

"Even if we had, monsters would've still come after us. It was better that we trained and learned to fight so we could defend ourselves. Otherwise, Halloween in Heatherfield would also be known as the day that five very different girls from very different cliques tragically died."

"That would've made it all the more exciting. Sheffiled would find a way to capitalize on our deaths," Alyssa said.

Rae laughed, but sobered as soon as they reached Alyssa's house. "Seriously though Alyssa, what's going on. You know how I feel. You know that's I'm sorry and I feel bad. You never gave me chance to explain though."

"Okay, explain," Alyssa said. "Explain to me why you, as my best friend, chose _not_ to tell me something I deserved to know about my own life."

Rae could tell Alyssa was mad, but to her credit, kept her voice mostly even.

"Because I was confused and didn't know what to do! Josh made me promise not to say anything to anyone _before_ he told me you were his sister, which made me pause-"

Alyssa rolled her eyes, but Rae kept going.

"-but I did decide soon after that I should tell you, but I didn't know how, so I thought I'd tell Josh that I was going to tell you as soon as I came up with a way to break the news. And then the night of the sleepover, I told Josh how hard it was for me to keep the secret, and Josh said that Chris, who wanted to tell you, gave him an ultimatum. Either Josh tells you on or before your birthday, or he will."

"I know that already," Alyssa snapped. "What changed? What made you decide not to tell me? What made you decide to talk Chris out of it?"

"Ellie found out, and that's what changed it all. After Josh told me, he told Gabi, then Caty found out. Each of us were convinced that he had to tell you. But when Ellie found out, she believed the opposite. She thought this secret would break your heart, and we had to protect you from it, and we couldn't tell you, and she told me to convince Chris to end his ultimatum. I didn't try very hard, but somehow it worked anyway."

"Probably because he was under the impression that my best knew what was best for me."

"That was my reasoning too though," Rae explained. "When Ellie said that you shouldn't know, it reminded me that, as close as we were, we'd only known each other for two months. And those two months were nothing compared to the six years you and Ellie had been friends. So I started to think…what if she knew what was best for you better than I did?"

"And that's why you listened to her," Alyssa said, realizing dawning on her.

"Yeah. I'm so sorry Alyssa. In the back of my mind, I knew you'd want to know, but I started to doubt myself, and wasn't sure if you'd want to know or not. And it didn't help that Chris wanted to tell you, because he's known you for just as long as Ellie has, and when the two people you've been friends with for the majority of your life are saying two different things, it's hard to know which one of them is right. I know Chris stayed your friend for longer, but I figured Ellie knew you better."

Alyssa sighed, then smiled. "It's okay. I forgive you."

"You do?" Rae asked, hope raining in her voice.

"Yeah. I understand what your reasoning was, and I probably should've heard you out sooner."

"I don't think that would've helped. You wouldn't have been ready to forgive me no matter what I said before."

"I guess we have the near fatal battle to thank for my willingness to forgive then," Alyssa said. She gave Rae a huge hug which Rae happily returned.

"Want to stay for dinner?" Alyssa asked. "John's having dinner at a friend's house and I could use a buffer with my mom."

"Well that sounds delightful," Rae said sarcastically. "But sure."

Alyssa laughed and the girls headed inside.

"Not to put a damper on your mood," Rae started, "but-"

"If you _know_ whatever you're going to say will ruin my mood, why say it at all?"

Rae continued as if Alyssa had never spoken. "-I promised Josh I'd talk to you about possibly forgiving him too."

"No."

"But Lyssa-"

"No!" Alyssa cried. "I don't know why everyone seems to think I should forgive Josh, but he doesn't deserve it."

"How can you say that?"

"Because, like my mother, he deliberately kept a secret from me for no other reason than because he wanted to cover up the fact that he kept it a secret once already and stood by while my mother erased my memory of it."

"But he only didn't tell you because he couldn't because of the whole Memory Flower thing."

"He could've easily asked my mother for it when we realized we needed it for Eva and used some of it on me. I know I'd go crazy if I remember something without a specific memory, but Josh had years worth of specific memories. He should've told me. He didn't."

"But you forgave everyone else."

"No one else did anything as bad as he did. There are ten members of Team GRACE including me. If we look at the fact that James didn't know anything about this, then eight members of Team GRACE could still have told me about me being Josh's sister. Cara didn't because she's young. I forgave her. Sage didn't because she thought it was Josh's secret to tell. Chris wanted to tell me, but he decided to be the decent person we all know he is and give Josh the chance to tell me himself. Ellie didn't tell me, but her heart was in the right place. Caty and Gabi really had no obligation to tell me. You should've, but you got confused. That leaves Josh. He doesn't have any good reason not to say anything. He just wanted to cover his own ass. So why should I forgive him?"

Rae opened her mouth to say something-anything-to defend Josh, but found she couldn't. Alyssa was right. Josh didn't tell her for his own selfish reasons while most of the other members of the team spent days agonizing over this secret, wondering whether or not to tell Alyssa, wondering if Josh was going to tell her, wondering how Alyssa would react.

"What's a jerk!" she cried.

Alyssa burst out laughing. "Glad to hear you agree," she said.

The girls went upstairs to work on homework and catch each other up on their lives. Alyssa told her what was going on between Taranee and Nigel, the conversation she had with her Aunt Audrey before she left, and how her aunt was going to interview Gerard Richter (who Rae knew was Alyssa's favorite artist) and was going to show him some of Alyssa's work. Rae told Alyssa how the guardian secret was creating a lot of tension between her and Jake, to the point that she was pretty sure they were heading to a big blow up soon, the cookie jar situation, and how, with Frank sort of admitting he knew about not just Meridian, but her guardianship, she really wanted to confront her mother about it too. It felt just like old times. For the first time in a long time, Rae felt okay again.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I've decided not to go to the Hollidazzle Dance," Ellie announced a couple of weeks later.

"Don't you need to perform for a grade?" Jake asked, putting his arm around Rae.

Ellie groaned violently.

"Ellie, aren't you getting tired to being petty and jealous?" Alyssa asked.

"No!"

"It's getting kind of hard to watch," James said. "And I kind of feel bad for Adam."

"What?" Ellie cried indignantly.

"He looks like a dementor is following him around everywhere," James said defensively.

"James, you're my favorite," Rae said, making everyone except Ellie laugh.

"Well, if I knew all it took to get you was a Harry Potter reference, I would've tried that first," Jake said, and the group, save for Ellie, laughed again.

Rae and Alyssa were hanging out by their lockers, as usual, and Jake and James joined them, as usual. Ellie decided to join them this morning as well.

"I'll only do the group performance and my solo," Ellie decided as Caty and Gabi joined them. "They're both in the first half hour of the dance, and the only two that are required. It'll get me a passing grade."

"Correct if I'm wrong," the water guardian said, "but don't you think it'd be prudent to keep up your grade in one of the few classes you actually _can_ keep your grade up in?"

"What does prudent mean?"

"Never mind, fail," Caty replied, making Gabi snicker.

"Someone's in a mood," Alyssa teased.

"Tony asked me to the Hollidazzle Dance," Caty sighed.

"Isn't that a good thing? I thought you liked him," Rae said.

"I thought you're dating Brian," Jake said.

"I am. Brian asked me if I wanted to go the dance, and I said only if he wanted to and he said he actually had something to do that night, and I said that was fine because I honestly didn't want to go anyway. Then Tony asked me, because I guess he doesn't know I'm dating Brian and I had to say no!"

"Well how about you tell Brian you and Tony are going as friends because you actually do want to go?" Ellie asked. "But tell him not to be jealous, but he all flirty with Tony at the dance."

"No, I can't do that. Too many things could go wrong," Caty sighed.

"Why are you dating Brian if you like Tony?" Jake asked.

"Because!" Caty snapped.

Jake gave her a funny look.

"Just tell him Caty," Alyssa sighed.

"Tell me what?"

"Jake, if Caty tells you something, do you promise not to think badly of her?" Rae asked.

"I could never think badly of you Caty," Jake said earnestly.

Caty knew that wasn't true, but told him anyway. Jake said that was terrible, but Caty started listing terrible things Brian had done to her.

"Remember when he locked me in the girl's bathroom last year so I couldn't make it in time for the State Championship soccer game last year, and if Terri hadn't seen him, he would've succeeded? Or how he "accidentally" wrecked my model of an Egyptian irrigation system in eighth grade?"

"That even upset me. I was really excited to hear your presentation when I saw the model," Alyssa said.

"Those thing were horrible," Jake agreed. "And I do remember some other awful things he did to you. I guess this is okay."

"And now she doesn't have to keep it a secret from you anymore," Gabi said. "We all know how destructive secrets can be." She looked pointedly at Alyssa.

"I definitely do," Jake said, and it was clear he was talking about the guardian secret rather than the secret sister secret.

Rae shifted uncomfortably. She hated lying to Jake, but she had to protect him. And of course when Gabi mentioned secrets, the only thing Rae thought about was about her parents knowing about Meridian.

"Hey Lyss, are we going to the dance? I mean, do you want to?" James asked.

"Nah. How about we just do a movie night at my house instead?"

"Perfect."

"What about us?" Jake asked Rae.

"I don't really want to go either," Rae said.

"Come crash our movie night!" Alyssa suggested.

Rae looked at Jake who nodded.

"Sounds good to me," he said.

"Can I come after my half hour stay at the dance?" Ellie asked.

"Sure," Alyssa said.

"And can I bring Caty so I won't feel like a fifth wheel?"

"Maybe you should ask Caty," Alyssa giggled.

"I'm up for it," Caty agreed.

"Gabi? Want to come too?"

"I have to go to the dance. Cheerleaders go to all dances, plus Sage is dragging Josh, and I want to see if I can get him to talk to me."

"And admit he doesn't actually hate you?" Alyssa asked.

Gabi had told the girls about what Josh had said to her the other night when she told him about Ariel, and they'd all insisted he didn't really hate her, it was just a defense mechanism because he didn't want to admit he liked her for some odd reason.

"Wait, Josh hates you? Since when?" Jake asked.

"Don't worry about it, it's not important," Gabi said, waving it away. She turned to Caty. "I was hoping you'd go. Bree has this gorgeous royal green dress with a white sash in the middle and red holly hanging from the sash in the clothes she left at my house and it'd be perfect for the dance."

"My mother obsessed over that dress when she saw it. I definitely do not need to her to see me wear it," Caty replied.

Milly walked over to the group with Sage. "El, rehearsal," Milly said.

Since the first performance of Into the Woods was that night, their drama advisor had instructed them to get permission for their morning class teachers to attend an extra rehearsal.

"We still have a few minutes," Ellie said. "You guys are all coming, right?"

"Of course. Not today though. Thursdays are terrible for us," Caty said. "But we'll be there tomorrow."

"The Basement Gang plus one," Jake joked dryly.

Alyssa, in order to distract Jake said, "I can't believe Christmas break is almost here."

There were murmurs of agreement. They had exactly one more week left before Sheffield let out for Christmas. The last performance of Into the Woods was next Saturday's matinee performance, ending a couple hours before the Hollidazzle Dance. After that night, they wouldn't have school again until January 4th.

"I'm so excited!" Ellie cried.

"Excited? I'm distraught! It's too soon for break. There hasn't been enough work to do yet, and I heard juniors don't get homework over break. I don't know how I'll deal with it," Alyssa moaned.

Everyone else groaned at Alyssa's words.

"I can't hang out with you anymore. Like…we just can't be friends," Ellie declared.

Alyssa gave Ellie a glare, and she playfully rolled her eyes.

"Come on, let's go," Ellie said, a playful smile on her face. She, Milly, and Sage left.

"I thought Ellie and Milly were in a fight," Jake said.

"No Ellie and _Jade_ are in a fight," Alyssa said. "And so are Ellie and Adam. But Milly chose to stay impartial, but she usually hangs around with Ellie and Sage because she feels likes a third wheel with Adam and Jade."

"I always thought maybe Ellie liked Adam," Jake said.

"I always did too," Alyssa admitted. "But Ellie won't admit anything she's not ready to admit."

Caty and Gabi exchanged a look at this, thinking of Ellie's other secret.

The bell rang, signaling the start of class, and everyone went their separate ways, each with different things weighing on their minds.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Do you think my mom knows I'm a guardian?" Rae asked Sage as the two walked home.

"I don't know. How would she?"

"Well, Dad does. And I mean, she knows who you are. You wouldn't know me if I never went to Meridian. And I never would've gone to Meridian if I didn't have a reason, like being a guardian. And even if she didn't put that together, my dad would've told her. They may hate each other, but he wouldn't keep that from her."

"Then she probably does know."

"I don't understand why she wouldn't talk to me about it then. Wouldn't she try to stop me the way Taranee did? She's crazy overprotective. Or wouldn't she at least tell me to be careful and try to give me tips or even really ambiguous advice the way my dad did?"

"I don't see any reason she wouldn't do that," Sage agreed. "Which leads to believe that maybe she doesn't know. Mom and Aunt Cornelia would always tell Frank they were considering sending us to live on Earth for our last couple years of school. Meridian schools teach mostly the same things, but going to college on Earth is something Josh and I really wanted to do, and our mothers thought we should go to high school on Earth to get used to life here before starting college. They probably told your mother that too, and maybe she thinks that's why we're here."

"But we're friends. Isn't that a little too convenient? And if that's the case, why didn't she tell me that she knew you? And she knows I'm lying about you being my pen pal. You weren't on Earth to be my pen pal. Why wouldn't she call me out on it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Sage said shrugging.

"I'm wondering if I should confront her about knowing about Meridian and stuff."

"What would be the point? How would that help the situation any? Maybe she doesn't know you're a guardian and once she does, she'll react just like Taranee and forbid you from being a guardian? And unlike Taranee, your mother won't let you go out whenever you want, so you can't pretend to be hanging out with some other friend while you're really going to guardian training the way Alyssa could."

Rae sighed. Sage was right. But why was her mother pretending not to know Sage? What was she so afraid of?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Kylie stretched when Dean took out of the case. It was painful to do since the shackles were still on her arms, but she tried her best.

"If I could be sure you weren't going to run, I'd get those off of you," Dean said.

"I know. And you're right not to trust me," Kylie grinned.

"Why would you tell me that Kyles?"

"Because you're not going to let me go anyway, so why not?"

Dean just laughed lightly as he led Kylie to the cliff. As usual, Piper was late.

"Has your sister ever heard of punctuality?"

"Clearly not," Dean replied.

Kylie laughed, then shivered. "It gets really cold here this time of year."

"Just like on Earth. I guess Meridian and Earth a similar in some ways."

Kylie smiled as she always did when Dean talked about Earth. Kylie had always wanted to go to Earth, so Dean entertained her with his stories. She was fascinated by all of it, from the types of places there were on Earth that Meridian didn't have (like laundromats and electronic stores) to the gossip and day to day stuff that happened in the school Dean attended to spy for his master.

"So what's going on in your Earth life?" Kylie asked.

"I got asked to a dance, but I turned the girl down. Our first basketball game is coming up. And I just aced a test today."

"Why'd you turn the girl down?" Kylie asked.

Before Dean could answer, Piper arrived. As usual, Dean looked away as Kylie went through the painful process of Piper syphoning her powers.

Kylie fell to the ground when Piper was done. Her screams died down, but she looked awful. Her face was pale, sweat was pouring down her face, and she was shaking. She was far too tired to stand up. Dean sat there with her for an hour, while she gathered her strength. As they sat, he told her about the annoying cheerleader who wouldn't stop bothering him and the teacher who had it out for him.

"I want to go to Earth so bad," Kylie said. "I've heard such amazing things, and you've confirmed them all."

"Some things are so weird though," Dean said. "Like, the food in their cafeteria is terrible, but everyone buys lunch there anyway. And they have paper money in addition to the coins, and none of the coins are gold, they only have silver and bronze, and it's not even _real_ silver or bronze. They're painted to look that way."

"But they have those things called phones that you can do anything on. And they have chocolate, which apparently tastes amazing," Kylie argued.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Dean shrugged off his knapsack and took out a Snickers bar. "This is one of Earth's most popular chocolate bar. There's peanut butter inside."

"What's peanut butter?"

"It's hard to explain, but it's good. Try it," Dean urged.

Kylie unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite. "Oh, this is delicious! I've never tasted anything better in my whole life!"

Dean laughed at her enthusiasm.

The two talked for twenty more minutes before Dean got up and offered Kylie his hand. "Time to go back," he said.

Kylie grabbed his hand and he pulled her up.

He let go of her and lead her back to the cages.

"Are you going to bring me more chocolate next Friday?" Kylie asked. Even though Piper only needed to syphon her magic once a month, Kasson's family checked on her and the other prisoners a few times a week. Kasson usually sent his children to do this.

"I'll bring you chocolate next week, but I'm busy on Friday. Riley's coming. I'll be here Wednesday instead."

"Even better," Kylie smiled. "That means I get to see you sooner. But I wish Hope was coming instead. Riley's like a creepy predator. I hate the way he looks at me."

Dean hated the way his brother looked at Kylie too. It made him slightly jealous, which was completely irrational. He'd much rather his sister Hope check on them, but Hope and Riley, being younger than Dean and Piper, didn't go every week. They usually switched off and it was Riley's turn.

"Wait," Kylie said, grabbing Dean's hand just before the caught sight of the cages.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked, spinning around.

Kylie didn't answer. She just bit her lip, which Dean actually found really adorable. Before he knew what was happening, she leaned in and kissed him.

Immediately Dean pulled back, shocked.

"What's wrong?" Kylie asked

"I, uh…I mean, I…"

Kylie just giggled, and kissed him again, this time a little more forcefully.

Dean couldn't deny he enjoyed it, but pulled back again.

"No, stop!" he cried. "Kylie, I have a girlfriend."

She frowned. "But you said you and your siblings had no friends back on Eldantia."

"My girlfriend is from Earth."

Kylie's eyebrows shot up. "You're dating one of the girls you're _spying_ on?"

"First off, no. I'm not spying on her, she's separate from this whole thing. And are you really one to talk? You just kissed me, and I'm you're _captor_."

"Well, I _thought_ you _liked_ me."

"I _do_ like you. Just, not like that."

"Because of your girlfriend," Kylie said, rolling her eyes.

"My girlfriend who I'm falling in love with," Dean confirmed, his tone firm.

Kylie rolled her eyes again. "Whatever. You're right anyway, you're my _captor_."

"Kylie-"

"And I only kissed you in the hopes that you'd let me go."

Dean frowned. He knew that wasn't true, but was he supposed to say that or act like he didn't care or get upset? What would placate Kylie? The last thing he wanted was for her to become the rude, angry, violent girl she was when they first captured her. Why were girls so confusing?"

"Well? Are you taking me back, or what?" Kylie asked obnoxiously. That was a defense mechanism of hers, which Dean knew.

He led her back wordlessly, and she obediently got back in the cage, but refused to look at him once he locked the doors.

"I'll be back next week."

No response.

"Kylie, I'm sorry."

Still no response. At least, not from Kylie.

"Don't be so cavalier when you address her you scum!" Elyon spat from a nearby cage. Kylie's family still didn't know she and Dean were actually friends.

Dean sighed, ran a hang through his hair, and walked away. Piper was waiting for him a few yards away. She opened a portal to Earth.

"Are you okay?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Fine. Let's just go."

Piper just shrugged. Dean would talk when he was ready.

Piper shapeshifted into the body she wore while she stayed on Earth, and the two jumped through the portal, taking them to the strange world they'd both come to love.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: And that's that. I hope you guys liked it, and again, thank you so much for your patience. Hope you guys enjoyed it.**

**Two notes:**

**I've got the story completely mapped out for a little while, so I'm hoping the writing goes fast**

**The next chapter will mostly be Christmas, but after that, there'll be some pretty big time skips for the next couple of chapters for a while. The timeline won't slow down again until they get to June**

**Review guys and thanks for reading!**


	35. A Very GRACE Christmas

**A/N: Hello lovely readers! First off, I want to apologize for taking so long with this chapter. I'm finally done with the semesters but I had finals to study for as well as final projects and final papers to do, write, and present. I worked on this chapter as much as I could between all of that and move-out. Luckily, this chapter turned out to be so long that I had to split it up again. As usual, half the shout-outs are here and the other half are in the next chapter.**

**I also want to give a HUGE thank you to mavlovesblu for favoriting this story, kkwaii for following this story, and Sophixcx for BOTH favoriting and following this story! I love getting new readers and fans and hope these two chapters don't disappoint!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: I wonder if you expected me to split this one up too? Calm down though, you know how much I love Alyssa and James. Not too long, probably chapter 35 or 36, but it's going to go differently than I said. I told you she was going to tell Caty, but I have a new idea now, one I think you'll like. Well, there was a confrontation with Silena, and was for your other comment, I'll tell you tonight. Hope you like these TWO chapters! Time for part three of our five day sleepover!**

**WaterAmulet: I like the way you reviewed! I'm glad you liked it. I knew I wanted to do the soccer thing since the beginning, and everything else kind of just happened. I originally planned for Mexican food and pottery, but liked Indian food and cake baking/decorating better. My ideal date would be a wine and cheese tasting, but Caty and Brian's date would probably be a close second, except for the soccer. Ellie's stuck in an interesting triangle, and she'll soon be in a different one! I have no plan for what Gabi's mother's connection to the guardians is, and just the bare bones of what the danger that caused Audrey to five Caty up is. But yeah, not just Rae, but Alyssa too, trust Angel now. Dean and Kylie are a big mystery, aren't they? There's going to be a huge surprise and reveal with them, and it'll completely blindside everyone. I hope you like these two chapters, despite the long wait.**

**Guest: James and Ronnie are both good guesses, but I can't confirm or deny unless you PM me unfortunately. I don't want to ruin it for the other readers. I'll tell you this much: the bathroom actually is sound proof, and it's actually not that farfetched. I've worked in a bookstore before, and the bathroom was completely sound proof. That's where I got the idea. However, I'm not denying Ronnie's possible guilt. I hope you like these chapters, and thanks for the review!**

**SilvenArrow: Well, Alchemy becomes a bigger character in the comics, and when W.I.T.C.H. season 3 was supposed to be made, Alchemy, as well as some other minor characters, were going to get larger roles. But of course, I can't say yes or no. I only have the bare bones of the danger, but you're right, it does have something to do with the way Peter died. It's not really a secret, so I'll tell you, it was guardian danger. The confession will come soon, I promise. Either chapter 35 or 36. Gabi and Josh will have a big moment in the next chapter, and then another big moment in chapter 35. Angel is such a mystery. There is so much to her story that I can't wait to write about! I hope you like these two chapters!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I love it!" Gabi cried.

"You haven't even opened it yet," Ariel pointed out.

"But I know I'll love it," Gabi replied, sounding like a little kid.

Ariel laughed. "I'm glad you have so much faith in me. But it's not even Christmas Eve yet. No opening presents."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Oh fine. Just for that, you don't get to join our early exchange tomorrow."

"I wouldn't dream of crashing that anyway," Ariel said.

Gabi smiled. Michael, Luc, and Gabi always exchanged one present they got for the other early, on Christmas Eve. They called it their Early Exchange. Their mother started the tradition with them back when it was just Gabi and Michael and they were both young enough to get away with making everyone presents. Gabi would love for Ariel to join the Early Exchange, but Ariel wanted it to remain a family thing. Gabi suspected Ariel would be family soon enough.

Josh came out of his room and looked at Gabi pointedly. Gabi checked her phone and realized it was almost time for guardian training.

"Oh, we have to go," she said, jumping up.

"Where are you going?" Daniel asked. "You can't just leave."

Gabi rolled her eyes. It was December 23rd. Christmas break had started the previous day. Michael and Ariel drove in that morning. Daniel had insisted everyone stay in until after Christmas, save for Michael and Gabi's ice cream tradition and Michael and Luc's movie tradition. Everyone else had agreed, but Gabi and Josh couldn't just skip guardian practice. Not if they wanted to stay alive and save all the known worlds. And ever since Rae and Alyssa were attacked a little while ago, everyone was on edge, and practicing harder than ever.

"Well we have to. Study group," Gabi said.

"You don't have school for almost two weeks."

"Well maybe I just don't want to tell you where I'm going."

"Gabi, don't cause trouble or we'll never get out of here," Josh said, rolling his eyes. He looked at Daniel. "I guess we forgot to mention it when you asked us not to go anywhere, but we're doing a Secret Santa exchange with some friends today."

Gabi wondered why she didn't just use that excuse since it was true anyway.

"Where are your presents?" Daniel challenged.

"Most of us left them at The Silver Dragon last night," Gabi said before realizing what she said.

"The Chinese restaurant? Why there?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Because that's where we decided to meet up," Gabi sighed. "They have a nice basement. Well, nice-ish."

"Let them go Daniel," Sienna said, and Gabi resisted the urge to sneer at the step-monster. She didn't need Sienna's help. But she knew she'd be confined to this house if she said anything against the step monster. "It'll only be for a little while."

"Three hours tops," Josh agreed.

"I'll be back for dinner," Gabi said. She looked at her older brother. "And we can go out after. But maybe we can do coffee instead of ice cream. It's too cold for ice cream."

"Sounds like a plan," Michael agreed.

Gabi and Josh looked back at Daniel.

"Alright, go ahead," Daniel sighed.

Gabi and Josh smiled and actually slapped high fives before Josh remembered he was supposed to "hate" Gabi.

"Um…let's just…go," he muttered.

Luc looked at them curiously, frowning at their exchange. Gabi gave him an encouraging smile, grabbed her jacket, and followed Josh out the door.

Even with the awkwardness between her and Josh, Gabi couldn't help but smile.

Josh shook his head at her enthusiasm, but couldn't help but smile as well. Gabi loved everything about Christmas, and he loved the way she spoke about it with so much passion and excitement.

At first, he wasn't sure Gabi actually liked _Christmas_ as much as the gifts. When she first asked him during one of their shifts if he was excited for Christmas, a couple days after he and Sage had come back from the Hales', he'd just shrugged.

"I mean, I don't know much about it. My family and Sage's go to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve, and we basically get up early the next day and open presents and then we have lunch and that's it," he told her.

"Well, that's basically what Christmas is, unless you're super religious," Gabi had said. "My family isn't, so we don't do the whole church thing."

"Well, I'm guessing you're just in it for the presents," Josh replied.

Gabi was very offended by that and went on to make a speech about why she loved Christmas so much.

"Thanksgiving is like a marker, cuz Christmas season starts right after. A week before Thanksgiving, Christmas music starts playing on the radio, and that's basically all I listen to. And I wake up to Christmas songs and it makes me so happy! I'm in a good mood in the mornings. I don't even care that I have to get up early or endure a day of school. And then it starts snowing, and we get days off. And after a big snow, all of it is shoveled to the sides, and then it freezes into ice, and even though it seems childish, Bree and I love to climb up and play on the ice mounds. And my favorite event of the year is the lighting of the Rockefeller Tree. You may not know what that is, but my family goes every year, so you will. And after the tree, we go ice skating in the plaza. And we get an amazing tree and decorate it. And there are carolers going around and Starbucks brings in all these yummy Christmas lattes, and Ariel always spends Christmas with us and she and I spend Christmas Eve baking. And of course there's presents, but after, since we're not religious at all, we do what all the other people who don't celebrate Christmas do on Christmas, which is order in Chinese, and go to a movie. But for dinner, we have a great Christmas dinner. And the week leading up to Christmas, we watch a Christmas movie every night, and we stay up as late as we can after dinner on Christmas watching all our favorite movies. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and The Polar Express are our favorites, and somehow Luc managed to add The Goonies to the list even though it's not really a Christmas movie, but whatever. It's just really fun and it makes me so happy."

Josh didn't understand half of that, but he did like what he saw of snow, he had seen The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and once December rolled around, he saw what Gabi meant. He noticed she only played Christmas music, both when she drove and when Walter drove them around. She was always happier and chipper in the mornings. Even Sienna couldn't bring her down, and her happy mood actually put Eva off, which was a bonus for her. She obsessed about picking the right tree, she worked really hard stringing popcorn and cranberries because she said tinsel, which is what the Hales used on their tree in lieu of popcorn string, was "tacky and not Christmasey enough." They went to Rockefeller Center, which was an amazing place in New York City, which Gabi told Josh was one of best cities in the world (which she would know since her family vacationed _everywhere_) and saw the tree being lit up. Then they went ice skating. Josh made a fool of himself, something his father had done too, when he was trying to win Cornelia's heart back, but Gabi didn't laugh. She just gave him lots of tips. She was pretty good, but didn't hold a candle to his mother.

The family watched movies, and saw carolers. Gabi, Bree, and Sage even joined some carolers once. Gabi was really excited to bake with Ariel the next day, and Josh loved to see Gabi this way. She was that enchanting person he fell for in the first place. And he realized even being mean to her and pretending to hate her wasn't going to help him get over his crush. But since he didn't know what else to do, he continued to fight with her. She didn't seem to mind though. She took it all with a smile.

Maybe that had to do with Christmas. She tried to get everyone on Team GRACE in the mood too, proposing Secret Santa, which is something she did with her friends (the cheerleaders in her year of school, plus Eve, Michelle, and Andria). They e-mail a list of two or three things each girl wants, and their secret santa gets one of the items for them. They exchange gifts at one person's house (this year, it was Lana's) after the Hollidazzle Dance.

Gabi put up a list in The Silver Dragon basement so that the members of Team GRACE could write down a few things they wanted, and they were going to exchange presents that day after practice. Gabi couldn't wait!

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Dad is not going to believe I was exchanging Secret Santa presents," Gabi gasped out, checking her reflection in the basement's bathroom mirror after practice. She looked a mess. Sweat was dripping down her face and her hair was matted everywhere. It was raining outside, but the team, including Gabi, insisted they keep practicing. Hay Lin worked them hard since they weren't going to have practice for the next few days, and even though it was freezing outside, the team still managed sweat. The water made the girls' mascara run and they looked like raccoons.

"Yeah, you look like you've been attacked or something. We all do," Caty agreed.

"It's not that big a deal," Josh said as he grabbed a towel Chris offered him.

"You don't wear makeup," Rae said as she and Ellie squeezed into the bathroom with Gabi and Caty. "It's not the same for you."

Cara and Sage squished into the bathroom as well, and all the girls cried out and fell. Alyssa laughed, glad she never bothered with makeup.

"That bathroom is not big enough for all of you," Chris said, rolling his eyes.

The girls went in and fixed their appearance, two at a time. Most of them just dried their hair and watched their face. Gabi took the longest, insisting she had to re-do all her makeup and use a blow dryer on her hair instead of a towel like the others.

"We have half an hour if we want to get back before dinner," Josh said. "Because you took so freaking long!"

"What do you care? It's not like Dad will ground _you_," Gabi said airily.

"No, but I'm already skating on thin ice with your brother. He'll hate me even more if you get in trouble. He'll find a way to blame _me_ for us not coming back in time."

"That doesn't make much sense," Caty said.

"Nothing about her brother makes sense. He's hated me from day one for no reason," Josh said.

"He's just being overprotective," Gabi defended

"As if you need protection from me," Josh scoffed.

"Actually, I do," Gabi said quietly, an awkward air settling on the group.

"_Or, at least your heart does_," Alyssa said in Gabi's head, her tone gentle.

Gabi just gave her strained smile.

"_He's being a pig,_" she said. "_And a jerk. But I know he likes you. He just doesn't want to admit it. You need to be patient. And in the meantime, don't let him get to you._"

"_I'll try my best. Thanks_," Gabi said.

"Won't you guys not make it home in time if we just sit here arguing?" Ellie asked.

"Good point. Let's get to it," Gabi said.

"Oh, let me go first," Alyssa said. "I know the point of Secret Santa is so that we won't have to spend all our money buying something for everyone, but I made something for the guardians. They weren't supposed to be Christmas presents, because I started them a long time ago, but then we all got in a fight, so I decided to wait til now to give them to you."

James smiled, knowing what his girlfriend was talking about.

Alyssa reached in her bag and pulled out a small drawstring bag. She opened it up and spilled the contents on the floor. There were five necklaces, each with a ribbon acting as a chain. Each chain was in one of the five guardian colors. The pendant matched the color of the chain and had one of the elemental symbols carved onto it.

"These are similar to the necklaces that we found in Irma's lockbox," Rae realized.

Alyssa nodded. "I had this idea a while ago, and seeing the necklaces in the lockbox inspired me to finish them, even though you and I hadn't made up yet. The pendants are made from clay and the ribbon is silk. I made them whenever I had downtime at Lange's."

"Which was a lot," James broke in.

Alyssa had stayed at work late several days since her party so that she could avoid being home, and James stayed with her, which is why Hay Lin started holding guardian practice later, so that everyone could make it.

Alyssa passed the necklaces out.

"The pendants are shining like gemstones," Caty said.

"That's thanks to Sage," Alyssa said. "She used her magic to make each seem like a gemstone. Blue topaz for you, orange tourmaline for me, emerald for Gabi, white opal for Ellie, and ruby for Rae.

"But rubies are red," Ellie said as Rae picked up the pink necklace in awe.

"No they're not. Once their cut and finished, they're red, but rubies are naturally pink," Caty said.

"Why white opal for Ellie?" Gabi asked.

"There are no gray gemstones," Alyssa said with laugh.

"I think it's pretty," Ellie said happily.

"How do we put this on?" Gabi asked. "The silk is ripped."

"Put it around your neck," Alyssa encouraged.

Gabi did so and the two ends of the ribbon joined together.

"Whoa," she whispered.

"Also Sage's magic," Alyssa said.

"If you want to take it off," Sage said, "just pull it apart in the back and it'll come off. Once you put it on again, they'll reattach."

Alyssa put her necklace on, and the other guardians followed suit.

"These are awesome Lyssa, thank you!" Rae cried, giving her best friend a hug.

Alyssa beamed. "I'm glad you like them."

"Now for Secret Santa!" Gabi cheered. "Here are the rules. I'll pick up a present and read the name on it. That person opens it and then we try to guess who the person's Secret Santa is."

Everyone nodded. Gabi went over the corner where everyone stashed their presents and picked up an envelope with Ellie's name scrawled on it.

"El, this is for you," Gabi said.

Ellie opened it up, wondering what kind of present could be in an envelope. She squealed in delight as she pulled out five rectangles.

"Tickets to Finding Neverland on Broadway!" she cried. "I've been dying to see this! And in the orchestra section! This is so perfect!"

"Whoa, who got you those?" James wondered.

"Well, we all know it's not you," Caty laughed.

"Unless he's just covering up for himself," Cara said.

"It would be too weird if it was James," Ellie said.

Everyone gave her strange looks, wondering what _that_ meant.

"It's a girl," Gabi said. "I can tell from the handwriting on the envelope."

"Let's think about this logically," Caty began in her best know-it-all voice. "Orchestra seats are extremely expensive, and five of them on top of that. So it must be Gabi, Alyssa, or Rae. And since Gabi's cut off except for her paycheck…"

Everyone looked at Alyssa, who shook her head. All heads turned to Rae.

"Yeah, it was me," she said. "My mom has some connections so I could get a deal of five tickets for the price of three, plus a discount on that."

"But this wasn't on my list. I was afraid it was too expensive."

"I know, but you've been talking about this for a while, and getting these tickets was a lot easier than trying to find a store that sells sheet music for off Broadway shows or Archie comic themed shoelaces."

Everyone chuckled at Ellie's desired gifts.

"This is awesome, thank you Rae!" Ellie gushed. Rae just smiled.

"James," Gabi said, handing him a huge red bag with gray tissue paper covering up what was inside.

"It's from Ellie," Alyssa said before James could even look inside.

"How did you know?" Ellie asked stunned.

"Because I know you. You always give bags because you can't wrap presents to save your own life, you're not very good at tissue paper either, as is proven by the way the tissue paper in this bag is thrown haphazardly over the present, and you said it'd be weird if James was your secret santa, presumably because you're his."

"I don't know what haphazardly or presumably mean," Ellie said. "But sure."

Everyone laughed.

James took out the tissue paper to look inside. His face lit up. "The longboard I wanted!" he cried happily, taking out a long green skateboard. "How'd you find this? I put this on the list as a sort of wish. I didn't expect it."

"I told Jason what was on your list, and he knew exactly where to find the longboard you wanted."

Alyssa smiled at the look on her boyfriend's face. She was also pretty excited because she'd told Rae to get James a pair of sneakers he needed to get a better ride from the longboard and she knew Sage got James skateboard paints so she and James could personalize his longboard. She wasn't sure if James would actually _get_ the longboard, and if he didn't, Sage and Rae would need to change their presents, but Alyssa was pretty sure whoever got James would get the longboard since everyone knew that's what he wanted the most.

For the next few minutes, the opening and guessing went pretty fast and everyone was more than satisfied with their presents thanks to Gabi's insistence on the list. Alyssa got Caty volumes A-E of the new encyclopedia series she'd been itching for, Caty got Chris a Painter's Art Kit with Winsor &amp; Newton watercolors and nylon brushes (two high end items), Chris got Sage earrings that would match perfectly with the pendant of the Heart of Meridian necklace (he admitted Hay Lin helped him with that), Sage got Cara an amazing green leather jacket the regent drooled over, Cara got Rae a full collection of all of the novels written by Agatha Christie, Rae's favorite author, and James enrolled Gabi in a writing MasterClass run by _her_ favorite author, James Patterson. Gabi nearly cried.

"Okay, only two gifts left," Gabi said. "Alyssa next."

Alyssa looked shocked as she took the wrapped gift. She knew if the gift was from Gabi, she'd wear either a smug expression, if she was proud of the gift, or an apologetic expression if she thought she chose poorly. She wasn't wearing either meaning…

"This must be from…Josh," Alyssa said.

Josh cleared his throat. "Uh…yeah."

Alyssa slowly unwrapped and the present and bit her lip to keep from gasping out loud. Josh had gotten her the most beautiful art kit she'd ever laid eyes on. It was in a wooden box and included oil paints, acrylic paints, spray paints watercolor paints, water color pencils, oil pastels, soft pastels, brown bristle brushes, white nylon brushes, golden talkon brushes, a plastic paint palette, a wooden palette, palette knives, exacto knives, art pencils, a pencil sharpener, a white eraser, a kneaded eraser, black and white charcoal pencils, two canvas boards, and a 11"x14" Bristol paper sketch pad. Most of this was high end; she'd put the three items she wanted the most on her list, and it was painstakingly hard for her to decide which three things she wanted the most. For it all to be in one kit…

"_Pretty nice gift Classless-a,"_ Gabi said in her head. As of late, Gabi only called her 'Classless-a' when she was trying to make a point. And usually the point she was trying to make was that Josh was doing whatever he could to show Alyssa how sorry he is and she should just forgive him.

"_It must've been so expensive_," Alyssa replied. "_But it doesn't excuse what he did_."

"_Are you serious?!"_ Gabi cried.

Alyssa didn't reply. She just looked at Josh awkwardly. "Thanks," she muttered, her tone not at all conveying how blown away she was by his gift.

"Yeah, you're welcome," Josh said, clearly hoping for a different reaction.

"Um, okay! Last one!" Gabi said, trying to clear the air. She looked at the last box and remembered this was Josh's gift and it was from her, which would be almost as awkward. She handed the wrapped gift to Josh wordlessly.

"That has to be from Gabi. She's the only one left," Caty said quietly.

"_Even in the most awkward moments she's a know-it-all_," Gabi complained inside Alyssa's head. Alyssa hid a smile.

Josh unwrapped the present just as slowly as Alyssa had to reveal a gorgeous watch. The bracelet and frame of the face were silver, the inside of the face was black. The hands were silver as well and the face was covered with some sort of crystal.

"Oh my _God, _Gabi, is that a _rolex_?" Caty squeaked, her voice going higher as she uttered each word.

"Yeah," Gabi said, only looking at Josh. She was suddenly very shy. "Do you like it? I saw you admiring my dad's and Michael's, and you really liked them whenever we went shopping. It's made of steel, but the hands are real silver and the crystal covering the face is scratch resistant sapphire and it shows you the date and time, and it shows the time for two different time zones."

Josh stared at the watch open mouthed. He knew from his mother what a Rolex was and how expensive this must've been. It wouldn't have been bad for Gabi's family. She was much richer than his grandparents, and his grandfather had a few Rolexes. But how did _Gabi_ herself afford this?

"_Gabi, are you insane? That must've been crazy expensive, even if the bracelet is made out of steel instead of actual silver or platinum,_" Alyssa said.

"_Oh relax_," Gabi said. "_It wasn't a really high end watch. It cost less than five grand, which is how much I get for Christmas. I just asked my dad if I could have my Christmas money early so I could use it to shop for presents."_

"_You get _five grand_ in Christmas money?"_

"_And that's just from my dad. I have lots of other relatives._"

Alyssa couldn't even find a response to that one.

Josh looked at Gabi, shocked. He loved the watch, but he also knew it was probably way too expensive. He didn't feel like he could keep it. He'd been such a jerk to her! He wanted to give the watch back, but he also knew she wouldn't take it.

"Thank you," he said, knowing those words didn't really express how much he liked it. Gabi beamed at him though, so it must've been enough for her.

"Okay, you can do the rest of your exchanges now," Gabi said. At her Secret Santa parties, her friends exchanged gifts with the other girls they were close to. Usually, best friend pairs like Gabi and Bree and Lana and Kelli would exchange gifts providing that they didn't get each other for Secret Santa.

The Silver Dragon basement was quiet as Chris and Alyssa, James and Sage, James and Caty, Caty and Ellie, Caty and Gabi, Josh and Rae, Ellie and Gabi, and Alyssa and Ellie exchanged gifts.

"What no present for your girlfriend?" Gabi asked James teasingly.

"My family, Rae's, and Jake's are spending Christmas at Alyssa's house, and we're doing presents then," James said.

"It'll be so much fun!" Alyssa said. She was really happy Jake and James had become such good friends, because that meant the two couples could double date a lot.

"What is everyone doing for Christmas anyway?" Caty asked. She looked at Josh and Sage. "Are you guys going to the Hales'?"

"Not after the big blowup that happened at Thanksgiving," Josh muttered. Alyssa bit her lip awkwardly.

"They're spending Christmas with us," Gabi said. "What about you?"

"We're going to Aunt Dawn's house again. But this time my grandparents, my Uncle Josh and his family, and my Aunt Alexia are coming. And then my grandparents are coming back to my house to move in," Caty said, her voice turning sour at the end. "Move into _my_ room."

"It should be nice to have your grandparents at your house," Alyssa said.

"Easy for you to say. You have a million guest rooms and don't have to give up your room to make room for extra family members," Caty replied.

"Chris, what are you doing?" Rae broke in.

"We're heading to our grandparents' house as well," he said.

"Mom's parents," Cara specified.

"Ellie?" Caty asked.

"My family doesn't really do Christmas either. And again I couldn't pick up a shift that day. My brothers are going to Markus's house, and I'm invited, but I'll get bored there. I usually go to Adam's house, but we're still in a fight."

"Then come to my house," Gabi said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Sienna's sister is coming, so you'll get to see Mel and Marci again. Bree will be there, and you can sleepover."

"Wait, why doesn't your family join Bree's for Christmas?" Caty asked.

"We used to when we were young, but since we were ten, Bree and her siblings always go to their own friends' houses for Christmas, so we did the same. That year I went to Adam's house, Jason went to Markus's, and Gavin and his friends stayed at school for Christmas break that year, and the same thing happened every year."

"What about your parents. What did they do?" Caty asked.

"They continued going to Bree's house for a little while," Ellie said. "It would just be a quiet Christmas with the grownups. But now my parents don't really celebrate Christmas."

"Why not?" Gabi asked.

Ellie shrugged. Gabi and Caty understood that's all they were going to get out of her that day.

"Are we leaving, or are you getting grounded?" Josh asked.

"Coming, coming," Gabi said, gathering her gifts and getting up. She looked at Ellie. "Everyone's coming over early Christmas morning, but if it would be easier, you can just sleepover tomorrow night. Just make sure to pack for three days and two nights so you can sleepover on Christmas too."

Ellie nodded. "I'll be there tomorrow around 8."

"Sounds good to me."

Gabi and Josh left.

"We have a shift," Cara said as she and Chris got up. "Because Gabi can't leave her house, we don't have training again until the 27th."

Everyone else nodded, happy to have a little break. Chris and Cara headed upstairs.

"Did you hear how Josh's voice changed when he thanked Gabi?" Ellie asked excitedly. "It was so tender and sweet and vulnerable. It was so sexy!"

"Ewwww!" Alyssa cried, looking horrified. "Ellie, that's…ewww!"

Everyone laughed.

"Are you just saying that because he's your brother?" Caty asked.

Alyssa glared at Caty, as she did anytime someone called Josh her brother. She felt the same way Gabi did about Eva.

"She reacted the same way when she and Josh were best friends," Rae said. "She would squeal 'ewwww' every few seconds whenever Sage talked about how much she was in love with Josh."

All eyes turned to the Meridian princess, who went red. "You and Lyssa _made_ me talk about it," she complained.

"And I wish I hadn't every time," Alyssa groaned.

James chuckled as he put his arm around his girlfriend. She smiled and leaned into him.

"How are you with the whole Josh and Gabi thing?" Caty asked. "I mean, everyone told me not to bring it up, but I think it's too much to ignore. You know Gabi likes him, right?"

"Of course," Sage sighed. "And I can tell Josh likes her too. He's just resisting for some reason. I also know Gabi doesn't want to pursue it because of me. I'm going to tell her tomorrow that I'm fine with it. Josh may be the guy I love, but he's also my best friend in the world, and Gabi's been so nice to me since day one. I want them to be happy, even if that's with each other."

"I wish I could be as nice as you," Rae said.

"I know someone who needs to be," Alyssa said, looking at Ellie, who avoided the fire guardian's gaze and looked at the Meridian princess instead.

"Will you be okay?" she asked Sage.

Sage nodded. "I'll find someone else eventually. I've liked other guys before Josh. If he wants to be with Gabi, he should be."

"I know he wants to be with her, but he's trying so hard to _not_ like her. He's being such a jerk. I want to punch him in the face, and I don't even like Gabi that much!" Rae cried.

Everyone laughed at that.

"I'm planning to talk to him about that," Sage said. "I can usually get through to him on things like this. He needs to let go of whatever it is that's holding him back."

"You shouldn't have to be the one to talk to him. That'll just be hurting you," Rae said.

Sage smiled sadly, but shook her head. "It'll make me happy to help."

Ellie groaned. "Sage, you're so good!"

Everyone laughed again. The fire guardian decided it was time to change the subject.

"Okay, Caty, how did you afford your present to Chris?" Alyssa asked. "Those paints are expensive. You got him the big tubes, and those are like $10, and you got him 10 colors."

"My Aunt Alexia is an artist, and she already had a couple of tubes in several colors, so I just took the seven colors of the rainbow, plus black, white, and brown. All I had to buy were the brushes, the palette, and the organizer I put them in."

"He looked at you like you were God's gift to the Earth or something," Ellie said.

"Does that make you jealous?" Alyssa teased.

"Oh shut up," Ellie muttered.

"Wait, what?" Rae asked.

"Alyssa's convinced I have a crush on Chris because we made out that night we all got drunk."

"Do you?" Caty asked.

"No, and I'm done with this conversation," Ellie declared. "Anyway, I have to go home. Gavin's arriving tonight, and I need to be there since Jason and Mom won't be."

"We should go too. Dinner in twenty," Rae said to Alyssa and James, who were having dinner at Rae's house that night.

Alyssa nodded, then looked at Ellie. "I'm going to come by soon to see Gavin."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Lyss, you have a boyfriend now. Let it go!"

"Let what go?" James asked.

"I used to have a crush on her brother Gavin," Alyssa said. "But I used to also have a crush on Jason. So what? It's over now. I just want to show Gavin how mature I am now. I used to make a fool of myself in front of him, and he used to look at me like I was a complete spaz. He doesn't get to think he's better than me."

"Okay, I'm going to pretend that the reason you want to show Gavin how mature you are is because you want to show him up, rather than show yourself off," James said. "But I'm going with you."

"Even better," Alyssa said. "I can show him how I scored a super hot boyfriend."

"And don't you ever forget that boyfriend part," James warned, kissing her.

"Oh, she'll never forget," Ellie muttered.

Sage grimaced, something she rarely did. Since she was on such platonic terms with James, it made her feel weird and slightly grossed out whenever she saw James kiss Alyssa or say something overly sweet to her.

"Alright, let's go," Rae said.

Ellie got up first and climbed up the stairs. Rae went next, Alyssa, James, and Sage following her.

Caty got up too, not seeing any reason to stay in the basement alone. Anyway, she needed to do something important too. Important…and difficult.

She was meeting Misha and Nina at the mall to buy Brian a Christmas present.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Why'd you have to invite Drokzilla over here?" Lili whined the following night.

"Because we're always allowed to have our friends and boyfriends over for Christmas Eve dinner as long as we keep Christmas family-only," Caty replied.

Lili rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant. It's bad enough I'll already have two female nerds in my house, but Snort Master too?"

"Lil, Nina and Misha are my best friends. I'll thank you not call them nerds. As for Brian, he really wanted to exchange presents and spend time together before Christmas. On Christmas Day, all his family is coming over and staying for the rest of break, and he won't be able to see anyone except on New Year's Eve, which he spends with his friends, not me."

Lili rolled her eyes and dropped her voice to a whisper. "You don't even _like_ Snort Master. Not really."

"You supported this plan Lil. And besides, maybe I don't want to be his girlfriend, but I do like him. I mean, as a friend. He's not the evil Brian Din I grew up with."

"Well why don't you break up with him and become his friend? He'll still write you a good eval and you don't have to be his girlfriend."

"He won't want to be friends if I break up with him," Caty said. "And he needs to be in love with me if he'll ask Ms. Mandel to write me a recommendation letter. Why are you so suddenly against this plan?"

"I'm not against the plan per se," Lili said. "Believe it or not Caty, I do want you to be happy. So I'm against you being Brian's pretend girlfriend when you're true happiness lies in being Tony's actual girlfriend."

Caty blushed and smiled at the mention of Tony, as she always did. "Tony," she sighed happily.

"See? Why don't you invite him over tonight too?"

"I can't do that!" Caty cried, coming out of her reverie. "Tony doesn't know Brian and I are a couple, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"He's going to find out eventually."

"How? Tony's part of your jock/cheerleader clique. News of the honors crowd wouldn't get back to him."

"But he hangs out with you all the time. And he's friends with Jake Saunders. This will come out."

"Why do you have to be such a downer Lil?" Caty complained.

"If that's what you call being realistic, I'll take it. I'd rather be a downer than ignorant."

"You did _not_ just call _me_ ignorant!" Caty fumed.

Lili laughed, but before Caty could say anything else, the doorbell rang.

Lili and Caty both rushed to answer it, Lili expecting Skye and Holly, two of her cheerleader friends, and Caty expecting Nina, Misha, and Brian. Lili got there first and threw the door open to find a blond haired, blue eyed boy neither of them knew. He looked about fifteen and was holding a bouquet of pink wildflowers.

"Uh…hi?" Caty said questioningly.

"Hi," the boy replied. "Um, I'm Peyton. I'm here to see Layla."

Caty and Lili slowly made room for Peyton to come in.

"How do you know my sister?" Lili asked, eyeing the flowers in his hand suspiciously.

"From school," Peyton said, shifting nervously.

"Well, Layla's in her room with her sister," Caty said kindly. "It's the second one on the left down the hall. You can go in."

"Thanks," Peyton said, smiling. He took a wildflower from the bouquet and handed it to her. "For your help," he informed.

Caty looked really surprised as the boy made his way into Layla and Libby's room. Libby came out a few seconds later. "Have fun you two," she giggled, closing the door behind her.

"Lib, who the hell is that?" Lili asked.

"Peyton Starr," Libby replied, shrugging.

"I _mean_, how does he know Lay? And don't say 'from school.'"

"They're sort of dating," Libby said. "Well, they're technically in limbo. They're in that state where they're not dating yet, but they're more than friends."

Lili looked like she was about to explode. Libby took that as a sign to duck and run, so she headed into the kitchen where Iris and Dawn were.

"Lil, it's Layla's first boyfriend. That's so cute! What's the issue?" Caty asked.

"That's my little sister. She's too young."

"You had your first boyfriend when you were twelve. Lay's fourteen."

"To _me_, she's too young. You'll understand someday, when your sister starts dating."

Caty groaned. "Stop calling her that," she muttered.

Lili glared at her. "Do I have to lecture you about Catherine again?"

"No, please! Just stop talking!" Caty begged. "In fact, never speak again!"

Lili's mouth snapped shut. Caty was surprised, but just shrugged. It was a few minutes later when Caty realized Lili had never stayed quiet for this long.

"Lil, anything wrong?" she asked.

Lili opened her mouth, and though her lips moved, so sound came out.

At first, Caty thought Lili lost her voice, and actually began to laugh. She, Nina, and Misha spent the entire summer wishing Lili would lose her voice. Then it hit Caty that Lili wasn't sick in anyway, so how could she have randomly lost her voice? Then Caty realized Lili had a dazed look on her face when she decided against talking. Caty could've accidentally taken away Lili's voice with her powers!

"Lili, speak!" Caty commanded.

Lili gasped and said, "Oh my God Caty, never do that again!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose!"

"I know. That's why I'm not mad. But seriously!"

Hay Lin warned the girls that their powers would get stronger, but that was really strong. She hadn't even meant to do that. Before now, she had to really _want_ someone to do something before her mind control took effect. And she _had_ really wanted Lili to be quiet, but only about the baby, and she wasn't trying to control her.

"I wonder how far this power goes," Caty mused. "Like…what can I make people do? When does it stop?"

"Well, let's test it," Lili suggested. "Like…Leo and I are in a fight because I broke his toy car, and even though I still think he was asking for it for snooping in my room, Mom says I'm at fault because he was looking for highlighters, not my diary like I know he was. Anyway, I've apologized but Leo's really mad. Can you make him forgive me?"

"I'm not supposed to use my powers when I'm not fighting," Caty said.

"How will you ever know what you can do if you don't practice?"

"That's what guardian training is for."

"Caty, stop being such a goody-goody! There are so many things I can think of to help test the limits of your powers, but the situations I have in mind won't present themselves at training. Just for today, use your powers here. You don't have training for a few days anyway, right? What better way to make up for that?"

Caty sighed. Lili had a point. She'd never have another chance to see if her powers could do things like make Leo forgive Lili when he really didn't want to.

"Okay," Caty agreed.

Lili beamed at her and the two girls headed to the room Leo and Liam shared. Liam was setting up the chess board so he could play when Caty's grandfather arrived. Leo was playing a game on his TrappleTab.

"What do _you_ want?" Leo asked rudely when he saw Lili.

"Actually, we're here because _I_ wanted to talk to you," Caty said.

"Okay." Leo put the tablet down and looked at his redheaded cousin.

"I heard you and Lil had a fight."

Leo nodded, not sure why Caty was bringing that up. "She wrecked one of my toys just because I was looking for a highlighter in her room. I was going to ask her, but she wasn't home. She thinks I was after her diary, but I wasn't!"

Lili rolled her eyes, and made a disbelieving noise, but didn't say anything.

"Has she apologized?"

"Yeah."

"Well then maybe you should forgive her."

"No way! She doesn't deserve my forgiveness."

Caty nodded. "Maybe not, but I can tell she wants it."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Well she should've thought of that before she broke my car!"

Caty just smiled and concentrated hard.

"_Forgive your sister._"

"_Forgive your sister._"

"_Forgive your sister!_"

The familiar dazed look came over his face. "But I guess I can forgive her this time," he said. He looked at his sister. "I forgive you for breaking my car. But next time I won't let you off so easy."

Lili pursed her lips to keep from laughing at the sight of her ten-year-old brother trying to act stern, and nodded. When she was sure she'd calmed down she said, "Thanks little bro. And I really am sorry."

Leo nodded and went back to his game, signaling the end of the conversation. The girls left, and when the twins were out of earshot, Lili squealed, "See Caty? That was so awesome!"

Caty nodded, too excited to even speak. They decided to keep going before their guests arrived. By the time Nina and Misha got there, followed closely by Brian and Lili's cheerleader friends, Caty and Lili had managed to make Dawn rescind Lili's punishment for breaking Leo's toy car, Iris decide against making the oatmeal raisin cookies that Caty hated and instead stick to regular pumpkin pie, Layla properly introduce Peyton to Lili, and Lili give her $50. Of course since Lili knew about Caty's powers, she also knew what made her make that decision, and Caty had to give the money back, but she was fine with it since she had so much fun.

Caty used to be a little afraid of her mind control, especially after what happened to the baby, but control was exactly what she was after. That was the whole reason she warmed up to her powers. This was the perfect ability for her!

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi wasn't so naïve as to expect Ellie and Bree not to fight when her best friend arrived at her house, but she did hope. And it seemed like that wish came true. Ellie and Bree didn't fight at all. There was one awkward moment in the morning though.

After Caroline and her kids arrived, and everyone opened their presents, Bree presented Ellie with the black garbage bag she'd lugged to Gabi's house.

"This is last year's winter wardrobe. I'm done with them all, so I'm giving it you," she said to her cousin.

"That's generous," Gabi said, surprised. Bree didn't normally give clothes away. She always resisted when her mother suggested she donate her old clothes to Good Will.

"I always give Ellie my old clothes," Bree said.

"Why?"

"Because she can't afford-"

"Thanks Bree, this is great!" Ellie broke in loudly.

Gabi knew Bree was about to say Ellie couldn't afford her own clothes. Why was that? Gabi made a mental note to ask Bree about this later, and tell Caty what she found out.

The best moment of the day was when Sage pulled Gabi aside, told her she knew she liked Josh and was sure Josh liked her too, and said Gabi should be with him and didn't have to hold back for her sake. Gabi asked Sage if she was sure maybe a million times, but Sage insisted she was okay with it, and wanted them to be happy.

It was now 1 a.m. and everyone (minus the adults) were gathered in Michael's room. This was a tradition. Every Christmas, the kids would gather in Michael's bedroom early the next morning, after the adults had gone to sleep, to play Truth or Dare. The oldest, usually Michael, would be judge, meaning he could decide if the truth was too personal or the dare was too dangerous. The game would go on until someone inevitably broke something or got hurt. The worst injury had taken place the previous year. Michael had gotten dared to perform a skateboard trick outside, even though it was dark. Michael was judge then too, and even though everyone thought it was dangerous, he said he wanted to do it, and since he was judge, no one was allowed to stop him. He ended up breaking his leg.

Gathered in Michael's room were Luc, Melanie, Marci, Bree, Bree's 19-year-old sister Traci, Bree's 16-year-old brother Ben, Josh, Sage, Ellie, and Gabi. They were waiting on Michael and Ariel, who were waiting for the popcorn to finish popping. They always had popcorn while they played. Usually Jake and his sister would be there as well, but this year, Jake had spent Christmas with Rae. Melanie and Marci replaced them, and Sage and Josh added to their count. They considered inviting Marina and Eva, but Gabi knew Eva would tattle the minute something broke (usually everyone would just pretend to be asleep once something broke and wouldn't get punished because no one could figure out who was actually responsible), and Marina always followed Eva's lead. Anyway, they were too young. Luc didn't even start being included than the previous year. It was an unspoken rule that the kids had to be nine or older to be included.

When Michael and Ariel entered the room, Ariel putting the popcorn in the middle or circle the group made, and Michael closing the door, Melanie spoke up.

"Before we start, Gabi, did you confront your dad about those things we found during Thanksgiving?" she asked, looking around at everyone apprehensively.

"No need to be so secretive," Gabi said. "Everyone in this room knows I snooped in my dad's office to find out about my mother and they know what I found."

"Most of us were there that day," Luc added.

"And I tell Ariel everything," Michael added.

"As I do with Bree," Gabi said. "And I told Josh and Sage too. But I didn't know I was supposed to confront my dad."

"You have to find out _why_ he was hiding all that stuff from you!" Mel cried. "Photos, videos, even a journal. There's no reason to hide that from you. No reason you know anyway."

Gabi's eyes widened. "You're right. I never realized. I'll talk to him soon."

"Speaking of," Ellie said, "what did you find in the journal?"

"I haven't read it yet," Gabi admitted. "We, meaning Luc, Michael, and I, looked through all the photos and watched all the videos. Once we read the journal, that's it. Even the stuff our dad was hiding is all gone. We're not ready for that yet."

Everyone else nodded before they finally started the game. It was just as fun as every year.

Melanie, who was particularly evil, dared Ben to play seven minutes in heaven with Ellie. Ben was hot, but Ellie was over a year and half older than him and it made them both uncomfortable. Gabi had to cover Luc's eyes as Ellie and Ben got into the closet so he wouldn't wonder why they were going in there and pretended she had no idea what seven minutes in heaven was when he asked. Everyone else pretended the same, including Melanie. Luc clearly didn't believe Mel didn't know what it was since she's the one who proposed the dare in the first place, but didn't press it. Everyone very quickly learned to only choose truth when it was Mel's turn. Gabi decided to be brave and chose dare once when it was Mel's turn and instantly regretted it when Mel dared Gabi to give Josh a lap dance.

Everyone once again had to play ignorant when Luc asked what a lap dance was, and Michael ruled against the dare, not wanting to see anyone give anyone else a lap dance, especially if the people involved was his sister and a guy he didn't particularly like. Mel changed the dare to a kiss on the lips, which was just as awkward for the pair since Josh was trying to get over his crush on Gabi and Gabi didn't want her second kiss with Josh to be on a dare, especially since her first kiss with Josh already didn't mean anything. She pulled away quickly so that she could say it didn't count.

Michael got the worst truth of the night when Traci, who was in love with Michael and was always trying to break him and Ariel up, asked him what the most annoying thing about his girlfriend was. Michael tried to rule against that, but Ariel insisted he answer. He said it annoyed him that Ariel tuned him out whenever he and his best friend Vince (who also happened to be Ariel's best friend and was the one who introduced the two in the first place) talked about cars, a passion the two boys shared, and missed something important he'd said because she didn't hear them stop talking about cars and tune back in.

Ariel laughed and said it's not her fault she found cars to be the most uninteresting topic in the world. Michael said he also hated how when Ariel and Vince had a conversation, they were in their own world and didn't notice anything or anyone else around them and that made him jealous. Ariel told him not to be so insecure; she acted like that with Vince because he was her best friend, but he was also Michael's, and he needed to trust them both. Michael was offended, saying he _did_ trust them, but he didn't like how everyone they knew thought Ariel was dating Vince, not Michael, and this lead to a huge fight that left Traci looking very happy.

Gabi frowned. Ariel and Michael rarely fought, and she didn't like this, but she couldn't think of anything to do except insist on continuing the game. Ariel and Michael refused to look at each other for the rest of night, and were still mad at each other when the game was over.

The game ended when Gabi, who was dared to ride her bike while using a wiffle bat to bat away plushies broke a window by batting away an apple thrown by Marci, who ran out of plushies to throw. Everyone ran inside and crawled inside their beds and sleeping bags so that Sienna and Daniel couldn't pin the broken window on any one of them when they got up to investigate.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Who's going first?" James asked Christmas morning.

"I'm going last," Alyssa declared.

"I'll go first," Rae shrugged. "I don't think I can wait any longer."

Jake swiveled around and grabbed two bags and one wrapped box, all with Rae's name on them. He put the three items in front of his girlfriend.

When Jake and James had first arrived, Alyssa was rearranging the presents under the tree. She explained to the boys she was bored and this was the only thing she could think of to occupy herself while Rae woke up. Of course this was a loose term.

Alyssa had tried waking Rae up both physically and telepathically for the last hour and a half, but Rae had barely stirred. Alyssa wished Caty was around so she could _make_ Rae wake up like she had at their Halloween sleepover. Waking Rae up was quite the chore. Since the boys had arrived though, they played Blackjack for a while, using the cookies Rae's mother had given Rae the previous night as money. The boys, who acted like Silena's cookies were their lifeline, took the game far too seriously, but Alyssa had fun anyway.

Nigel came over a half an hour before Rae came downstairs. He gave Alyssa and John hugs and handed them their presents. He exchanged pleasantries with James and Jake, greeted Taranee, then left, taking John with him. Nigel told Alyssa last week that since she was spending Christmas with her friends, he would take John out for the day. But he was also doing this for Taranee. He and Taranee hadn't fixed things yet, but he did want Taranee and Alyssa to fix things, so he thought if he kept John with him, when Alyssa's friends left, Taranee would have a couple of hours of alone time with Alyssa and could use that time to try to fix their relationship.

It was now a couple of hours since Nigel and John left. Taranee was making lunch in the kitchen. Rae was wide awake and ready. Rae had already opened the presents she'd gotten from her mom, as well the ones sent over by her dad and her friend Kayla the previous night. Jake, James, and Alyssa had done the same, deciding that they'd only open each other's presents that day.

"Okay, open mine first," Alyssa said, pushing the shiny blue bag with the silver tissue paper forward.

Rae took out the tissue paper and pulled out the items inside. There was a black t-shirt with the Hogwarts crest on it, which Alyssa bought since Rae's last Hogwarts crest t-shirt got lost somehow when she and Silena moved, a pair of long purple socks, a set of brand new tennis balls that were guardian pink instead of yellow with 'Rae' engraved in a picture of an electric blue lightning bolt, a set of eleven scented body lotions, and a set of seven body sprays.

"Wow," Rae breathed. "Alyssa, this is amazing!"

Alyssa smiled. "I hope you like it. I know your old Hogwarts shirt got lost in the move, and you asked for the socks. I know you don't love tennis, but it might be more fun if you start playing for you instead of for your father, and I thought the personalized balls would make it more entertaining, and I know you said you like scented lotions and stuff, plus I thought you could share it with Sage, which you're going to want to do when you see Jake's gift since she helped him with it."

"Lyssa, shush!" Jake said.

"Shush? Seriously?" Alyssa asked, collapsing into giggles.

"Well, I'd tell you to shut up, but I don't think your boyfriend would take to kindly to that," Jake replied.

"You got that right," James said, but his eyes were laughing. It was really amazing how well Jake and James got along considering they barely had anything in common, besides maybe a close friendship with Caty.

Alyssa looked at Rae expectantly. The raven haired girl gave Alyssa a hug. "Everything's wonderful, and you're awesome. Thank you."

Alyssa beamed at her best friend.

"Okay, James you go next, because nothing can top Jake's gift."

"I agree," James said, pushing the box gift wrapped in white paper covered in different colored balloons towards Rae.

"Festive," Rae commented.

"We ran out of Christmas and winter themed wrapping paper," James said sheepishly.

Rae unwrapped the box, opened it up, and gasped. Inside was a Gryffindor scarf, the house Rae would be in if she attended Hogwarts, a pair of earring shaped like the deathly hallows, a Harry Potter watch with the elder wand as the hour hand, a lightning bolt as the minute hand, and Harry Potter's wand as the second hand, the wand of Sirius Black, Rae's favorite character, and one of those fake Hogwarts acceptance letters.

"Are you trying to show me up?" Jake asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I know a lot more about Harry Potter than any of Rae's other friends. I love those books almost as much as her, and I used to get Harry Potter merchandise for Christmas and my birthday every year until my family ran out of Harry Potter stuff to get me. And I know Rae doesn't have any of this stuff and I thought she'd like it."

"James, you're my favorite!" Rae exclaimed again.

"Hey!" Alyssa and Jake cried indignantly. Then everyone laughed.

"Go ahead Jake. Alyssa was right, nothing compares with your gift."

"I'm so curious now," Rae said.

Jake handed her the gray bag with sparkly white tissue paper. Rae took out the tissue paper and pulled out the items one by one. Jake had run his gift ideas by Alyssa, and of course, James was around since he was _always_ with Alyssa, and they both had to agree, Jake had really nailed it.

The first was the first edition of Rae's favorite book, _The Count of Monte Cristo_ by Alexandre Dumas. There were two books because the original book with published in two volumes. Each books had a hard, dark blue cover with an ornate design in gold and the title and author on the spine.

"Jake, this must've been _so_ expensive!"

"Alyssa helped me find it on sale," Jake said.

"_It was still almost $200_," Alyssa said in Rae's head.

Rae stared at Jake in shock before he gently insisted she look at the rest. The next item was a pink phone case that looked like a cassette tape. Rae had been hinting that she wanted that for a long time. After that, there was a $50 Starbucks gift card. To Rae, Starbucks was the equivalent of heaven (which is why the fact that Down the Rabbit Hole had a Starbucks inside it made the bookstore Rae's dream house). And finally, there was a black velvet box.

"And what's this?" Rae asked with a smile.

Jake grabbed the box out of Rae's hands. "Until the end of this summer, I've never had a real girlfriend. I spent the better part of my time at Sheffield trying to get Gabi Shay to go out with me, and spent most of this past summer not dating any other girls just so she would. And at first, I could not be happier. But then, on the first day of this year, I met this new girl. She was incredibly short, incredibly skinny, and downright incredible."

Rae blushed, not even caring that he mentioned Gabi in this speech he was giving her.

"I liked everything about her, from the glare she gave me the first time she looked at me to the stream of endless sarcastic comments that come out of her mouth every time she opens it to speak. She was pretty and smart, and _didn't_ want to be a cheerleader, which was very refreshing. And I'm lucky enough to call that girl my girlfriend."

Rae beamed at Jake. He grinned back at her and said, "I thought I was serious when I wanted to date Gabi, and to some extent, I was. But then I jumped to you. It was just like my old habits. It took longer than usual, but it happened just the same. But I don't want to jump to anyone else. I'm so happy with you, and even though you won't say it, I know you're worried I will move on to some other girl."

"I'm not-"

"Yes you are," Jake interjected gently. "So, to convince you I'm one hundred percent yours for as long as you want me to be, I got you this." He opened the box and inside was a ring. "When my parents were in high school, a boy would give a girl a ring if he wanted to go steady with her. And if she wore the ring, that would tell every other guy in school that she was taken. I'm not trying to be possessive, and I know it's old fashioned, but I'm hoping you'll wear this ring so you'll know that I only want you, and everyone else will know you have a boyfriend."

Rae laughed. "From anyone else, this would seem like a misogynistic move, but it's so sweet coming from you. I'd love to wear it."

Jake smiled at her, and Rae nearly melted when she realized there was relief in his eyes. Jake took out the ring and slipped it on her ring finger. "I hope you like it. If you do, I picked it out all by myself, but if you don't, Brittany, Alyssa, Sage, and even Bree helped."

Rae laughed and looked at the ring. "It's beautiful," she said, wondering how Ellie's cousin came into play.

"Alyssa said you preferred silver over gold, so I was going to choose a silver band, but my sister suggested white gold instead. I wanted to put an emerald on it, since it was your birth stone, but then I asked Alyssa if maybe I should choose sapphire instead, since blue is your favorite color. She suggested that I use pink sapphire instead of blue. I didn't know why, but since she's your best friend, I said okay. I realize now it's probably because it matches the necklace she gave you."

Rae touched the pendant of the guardian necklace Alyssa gave her, which she wore everyday along with the Heart. Of course, the Heart somehow hid perfectly behind her shirt without bulging, so everyone thought she just wore a random piece of twine around her neck.

"I went on this jewelry website Bree told me about when I wanted to get Gabi a birthday present a few years ago. I made the ring, ordered it, and showed to Alyssa while you were in the bathroom during our movie night."

"The one we had in place of going to the Hollidazzle Dance?"

"Yeah. Alyssa took the ring and said, if I could trust her, then she'd give the ring to Sage, whose aunt, who lives in Star City, is great at making hand-made jewelry, and could make the ring even better."

Rae looked at Alyssa.

"_He'll tell you_," Alyssa said.

"So I said okay, and Sage's aunt made the sapphire look like glass and managed to put the symbol that's on your necklace inside the stone."

"_AKA, the Meridian princess used her magic to make a sapphire look like glass and seared in the Keeper's symbol inside it_," Alyssa clarified.

"Alyssa said that symbol is the Shane family symbol meaning leadership?" Jake said questioningly.

"It is," Rae confirmed.

"_Nice lie Lyssa,"_ she said to the fire guardian approvingly.

"Jake this is beautiful and such a great idea. I love it."

"I'm glad."

"Okay, okay, Jake's turn next!" Alyssa said.

Jake received concert tickets for the four of them for his favorite band, Maroon 5, from Rae, a new lacrosse stick from James, and a new soccer ball from Alyssa, who used her art skills to personalize it for him. He took one look at it and declared Alyssa as _his_ favorite.

James got the sneakers for his longboard from Rae. Jake got him hundreds of k-cups.

"Dude, how'd you know I needed these?"

"It was when Sage gave me Rae's ring. I mentioned I had no idea what to get you, and she said you were running out of k-cups and that you're Keurig is your favorite thing in the world."

"That's a really good idea," Alyssa said. "But why didn't you ask _me_ what to get James?"

"You weren't around. Sage was. Otherwise I obviously would've asked you."

"Okay, now mine," Alyssa said excitedly, handing him her wrapped present. James opened it up and his face lit up.

"Whoa," he breathed.

Alyssa had gotten him a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones.

"I know you said your old Beats were breaking, and Bose is better anyway, so…"

"I love them, they're perfect!" James exclaimed. Alyssa beamed at him as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Okay Lyssa, your turn. Open mine first," Rae said.

Rae had gotten Alyssa a huge book of 1001 logic puzzles, a book called _1001 Things You Need to See Before You Die_, an expensive neck pillow, a purse sized sketchbook, a set of mini sharpies, a pack of higher end colored pencils, some high end sketching pens, and a bag of the big tootsie pops.

"It's a travel kit," Rae explained. "I know you don't love planes, but I also know you do love to travel, and that your family goes to all sorts of places. The logic puzzles is something you can do on the plane, the neck pillow will make you more comfortable, the book of things you need to see will help your family plan their next vacation, the art stuff is so that you can take it on vacation and draw whatever you see, and it's small so you can stuff it into your purse, and the tootsie pops are because you mentioned how badly your ears hurt whenever a plane lands or takes off and lollipops help. And I chose tootsie pops because I know they're your favorite."

"Wow Rae, this is amazing! Thank you so much!"

Jake had hidden his present behind the tree because he was unable to wrap it and didn't want Alyssa to see what he'd gotten her. He presented her with a picnic basket (without the lid) wrapped in see through purple cellophane. Inside were 12 DVDs, lots of candy, a few bags of microwave popcorn, a few cans of Sprite, a pillow, an orange throw, and the same long fuzzy socks Alyssa had gotten Rae, except in neon green instead of purple.

"Jake, this is awesome!" Alyssa cried.

"Well I remember at our movie night, your complained that you wished you had more movies and we had problems with no one wanting to share any of the blankets or pillows, so I got you everything you need to have the perfect movie night, either on your own or with your friends. And all those movies are Disney movies, so you can have a Disney movie marathon, since I know how much you love Disney movies. And the older movies are the remastered versions."

Alyssa grinned. Jake had gotten her Frozen, Tangled, Mulan, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and the special edition versions of her absolute favorite movies, The Lion King and A Bug's Life.

"These are all my favorites. You even picked some Pixar movies. Thank you so much!"

"Hopefully mine will match up," James said, handing her a bag. Alyssa grinned, removed the tissue paper, and took out the items one by one. The first was a Disney calendar of the 2016 year, with characters from a different Disney movie for every month. Next was the warmest, most comfortable, white fuzzy sweater Alyssa had ever had the pleasure of owning. James admitted Rae helped him with that one. After that was a collage filled with pictures, movie ticket stubs, and pieces of menus, and other sentimental things that symbolized their relationship.

"This is so cute, and definitely my favorite," Alyssa said.

"I think you'll want to hold off on saying that," James said, motioning to the bag.

Alyssa wore an amused smile as she pulled out a Mason jar decorated with stickers of all her favorite art pieces like Starry Nights by Vincent can Gogh, or Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans. On top of the jar, written in fancy calligraphy, were the words 'Date Night.'

"Chris wrote that," James admitted, "since he can do calligraphy. I know you can too, but it was your present. In here are 52 pieces of paper with surprise date ideas. 52 so there's one for every week in an entire year. We go out two or three times a week with no real plan. For the coming year, we'll still go out whenever we're free, but I think we should make Friday our date night. We'll go out every Friday, and each Friday morning, you randomly pick something from the jar, and whatever it says is what we'll do."

"That's so romantic, and so sweet, and so creative!" Rae cried.

"I'm starting to feel underappreciated," Jake grumbled jokingly.

Rae smiled sweetly at him and held up her hand. "Don't worry. Your ring tops it all."

Jake smiled back as Alyssa, overcome and speechless, tacked James and kissed him as if it would be their last. Jake and Rae, inspired, did the same until Taranee, wondering why everyone was so quiet, came into the living room and cleared her throat loudly.

Everyone broke apart, embarrassed, Alyssa most of all. She glared at her mother, then turned back to her friends. "So, who wants to put Jake's present to good use?"

Everyone nodded. One reason Alyssa got along so well with Rae, James, and Jake was because they were as obsessed with Disney as she was. Alyssa knew every line of The Lion King. Rae identified with Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Jake, who had a pretty good voice, liked to sing along to all the songs, and James loved the storylines.

Alyssa made three bags of popcorn, they all got comfy on the couch with candy and soda, and started their movie marathon with Aladdin. They ordered Chinese for lunch and watched The Lion King and A Bug's Life before deciding to play a game instead.

Taranee made a fabulous Christmas dinner for Alyssa and her friends. Alyssa hoped Nigel and John would come back for dinner, but they were going to eat at a restaurant, and John was going to sleepover at a friend's house.

After dinner, Taranee said she was going out for a couple of hours. Jake proposed they watch Mulan and play a drinking game. He said they'd do a shot every time someone said 'honor' or 'dishonor' (and this included every time they sang it in the song 'Honor to us All'). Alyssa was very much opposed to this idea since they were underage, but after a lot of begging, Alyssa took out two bottles of scotch and four shot glasses. She refused to touch the alcohol though, and did shots of sprite instead. At the end of the movie, James, Rae, and Jake were all tipsy, and Alyssa said they should just sleepover.

Alyssa's friends went home early the next morning. John was still at his friend's house, so she was alone in the house with Taranee. Alyssa knew there would be no way to avoid her all day, but she was hoping John would be back before Alyssa had to see her. No such luck. Alyssa was starving and went downstairs for lunch before John came back. Taranee was in the kitchen heating up some of the leftover chicken in the oven.

"Do you want some of the chicken too honey?" Taranee asked.

"No. I have leftover lo mein," Alyssa muttered, taking it out of the fridge and popping the container into the microwave.

Taranee sat down at the island to eat. Alyssa put the lo mein on a plate and tried to escape to her room.

"Alyssa, no food in your room," Taranee said instantly.

"Since when is _that_ a rule?" Alyssa spat.

"Since I decided we need to talk."

"I have no interest in-"

"Then you listen and I'll talk," Taranee suggested.

Alyssa barked out a laugh. "I'm done listening to you Mom. And you did more than enough talking when you lied to your family for over seventeen years."

Taranee sighed. "I'm not trying to deny how horrible my actions were. And Caleb and I both agreed we have no idea why we did it or how it happened. And I'm not just saying that. I have no memory of that night, and neither does he. What we do remember is that there's no reason it should've happened. We weren't drinking, we weren't overtired and not thinking clearly…from what I _can_ remember, I was at your grandparents' house that day with Nigel."

Alyssa frowned. That was really strange. How could her mother not remember that night if she wasn't drinking? And how'd she see Caleb?

"If you and Cornelia stayed friends even after the others stopped speaking to you," Alyssa said, keeping her voice cold, "did you know Cornelia and Caleb lived in Meridian?"

"Yes. I was the only one of the old guardians that knew that."

"So you would've had to go to Meridian to see Caleb?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember where you were that night? Did Caleb come to you or did you go to him?"

"I went to him."

"So there had to portal to Meridian open at Grandma and Grandpa's house?"

"Yes."

"And there was?"

Taranee paused for a moment, thinking. "Yes, but…I don't remember how it got there. When I talked to Hay Lin a few months ago, she said Will teletransported here to Heatherfield from wherever she's living now to give Hay Lin the Heart around the same time our powers started to weaken. That was a sign new guardians were being chosen. But at the time that Caleb and I…betrayed Cornelia and Nigel, Will still had the Heart, which is the only object on Earth that could open a portal."

"So then how-"

"I don't know!" Taranee cried. "Nigel and I had arrived at my parents' house the night before. I remember everything we did that day, and then I remember a portal opening in our room. Nigel was out with Dad, so I was the only one in our room. My rational mind knew portals couldn't randomly open when no veil was up. My rational mind was also telling me I couldn't go through a portal and just leave it open with my parents in the house and that I should telepathically contact Will so she could close it, but it was almost as if something was forcing me to go through the portal, so I did. And I don't know how, but I found myself at Caleb's house. Cornelia wasn't home, and I don't remember anything after that."

"Nothing?"

"The next few hours are a blank. I don't remember what we talked about, what we did, or even how I got back to my parents' house a few hours later. I do remember the portal closing right after I was back in our room. Nigel was asleep. He asked me the next morning where I had gone, and I told him I couldn't remember. I was going through this phase of sleepwalking at that time, so we figured that's what had happened, even though I knew what I had done with Caleb. I just couldn't understand or remember it."

Alyssa's frown deepened. Taranee could be lying, but if she was telling the truth, then maybe this wasn't her fault. Maybe there was a more powerful force behind it. Could it be possible that some sort of magic was involved?

Alyssa tried to read Taranee's mind. It wasn't easy to read the minds of non-guardians, but she was getting better. She was surprised when she got through easily, and searching her mother's mind, Alyssa knew her mother was telling the truth. But what did that mean? Taranee's thoughts were the same as Alyssa's: some kind of magic was at play here.

"Be that as it may, it still doesn't excuse your lies. I mean, Dad knew about the guardians and everything. Maybe if you had told him what you're telling me, he would've understood that maybe some kind of magic was involved. And then you lied to me, and when I found out the truth, you _erased_ my memory. I mean, what kind of mother does that? You have the magical objects because you're the rational, responsible one. You're not supposed to abuse that, and you did, just to protect yourself."

"Honey, no matter what I said, Nigel would never believe that magic could've been involved. What kind of magic forces someone to cheat? He would've thought I was lying. The only reason you believe me is because you can read my mind and know I'm telling the truth."

At first Alyssa was surprised that Taranee knew Alyssa read her mind. Then she realized the reason she got in so easily was because Taranee _let_ her in.

"Does Dad know about this now?"

"Yes. He's not sure whether or not to believe it, but he's not fully dismissing it."

"Is that why he's trying to work it out? Because he thinks there's a chance you weren't in control of your own actions?"

"Yes."

"Well, thank you for telling me," Alyssa said. "But I still can't forgive the lies or the erasing my memory."

"I understand."

"I don't think you do. I know Dad left after just a few minutes yesterday because he was hoping we could work things out. But whether you were in control or not, that doesn't erase the fact that you lied to me, and then made me forget when I found out all so you could keep living the perfect life you could only live as long as no one knew about what you did with Caleb and my true parentage. So, even though I believe you don't know what you were doing, I don't forgive you either. Things will never be the same between us when we do start to rebuild our relationship. And no matter what, that rebuilding will not start anytime soon."

With that, Alyssa grabbed her plate and went up to her room, ignoring Taranee's pleas to stay and talk.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: I know that's an awkward place to end it, but like I said, this is only half the chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed that, and like the next part of it. The rest of the shout-outs will be there, and I think Josh and Gabi fans will be very happy!**


	36. Après Noël

**A/N: So here's chapter 34 (AKA the other half of chapter 33). And the rest of the shout-outs! For those of you that wanted Rae to confront Silena, that's in this chapter. I hope I did it justice, and I hope you guys enjoy that scene and this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: It's okay that you didn't because it'll feel like less of a wait when these chapters come out. I'm very much invested in Alyssa and James as well. I like them more than I thought I would, because in the beginning, I was planning on giving Alyssa and James a cute, flirty friendship, but not actually put them in a relationship because of Chris, but then they became a couple and now I love them. Ellie will soon be in a different love triangle than the one she's in. You'll love this chapter because of the Gabi and Josh moment I put in. Their relationship is going to have a major development next chapter. And you'll just have to wait and see about Caty. I'm glad their friends again too; I guess you'll just have to wait to find out what happens with Angel. Well of course I can't tell you about identities unless you PM me. You'll probably find out identities sooner than you think however. I hope you liked the previous chapter and you like this chapter!**

**Taylor: Here's three double updates in a row, although these two were also technically supposed to be one chapter that I decided to split. I'm glad you liked them so much. Ellie won't be obsessive for much longer. You'll see why in the next couple of chapters. I'm glad they're best friends again too. I hope you liked chapter 33 and will like chapter 34!**

**Misa: Haha, no, that's not creepy. And anyway, I think that theory was disproved. This update is three days after your review. I got your PM, and I replied, so I hope that information will help the next time you try to guess. Good job though, even though you were wrong. Well, there will be a sort of "making up" moment between Josh and Gabi in this chapter. And yeah, definitely an awkward Thanksgiving. I'm surprised you were the first and only one to mention that. I knew you'd be happiest that Rae and Alyssa are friends again. You've been waiting for that for a long time. I'm glad you liked chapter 31 and 32 and I hope you like both the previous chapter and this one!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Oh, cool phone case Gabi!" Cara commented.

"Thanks. My brother's girlfriend gave it to me."

"Oh let me see," Caty begged, and Gabi handed it to her.

"Is Ariel still Michael's girlfriend? Because they were still fighting when I went home the next day," Sage said.

"It took some time, but they made up," Gabi said. "Actually, Josh helped with that."

"Really? What did _you_ do?" Rae asked.

"Well, Ariel asked me about my family, and I told her a little about them. Then I got the great idea to tell her about how my parents met and their story. A modified version obviously, with Meridian being substituted with California."

"Aww, your parents' story is so sweet!" Cara cooed.

"And I bet it made Ariel want to make up with Michael," Sage realized.

Josh nodded.

"It was so brilliant!" Gabi gushed. "And, when Michael realized what Josh did, he decided he owed him, and doesn't hate him anymore!"

"He still doesn't like me either," Josh grumbled making Chris laugh.

It was the first guardian practice since the day before Christmas Eve. They group was still waiting for Alyssa, Ellie, and James.

"Caty, cute bracelet," Sage said as Caty looked Gabi's phone case.

"Oh, thanks," Caty replied smiling. It was a silver charm bracelet and it had a letter 'C' charm, a charm with her birthstone, and various other charms symbolizing her many activities such as student council and soccer. "Brian gave it me. It was his Christmas present."

"Wow. Not bad for Dorkzilla," Gabi commented.

Caty rolled her eyes lightly at the nickname, then asked, "Did you make this and have Ariel pay for it, or did she make it?" She was referring to the phone case as she gave it back to Gabi.

"She made it."

"That's amazing!"

Ariel had gone on one of those customizable case websites and made a collage style case for Gabi's phone. The amazing part that Caty was talking about was that Ariel had put pictures of everything Gabi loved (pictures of her favorite TV show, movie, actor, book, place, and people, as well as a close up of Gabi's first byline in Sheffield's student paper, a close up of Gabi's name in the ZOOM staff list, and a picture of Gabi in her Varsity uniform).

"You think so?"

"Yeah. A case that personalized is usually designed by the person themselves. Ariel clearly knows you better than anyone.

Gabi bit her lip. The truth was, Ariel didn't make her that case. Ariel gave her a charm bracelet with charms that spelled her name, a charm that held her birthstone, a pom-pom charm, a pen charm, a book charm, and a charm that said NYU. Gabi thought it tied with the high end speaker system Michael got her to replace her busted iHome as the best present she'd ever gotten. But then she opened Sienna's gift, and although she acted ungrateful and like she hated it, upsetting Sienna and angering her father, she secretly loved it.

Sienna was the one that made the phone case, and though Gabi would never admit it, she was touched that Sienna took the time to make her a case and pleasantly surprised at how well Sienna knew her. No one, not Ariel, Bree, Michael, or Luc knew her well enough to make a phone case that personalized.

Michael told Gabi she should apologize to Sienna because it was a nice gift, and because he didn't want her to get in trouble with Dad, which gave Gabi the perfect excuse to use it without making it seem like she genuinely liked it. She put it on her phone and made it seem like she only did it to satisfy her Dad and apologize to Sienna. She told everyone who asked that Ariel made it. Not even Bree or Ellie knew the truth since Sienna wanted to give Michael, Gabi, Luc, and Eva their gifts at the same time, and Michael's gift hadn't arrived at the Shay house until the previous day. Josh was at Rae's house, so only Ariel and her family was there while she opened it.

Of course, after guardian practice, Gabi had taken Caty aside to tell her the truth. She knew Caty would give her an annoying lecture that started with was Gabi sure she still hated Sienna. Gabi knew one nice present didn't erase the fact that Sienna was just a gold digging slut, and when Caty began to lecture her, Gabi told her to not say anything unless she wanted to hear about how she should read the letter she got from her birth mother. Caty shut up and instead they talked about when Gabi was going to see Bree next and how she was going to bring up that Ellie was possibly being abused.

When they group parted ways, and Josh and Gabi got into Gabi's car, Josh said, "I thought Ariel gave you that charm bracelet you're wearing."

"She did. So?"

"Then who is the phone case really from?"

Gabi sighed. She didn't want to tell anyone, not even Caty, who she usually told everything to. She wasn't really sure _why_ she told Caty. But she did want Josh to know.

"Sienna. She gave it to me yesterday."

"Wow. She has an impressive understanding of you."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Oh please. So she knows my favorite TV show and that I love cheerleading. Everyone knows that."

"Really? Because I remember a conversation I had with Bree a while ago, and she had no idea what your favorite TV show is, or who your favorite actor is, for that matter. Sienna knew both and more. And she did a really good job. She could've just put in any old newspaper picture or a picture of a pen or something, but she took a picture of your name in the newspaper and in ZOOM."

Gabi bit her lip. That was true. Even more impressive was that Sienna chose Gabi's first byline and told Gabi when she gave her the case that she'd chosen that article because her first byline was special even if her best article was the one she wrote about public vs private schools for the October issue of Sheffield's paper, meaning Sienna was reading her articles, including the ones she wrote before Sienna had even met Daniel.

"She's 27," Gabi said.

"Why does that matter so much?"

"Why would she want to be with someone literally twice her age unless she's after his money?"

"Because she's in love with him! Remember, I told you, I can tell. They really love each other."

Gabi didn't say anything for a long time. She just focused on the road, driving a lot slower and safer than usual. Finally, she whispered, "He's not supposed to love anyone except my mom."

Josh looked at her, and without even seeing him, Gabi knew he was probably wearing an expression of concern, which made her heart flutter, because he hadn't shown the least bit of kindness to her since the day he told her he hated her. The comment about how Gabi was 'enchanting' when she talked about Ariel, and the subconscious heartfelt 'thank you' for her Secret Santa present didn't count.

"I can't say I understand how that feels," Josh said quietly. "Not fully. My parents are together. But when I first found out my dad cheated on my mom with Taranee, I was insanely angry. I was too young to understand you can be intimate with someone you don't love, and I couldn't understand how my dad could love anyone besides my mom. They married each other, they had an unbelievable story. It was always meant to be. Caleb and Cornelia, written in the stars. So I get it. Your parents are only supposed to love each other."

"Yeah, exactly."

"But your mother isn't here anymore. I'm sure your dad loved her more than anyone when she was still alive, but now she's not anymore, and your dad should be able to find happiness with someone else if he wants to. I'm sure your mom would've wanted that."

Gabi was silent again. When Daniel first started dating, Luc was around five. He was too young to understand, but Daniel sat Michael and Gabi down, and told them that a few years after Michael was born, he and Alexandra had discussed what would happen if one of them were to die suddenly. They agreed that they wanted each other to continue living and dating, and find someone else to love. Michael was 15, and understood completely. Gabi was 11, and the first thing she said was that she didn't want a new mom. Daniel promised he wasn't trying to replace Alexandra, but ever since he started dating, he stopped missing Alexandra.

In the first few years since Alexandra passed away, Daniel used to stare at pictures of her, tell stories about her, and tell Michael and Gabi how they reminded him of her. As Luc got older, he did the same for him. He talked about Alexandra all the time and they watched home movies together all the time. He'd tell his kids how he missed her every day and he spent years learning how to cook so he could duplicate Alexandra's recipes. He used to keep stuff like her favorite wine and the books she used to read on a rainy day around even though he didn't use them. He played the music she used to like and taught Gabi how to dance the way he and Alexandra used to.

The minute he started dating, all that stopped. Not only did he put her old records and books in storage and stop buying her favorite wine, but all of the pictures and home movies went away as well. All the talk and stories of Alexandra stopped. All the cooking, which he'd gotten quite good at, stopped. Then he began to work and go out more, and he stopped spending time with Michael, Gabi, and Luc as well, forcing them to grow up and take care of each other.

All three of them had mother figures in the mother of their best friends; they were lucky that way. But they were missing the presence of a father figure. Then Daniel began to integrate the new women he started seeing into the household. It was clear these women had more in common with Michael than Daniel. They'd stick around for a few months, soaking up all the presents Daniel got for them, then break up with him when they realized they'd soon need to make a deeper commitment, taking all the expensive presents with them.

Gabi explained all this to Josh. "Everything got worse when he started dating."

"But Sienna's different. They dated for a year, and now they've been married for a year. If all your Dad's other girlfriends really did only last for two or three months, Sienna's already been around for 12 times longer."

For some reason, Gabi found that funny, and laughed. She pulled up at her house, parked the car in the driveway and turned it off, but neither of them moved.

"It's not the same. Sienna's only ten years older than me and her daughter is a _menace_. Sienna can't be my mother. She can't be anything to me. Eva hated me before I even said a word to her, and she does things like cut up my _mother's _old dress and torments Luc. No one with the least bit of compassion would call him Lucifer, but she does it for _fun_! I don't want either of them in my house or in my life."

Josh sighed. "I agree with you that Eva is a menace. She's nice to me, but she is terrible to you, and I have to commend you. You could've done so many things to her, but all you do is battle with her verbally."

"That's only because I don't want to get in trouble," Gabi muttered.

Josh ran his face over his hand, frustrated. "Why do always do that?"

"Do what?"

"You always discredit yourself. Every time someone tries to give you a compliment, you always just deny it because you don't think you are what they saw you are."

"Josh, I-"

"But when someone insults you, you're always really offended."

"I never used to be like that."

"Then why are you now?"

"Because of you!" Gabi cried. "Because I used to be a confident, self-assured person before you came into my life. And then I meet you and I start to second guess everything, like my actions and my self-worth. I want to be a better person. You _make_ me want to be a better person. But nothing is ever good enough for you. How can I not discredit myself?"

Josh let out a breath. "I never said you were a bad person."

"You said you hated me. You said I was annoying and obnoxious and-"

"You're not. You're amazing," Josh broke in. "You're sweet and honest and caring, and you're really pretty."

Gabi began to blush but said, "I'm not any of those things. Maybe I'm honest, but in a bitchy way. I only care about certain people, and I'm definitely not sweet."

"Really? Because you used to torment Alyssa everyday of her life, and now you guys are best friends. You can always make Caty feel better, and you never treat Ellie like she's stupid. Every other person in the world has, most of the time, without meaning to. You're so much more than you give yourself credit it for. You're _incredible_, you know that? And the fact that you don't see it baffles me."

Gabi blushed harder and realized for the first time since their 'I hate you' fight, he was looking straight into her eyes with a startling intensity. He stared into her eyes as if the entire world would implode if she didn't understand this fact-not just understand it, but know it and accept it with every fiber of her being.

"I say things I don't mean. I've always been like that. Being nice doesn't exactly come easy to me. I've only ever been truly kind when it came to Sage, because you can't _not_ be kind to her. So I'm sorry that I say all these mean things to you. And I'll be honest-because you deserve my honestly-but I did used to think you were annoying and obnoxious and all those other things. But I never hated you for it. And you're not any of those things anymore. You have changed and even though you shouldn't change for me, it's more than good enough."

"Thank you," she said because she couldn't think of anything else to say.

Josh gave her an actual, genuine smile, and said, "Now back to Eva and Sienna…I agree that Eva is a menace, but Sienna is sweet and she cares about you so much. She's trying so hard to please you and she won't give up. But you're never satisfied, and your feelings rub off on Luc."

"She's not my mother."

"She's not trying to be."

"It's not fair Josh. I don't want Sienna here. I just want my mother back."

"I know," Josh said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle. "But think about it this way. If Sienna was just in this relationship for the money, she wouldn't be trying so hard to get you, Michael, and Luc to accept her. And she only wants you to accept her for _you_, not her. She wants you to accept her so you'll be happy. So maybe you should try and all the bitterness you have towards Sienna will disappear."

Gabi stared forward silently for a long time. When she turned back to Josh, tears were streaming down her face. "I can't," she whispered brokenly. "The minute I accept Sienna, I'll lose my mom."

"What?"

"Dad started dating and he stopped talking about Mom, stopped thinking about her. If I accept Sienna, that'll happen to me too. And I can't do that to her. I never want to forget her."

"You won't-"

"Then why did Dad?"

Josh didn't have an answer.

"That's what I thought."

Gabi wiped away her tears and got out of the car. Josh followed after wordlessly, wishing he'd done a better job at helping the girl he undeniably had feelings for find happiness.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Why couldn't we take your limo home?" Alyssa asked the same afternoon, shivering as she and Rae walked home.

"I want to walk and be free as much as I can. Mom's so overprotective that I have to take advantage of being able to walk places while I can."

"It's _freezing_!" Alyssa cried. "And it's almost dark anyway. Why is your mother letting you walk home?"

"Technically we were supposed to be home two hours ago, when it was still light out. She hasn't called me to check up on me, so I'm assuming she's on call with a client."

"This is the last day I walk home with you. I'll take your limo without you if I have to, but I'm not walking anywhere after today," Alyssa threatened. It was inhumane how cold it was outside, the fire guardian was always more severely affected by the cold on top of that. "I'm going to follow Sage's example."

Sage had asked Rae if Harvey could pick them up. Rae said she wanted to walk, but Sage was free to take the limo if she wished. Sage felt awkward taking the limo without Rae, but Rae insisted it was fine. When Harvey arrived at The Silver Dragon, Alyssa considered going with Sage, but them decided she should accompany Rae, just in case. It could be dangerous for a teenage girl to walk the streets of Heatherfield alone in the dark, and just because Rae had powers didn't mean she could go all guardian on any random human trying to attack her.

Rae just rolled her eyes and changed the subject. "So what were you and Gabi talking about for nearly an hour today?"

"We were telling each other about our Christmases."

"But the whole group did that right after practice."

"Yeah, the bare bones. We were giving each other specifics."

"Why?"

"Because the specifics are interesting and fun."

"But you only do that with friends."

"Gabi and I _are_ friends," Alyssa said, her tone mirroring the tone one would use to explain something to a five-year-old…or Ellie.

"Since when?"

"Since that day at the hospital. You know that."

"I don't get it though Lyssa. That girl spent nearly five and a half years tormenting you daily with insults and demeaning nicknames, and now you're almost as close with her as you are with me!"

"So? People change. Gabi has."

Rae snorted. "Yeah, sure."

"She has! I don't get why you two don't get along. You didn't like that she used demeaning nicknames, but she's stopped. She doesn't even call me Classless-a anymore, and she used to use that name on me even after we became friends for a while. You didn't like that she had Jake, but now you have Jake, and she's over him. You didn't like that she was bitch to everyone, but now she's not a bitch to anyone. What is there to fight about?"

"We're not fighting, and we're _friendly_, just not friends."

"Well, I guess not everyone can be friends. Maybe you and Gabi just don't mesh."

"And I'm okay with that. I just don't get how you two _do_ mesh."

"Are you jealous?" Alyssa teased.

Rae rolled her eyes and lightly shoved the African American. Alyssa retaliated by lightly shoving Rae back, and the two ended up collapsing in giggles.

"You coming over?" Alyssa asked when they reached Larson Street.

"No. Sage and I need to talk to my mom."

"Are you going to confront her about knowing about Meridian?"

"Yeah. I hadn't wanted to before, but the more I thought about the more I realized if she's pretending not to know Sage, she must be afraid of something. As a guardian, we should find out what it is, in case it's a threat to us as well. Plus, I want to know if she knows who I am, like my dad does, or if she could give us a straight answer as to who Angel is."

"Good luck then," Alyssa said with a smile.

Rae smiled back weakly and continued on to her own house, nervousness building up inside of her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Rae got home, she found Sage waiting for her in her room. Rae had decided that morning that she was going to confront her mother about knowing about Meridian, so she asked Sage to help and told her mother they needed to talk about something important when they got home that day. Silena was on a conference call when Sage got home, and was still on it by the time Rae got there, but told her she'd be free for the rest of the day, once she got off the phone. Now the two girls were waiting for Silena to be free.

Rae paced around her room nervously, wringing her hands.

"Rae, are you sure you want to do this?" Sage asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Because you look ready to pass out and I'm worried about you."

"I need to know," Rae said. "I need to know what she knows."

"Okay. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have Alyssa here, instead of me? I don't know how much help I can be."

"Sage, you don't have to be here if you don't want to. When I asked you to help, it was just a question. You could've said no. You still can."

"No, I want to be here for you," Sage said quickly. "I just want to make sure I'm the person you want here."

"You are," Rae said immediately. Sage was a calming force. She was also really kind. _Too_ kind sometimes. That could get her into trouble.

'I'll watch over her,' Rae decided. 'Someone needs to.'

Rae figured Josh used to watch over her and protect her. She could tell by the way they interacted. But as they got more and more used to Earth, they stopped spending as much time together. Josh spent all his time working on his art or entertaining Luc. Sage spent all her time at cheerleading practice or musical rehearsals. Josh mainly hung around Rae, and Alyssa when they were still friends. Sage mainly hung around Gabi and Ellie. Josh joined newspaper as a photographer and made the basketball team. Sage joined Key Club, the Sheffield Social Committee, and Glee Club. They still hung out during guardian practices and at rehearsals when Josh helped out with set design, but they didn't spend much time together outside of that, and they never hung out just the two of them like they used to when they first arrived on Earth. So Rae decided she would take Josh's place.

"Girls! Are you still available?" Silena called from the kitchen.

Rae and Sage exchanged looks, took deep breaths, and entered the kitchen.

Sage and Rae hopped up on the stools in front of the island. Silena stood on the other side, and pushed a plate of sugar cookies over to the teenagers. They both took one and let the sweet taste calm their nerves.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Silena asked. She seemed perfectly at ease. She probably didn't think her daughter was going to confront her about magic.

"Remember those friends you used to have? Cornelia Hale and Elyon Brown? Whatever happened to them?" Rae started.

Silena smiled. "Well actually, they're Cornelia Hart and Elyon Martin now. They both got married several years ago. And they're still my friends, you know that. I talked to Cornelia just last week. I haven't heard from Elyon in a few months however. Why are you asking about them?"

"Have they ever met me?"

"Yes, when you were little. You used to play with Elyon's daughter and Cornelia's son."

Rae looked startled for a minute and exchanged shocked looks with Sage. Rae, Sage, and Josh used to be friends?

"The last time you guys all saw each other, you were five and Elyon's daughter and Cornelia's son were six."

"How come I don't remember this?"

"You didn't play together often. Usually Cornelia and Elyon came over here without their kids. You three only saw each other a total of four times."

"Well, how come you haven't seen them again since then?"

"I have. Just not while you were around."

"Well why didn't you ever invite them over for Thanksgiving or Christmas the way you did with all your other friends?"

"I did, but they usually go to Cornelia's parents' house for those occasions. Why are you asking about them?"

"Because I met Elyon's daughter and Cornelia's son. Sage is Elyon's daughter and I know you know that and I know Dad does too."

For a minute, Silena just stood there, staring at them, her face completely expressionless. Rae stared back her, defiant, while Sage cringed at Rae's bluntness.

Finally Silena sighed. "You're right. I know that, and so does your father."

Rae frowned. "Wait, that's it? You're just…admitting it?"

Silena frowned as well. "Of course. I mean, if I denied it, you'd know I was lying, so what would be the point?"

Rae bit her lip, realizing she was right. "Okay…so you've known who Sage's mother is all this time?"

Silena nodded her confirmation. "I had a suspicion when you called and left a message asking if Sage and Josh could stay here. Even though you said Sage was your penpal and Josh was her friend, I thought that might not be true because there aren't a lot of girls named Sage. I knew I couldn't pretend I didn't know about Meridian if they were both here-"

"And that's why you only let one of them stay here," Rae finished.

Silena nodded, and looked at Sage. "Of course I recognized you right away, so when you got settled, I called your mother. I couldn't get ahold of her however."

Sage ducked her head, knowing she wasn't allowed to tell Silena that Elyon was captured.

"So then I called Cornelia, and she told me that Sage and Josh were going to stay on Earth to help you and the other guardians."

Even though Rae knew that if Frank knew she was guardian, then Silena probably did too, she was still shocked, and her mouth dropped open. "So you knew?"

"Of course I did. Cornelia wouldn't hide something like that from me."

"But Cornelia told me to act like I didn't know you if you acted like you didn't know me, and not to tell you that Rae is a guardian if you acted like you did know me," Sage said.

"Well that was before Cornelia realized I'd call and ask her what her son and his best friend are doing on this world," Silena responded.

"But Mom, you were always so overprotective of me. How could you let me train to be a guardian?"

"I'm overprotective because I'm your mother," Silena said. "But I also know how important the guardians are. And I know how important you guys specifically are."

"You know we're the Thousand Year Guardians?"

"Yes, and so does your father. It's your duty to save all the known worlds. If you really didn't want the responsibility, then I wouldn't say anything, although I know that you're not one to shy away from something so important. But if you did want to be a guardian, I wasn't going to stop you. I mean, think about it. You got suspended, and I didn't even ground you because I knew you needed to go to guardian practice every day."

Rae couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her overprotective mother chose not to ground her so she could go to guardian practice while Taranee, who almost always let Alyssa do whatever she wanted, took her powers away?

"Mom, do you know about the Angel of Magic?"

Silena frowned. "I'm afraid not. Is that a person or…?"

"Well, I don't think she's a literal angel, but she has the appearance of one. She has these large, snowy white wings, and her face keeps changing, and so does her skin color, and she glows and she has an echo-y voice, and to be quite honest, she gives me a head ache every time I see her," Rae explained. "But she has magic, and she helps us out in battles sometimes. She won't tell us her name, so we just call her Angel, but she's powerful. She can disintegrate monsters."

Silena's eyes widened and to Rae's surprise, she smiled. "Well that's wonderful! She sounds like an asset, and I'll have to admit I feel better knowing you have an ally like that."

"That's the thing," Sage piped up. "We're not sure if she is our ally. Or at least, we don't know how long she will be."

"What do you mean?"

"Angel is a loyal to my mom. We think that Mom stored a fraction of her power in an important item, and put a seal on someone she trusts so that person could use the object to gain her powers should the need arise. Because of that, she is regent of my mom, and her loyalty is too much. If Mom ever switches sides, Angel will too."

"Switches sides?"

"Like, if Elyon ever went to the dark side, or turned evil," Rae clarified.

"But why would she ever do that?"

Rae and Sage exchanged looks. They couldn't really explain that without telling her what happened to Elyon and her family.

"She probably won't," Rae said quickly. "Just…in case she gets brainwashed or something."

Silena laughed lightly. "Oh, honey, Elyon is far too powerful for that."

"Yeah," Rae said.

"Haven't you met her? It's within a guardian's power to sense magical energy. You would've been able to sense how powerful she was."

Magical energy? Is that why Rae could always feel when there was portal without the Heart? Or why she felt some sort of sensation, like an electric shock or something, whenever she was with Sage?

"I haven't met her yet, actually."

"But why not?"

"Um…we've only been to Meridian once, and we didn't get a chance," Rae said, and that was at least true.

"But shouldn't you have gone back?"

"It could be dangerous," Sage said quickly. "We don't know who the Thousand Year Guardians' enemy is or where he's hiding. That's why it's safest for the guardians to just stay on Earth and continue training until the prophecy begins to unfold."

Silena nodded. "That makes sense. Why were you asking about Angel though?"

"Well, like Sage said, Angel could switch sides if Elyon does, and it made me a little weary. But Dad indirectly told me to trust Angel when he was here for Thanksgiving. I figured if he thinks I should trust her, he probably knows her real identity. I thought, maybe if you knew her, you'd be able to tell me who she is, but you haven't even heard of her."

Silena shrugged. "I'm sorry, sweetie. But…you said Angel is Elyon's regent, and she would've only used the powers Elyon stored away if she needed to. Why did she need to?"

"Maybe Mom just wants someone looking out for the guardians on Earth. I haven't talked to her in a while," Sage said. "She was too sick to come to Thanksgiving at the Hales'."

"But shouldn't she have contacted you by now?"

"She has. But it just keeps slipping my mind to ask about Angel. We're always so busy, and I'm preoccupied learning about and exploring this world. I know why Mom loves it so much," Sage said. It was a clever lie, plus Sage really sold it because she really was fascinated by everything Earth had to offer.

Silena smiled at that.

"Anyway Mom, I just wanted to ask you about that," Rae said. "Thanks for being honest."

"You do know this means I'll be doubly worried, right?" Silena asked, half teasing, half serious. "Because now you know why I'll be obsessively worried."

Rae groaned. She didn't know that, but she should've.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Wait, what's it called again?" Ellie asked.

"Teletransporting," Hay Lin answered.

"And it's like teleportation?" Caty prodded.

"Yes," Hay Lin said, nodding.

"I can teleport with magic," Sage spoke up. "Watch."

All eyes turned to the Meridian princess. She disappeared from where she was with a little 'zing' noise and reappeared with the same noise on the other side of the basement. She did it a few more times, ending up first by the window, then next to Gabi, and finally in front of Hay Lin.

"Whoa," Ellie breathed.

"It's just like that," Sage said. "Obviously I can teleport to wherever I want, but only within this world. With teletransporting, you can cross between worlds, but that takes a decade of practice. Right now, we're just trying to teach you how to teletransport within one world."

The girls all nodded. It was January 4th, one day before they started school again, and when the girls had arrived at guardian training, Hay Lin said they would take a break from sparring to learn how to teletransport, an ability all guardians possessed to take them from place to place. As usual, Hay Lin started out with an anecdote from her time as a guardian to demonstrate its usefulness.

"The first time I heard about teletransportation was in the first summer since we found out we were guardians. Phobos had escaped from prison and he and his minions were storming the castle. Elyon was in the meditation chamber, diving into a memories of her servant to learn more about her parents, so she wasn't completely conscious. The guardians were all scattered. Irma was at her family's beach house, Taranee's family had gone camping, Cornelia's family was in Paris, and Will was at a museum. I managed to get Will by calling her. She had the Heart, so she could fold over here. Blunk had been to Irma's beach house before when the five of us went together, so he folded there to get her. And my grandma teletransported to get Taranee and Cornelia."

"But your grandmother wasn't hooked up to an auramere. How did she do it?" Alyssa asked.

"I was hooked up to an auramere and let her borrow life force from me."

"Why didn't you just do it yourself?" Ellie asked.

"Because we hadn't done it yet. If you do it wrong, you could end up anywhere. The first time I teletransported, I ended up in the middle of a bull fight."

All the girls' mouths dropped open. James too was shocked. The others just laughed.

"And you could also end up inside solid rock or a glacier or anything like that and die."

"So we're learning this super dangerous skill _why_ exactly?" Gabi asked.

"Because even though it _is_ super dangerous, it is also, like you said, a _skill_ once you master it."

"When was the first time any of you teletransported?" Rae asked.

"It was only a few months after Grandma did it. Will was the first one to try and she used it to get us from one end of Zambala to the other."

"Zam-what?" Rae asked.

"Zambala. It was another world. Kadma, the Earth guardian during my grandma's time, led the attack when Zambala was being attacked, and as a thank you, the Zambalans gave Kadma the Heart of Zambala and made her their Queen. She stayed on the planet to rule over and protect the Zambalans for many years."

The guardians exchanged looks. That sounded a lot like Will and Jumelle.

"When Nerissa was on the prowl trying to get the former guardians on her side, she attacked Zambala to try and get Kadma. Once she had Kadma, she absorbed the Heart of Zambala into the Heart of Meridian to create the Seal of Nerissa. She had two hearts to the one we guardians had. There was no way we could've defended ourselves from her attack without Kadma on our side, so Will teletransported us so we could escape."

"How much practice did you guys have?" Caty asked.

"None at all."

"And she did it successfully?" Gabi wondered.

Hay Lin nodded. "She almost put us in the wall, but managed. She didn't try that again until we started to get formal training for that skill. But she pulled it off then, probably because she was desperate."

"You never know what people are capable until they're pushed to the edge," Caty said, realizing too late that sounded ominous.

An uneasy air set around the team until Hay Lin broke it by awkwardly clapping her hands together and saying, "Okay, so let's get to it. To start, I'm going to teletransport all of you from here to Rae's house."

Ever since Rae had told the team that she'd confronted her mother and Silena had admitted to knowing about Meridian and about Rae's guardianship, Rae's house had been like a second base for Team GRACE.

"All of us all of us, or just the guardians?" Cara asked.

"The guardians," Hay Lin clarified. "I'll need to borrow life force from one of you."

Rae stepped forward, since she was the leader, but Hay Lin shook her head.

"Like flying comes easiest to the air guardian, teletransporting comes easiest to the Keeper because it is like folding, a skill the Keeper possesses. You've begun to make folds without the Heart. I need you at full strength because by the end of practice today, I want you to try teletransporting once."

The other girls looked at each other. Finally, Alyssa stepped forward.

"What should we do?" James asked.

"Want to learn to be an archer?" Cara asked.

"Or how to use a dagger?" Sage inquired.

"I'd like to learn both," James replied.

The girls smiled and led Josh to the clearing so they could train him in weapons. Chris and Josh decided to go with them and spar.

Hay Lin grasped onto Alyssa's arms. "I need all of you to be as close to me as possible and let yourselves relax. You can be as tense as you want when you are teletransporting yourself, but it's hard for someone else to teletransport others if they aren't relaxed."

The girls all nodded. Hay Lin closed her eyes, and Alyssa began to glow. The glow seemed to be leaving her and flowing into Hay Lin. Hay Lin began to glow as Alyssa returned to normal, looking like she was about to pass out. When Hay Lin let go, Alyssa fell backward. Caty and Gabi caught her and held her up.

"Are you alright?" Hay Lin asked

"Fine," Alyssa assured her.

"Good." Hay Lin smiled, and the next thing they knew, all the girls felt a strange tingly sensation inside of them. In just a few seconds, they were in Rae's kitchen.

"Whoa. That felt so weird," Rae breathed.

"Good observation New Girl," Gabi snorted. "Very articulate."

Caty and Ellie collapsed into giggles and even Alyssa laughed. Rae understood Caty and Ellie-they thought everything Gabi said was funny. But why was her Alyssa laughing?

"I didn't know how else to describe it," Rae snapped. "But you're welcome to try."

"It felt like I was hollow for a moment," Gabi said. "No, that's not exactly right. It felt like…like I was getting blown away by the wind."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Ellie said. "I feel that every time I go invisible, and this was just like that."

"I felt a tingly sort of sensation inside me," Rae said. "And I felt that when I started working on bare handed folding. It's stronger when I actually make the fold."

"That feeling means you're getting closer to mastering bare handed folding," Hay Lin said. "And yes Ellie, teletransporting does feel the same as going invisible."

"So how does this work?" Alyssa asked.

"What you need to do is to visualize the place you want to go. You also need to visualize yourself teletransporting to that place. And it's easier if you relax. And that's really it."

"If it's that easy, how come it takes so long to master it?" Rae asked.

"Because you need immense concertation, and it's so easy to lose focus. If you're goal is to teletransport to The Silver Dragon basement, and halfway through the teletransportation, you imagine, I don't know, pasta, and you could end up in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant."

Everyone gave Hay Lin a 'Really?' look.

"It happened to Irma," Hay Lin replied.

"I don't think I want to try this anymore," Ellie said.

"It's perfectly safe as long as you follow my instructions," Hay Lin assured her. "We're going to be doing very short, very easy distances today. Now, I need to borrow life force from someone else to get us back to The Silver Dragon."

Caty stepped forward this time and they returned to the empty basement.

Caty sat down as soon as they arrived, trying to recover. The rest of the girls stood at attention, ready to learn. Each of them were thinking of how useful this ability would be in their regular lives. They wouldn't need a car to get anywhere, they could wherever they wanted whenever they wanted, and there was no chance of them being late ever again.

Hay Lin taught them the basics that day. By the end of the two hours, they were disappointed that only Rae had been the one allowed to try it, and the most she was allowed to do was teletransport from one end of the basement to the other. However, Hay Lin promised if they stuck with it, they'd be able to do more in no time.

The other members of the team came back to The Silver Dragon around the same time Hay Lin ended practice. She went upstairs to get back to work while Rae showed the other members what she learned.

Josh and Gabi said they had a shift in ten minutes, but Rae stopped them saying she had one more thing she wanted to discuss before they left that day.

"What is it?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"Well, I was thinking about the prophecy."

"What about it?" Caty asked.

"Why hasn't it happened yet?"

"What do you mean?" Alyssa asked frowning.

"Well, isn't this what we've been training for? Obviously Kasson is a concern, but he's not like Phobos. Phobos's tyranny apparently formed a rebellion that tried to fight him at every turn. He always tried to desolate the population of Meridian. But Kasson's not doing that. In fact, his rule hasn't brought any bad to the people of Meridian except for the taxes, and obviously the capture of the royal family."

"So?" Josh asked.

"_So_, we're mainly training so that we can defeat the enemy outlined in the prophecy," Rae said. "But none of the events outlined in the prophecy have come to light yet."

"How do we know that?" Caty asked. "We're not even sure what the prophecy means. Every meaning we gave to those lines are just guesses."

"Besides, the prophecy mentioned someone getting captured and something being stolen," Alyssa said. "Those things could've happened. Just because we don't know about it doesn't mean it hasn't happened."

"That's even worse! We need to do something!"

"Something like what?" Chris asked.

"Like…I don't know. Wasn't there a line about a place without rain? Let's go there!"

"Where do you think that is New Girl?" Gabi asked. "For all we know, it could mean the Sahara Desert."

"I think it's probably a different world," Rae replied.

"That doesn't narrow it down," Josh said.

"There are a lot of places that could count as 'a land without rain,'" Cara agreed.

"Like Petlakar," Sage said.

"And Handamoor," Chris added.

"Sageshamay," Josh reminded.

"Miragdia," Cara said.

"Smythelore."

"Villadar."

"Beauxin."

"Brinala."

"Okay!" Rae broke in.

"Smythelore? Beauxin? Tell me those are made up," Caty said.

Cara giggled. "They sound ridiculous, don't they? But they're all real. Chris and I have been to Beauxin actually."

"I'm sure when something happens, we'll know," Alyssa said. "Maybe we'll sense it or something."

"I've been reading some of the journals, and a lot of the water guardians said they saw visions in puddles and such about stuff that was outlined in the prophecy," Caty said.

"And Hay Lin said the Earth guardians can see visions in the Earth and the fire guardian can see visions in the flames," Gabi said. "And Ellie already dreams in visions. One of us will figure it out if something's happening."

"But why hasn't anything happened _yet_? We've been attacked by those brown monsters who want us dead a few times. Shouldn't something else have happened?"

"Why are you rushing this?" Gabi asked. "The more time this enemy takes to do something, the more powerful we'll be when it comes time to fight."

"Yeah, it almost sounds like you _want_ something to happen," Caty said.

"Like you're the traitor!" Ellie cried in an 'aha' voice.

"No Ellie. No one is saying that," Caty sighed. "And the traitor is still male. Don't forget that part. But still Rae, why are you so over eager?"

"Give her a break guys. She's thinking like a leader," Alyssa defended. "She just wants all the information, so she's asking questions. It doesn't mean anything."

"Thank you," Rae said. "Let's all keep our ears to the ground though, okay?"

Everyone nodded except Sage and Josh, who looked at Rae like she was crazy.

"So we can't _play_ our ears, but we can keep them pressed to the ground? Makes sense," Josh snorted.

Rae rolled her eyes. "It's an expression dumb ass," she explained. "It means, let's keep alert and pay attention."

"Any specific orders?" Sage asked.

Rae nodded, getting a familiar look on her face that Alyssa dubbed her "Leader Expression. "Sage, I want you, Josh, Chris, and Cara to look out for information from Meridian. Guardians, you guys watch for visions. We should all concentrate on the prophecy and tell each other any theory we may have on the meanings, no matter how farfetched they may seem."

"What can I do?" James asked.

"I'm going to be working on deciphering the prophecy tomorrow with Rae," Alyssa said, alluding to the plan she and the Keeper had discussed before practice. "My house. Come."

James nodded.

"Alright, everyone know what they have to do?" Rae asked.

Everyone nodded and slowly began to leave. Caty invited Ellie over for dinner, so the two of them left first. Cara and Chris decided to spar some more and stayed in the basement. Gabi and Josh went upstairs to start their shift. James gave Alyssa a kiss and left. He had a shift at Lange's, but Alyssa didn't work that day.

Rae waited for Alyssa, who was coming to her house for dinner. Alyssa said something to Gabi and they both began to laugh. Then Gabi said something that made them laugh harder. Rae stood by the door for ten minutes waiting for her best friend to finish what seemed like a highly amusing conversation with a girl who used to torment her.

Alyssa smiled at Rae as they walked to Rae's house. Rae gave her a smile back, but felt a pit in her stomach. She didn't like this new friendship between Gabi and Alyssa one bit.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you guys think? I hope you liked it. I know this chapter was boring, but it would've made your eyes bleed if I didn't split it up, so I had to. I know the next chapter will be more interesting to most of you. I'm excited to write it. Hopefully it'll be up soon because I am on Winter Break, but my dad is cracking down on me, since I'm a college senior this year and didn't get an internship last summer. He wants me to find an internship for the spring and the hunt starts now, so I don't know how much time I'll have to write. But don't worry, I'm not giving up on this story!**


	37. A Child of Magic

**A/N: I want to thank you all for your lovely reviews and for sticking with me. I make up for the long wait with a double update. I also wanted to wish you all a Merry (belated) Christmas, belated Happy Holidays, and belated Happy New Year! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but I got these chapters done, and I hope you guys like them, because I do. Enjoy it!**

**Also, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to RainbowFluffBall for favoriting and following this story. Hope you enjoy these next installments!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: If I can't force you to review when I want, then what's the point of us being best friends? Lol, jk. Anyway, I got the idea for James' date jar from some website, but the ring was my own idea. I came up with it when I was browsing through etsy for a charm bracelet idea. Haha, I don't know. It was so random! I love my Disney one, but Caty's not a Disney fan, and I actually like the idea of Caty's bracelet, I'd like something like that. Yup, I based her love of Christmas after mine. I'm so crazy about Christmas! I know we always said we would, and we will. It's a must! I literally could not think of another name. I'm thinking of changing some chapter names again. Okay, a threat is not as scary if you repeat it over and over again. And now you can beta these chapters. I think the next one will make you and your little Alyssa/James loving heart happy.**

**Misa: It was a long wait, but it was another double update, so hopefully that made up for it! I went online and looked for a list of good gift ideas and certain gifts on the list helped me come up with Josh and Jake's gifts. James' gift to Alyssa came from the list. Good catch about Good Will. That's exactly right. I'm sure everyone knows Ellie's secret by now, and these two chapters confirm it, so I'll tell you, no, Bree does not know what's going on. It is fantastical, but it's something I planned from the beginning, so I had to put it in. You'll see what happens with Gabi and Josh in this chapter. I think you'll be happy. Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**SilvenArrow: Thank you! I hope these chapters are just as fun to read. Josh is good at picking fights, there's no denying that. I like Lili more and more as I write more about her. Gabi's Truth or Dare tradition is actually something my cousins and I do at Thanksgiving. Both sides of my family get together and there are so many people, and it's a lot of fun. And just like with Gabi, the game always ends because someone gets hurt or someone breaks something. And yes, Bree refuses to give her clothes to Good Will so she can give them to Ellie. Nice catch. It took some time to come up with some of the gift ideas for Alyssa, James, Rae, and Jake, so I'm glad people liked them. Josh and Gabi's relationship develops further in this chapter, and yes, eventually Gabi and her father will talk about all this. Hope you like these two chapters!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty grinned when she heard Alessia Cara's Here come on the radio when she switched the station from Z100 to PLJ.

"Oh this one is _great_," she said to Brian, who was driving.

Brian grinned as well, giving her a sideways look.

They both heard Alessia sing, "Oh oh oh here, oh oh oh here, oh oh oh/I ask myself what am I doing here?"

"Then why'd you come?" Brian wondered.

"Instead of wondering, maybe you should go home," Caty added.

"And I can't wait till we can break up outta here," Alessia continued.

"Just leave already!" Brian cried.

Both burst out laughing. They were quiet for a few seconds until they heard the lines, "But honestly, I'd rather be/Somewhere with my people/we can kick it and just listen/to some music with the message (like we usually do)."

"Oh, you listen to music with messages?" Caty asked, feigning surprise.

"Must be messages of what happens with you're drunk or stoned," Brian said.

"Cuz otherwise you wouldn't be making money off a song about you not knowing why you're at a party," Caty finished.

They both cracked up again and let the song finish. Caty leaned back in her seat and smiled to herself. Her first date with Brian had gone really well, and Christmas Eve had gone even better. However, the next time they'd gone out, the night before school started, Brian stuttered every few minutes, Caty blushed all the time, and the conversation was really awkward. Even though Caty had tried, she couldn't think of what to say to him at school after their first date, so she continued to have Gabi whisper in her ear-or rather, speak in her mind. When they went on their second date though, Caty was on her own, and neither knew what to say.

Brian's seventeenth birthday was January 2nd, so he drove them around. On the way home, Brian was messing with the radio. When Caty heard the song Girl on Fire, she asked him to keep it. She loved that song. She, Nina, and Misha always used it to pump themselves up before a big test or presentation.

At first, there was just an awkward air around them. Then they heard Alicia Keys sing, "This girl is on fire!"

Brian, not realizing how much the song meant to Caty, tried to make a joke by saying, "Someone better put it out!"

"What?" Caty had asked.

"The fire…someone better put it out," Brian said, unable to quit.

Caty frowned before realizing he was trying to make a joke, and giggled quietly.

Brian smiled, a little more relaxed. When Alicia sang, "Oh we got our head in the clouds/and we're not coming down," Brian was at it again.

"Probably because they don't have enough oxygen up there."

"But then they'd probably come down anyway," Caty said, smirking, though he couldn't see that in the dark. "They'd just be dead."

Both laughed as Alicia sung, "She's walking on fire!"

"That must hurt," Brian said, and they both cracked up.

Even though the date was almost over at that point, they were much more comfortable. Brian walked her to the door, and this time he gave _her_ a kiss, and she actually enjoyed it. They'd gone out a third time on January 8th, the first Friday since school restarted. They were much more comfortable, and they made fun of all the songs on the radio. Since then, that had been their tradition whenever they drove anywhere. That particular date had been memorable since Brian had officially asked Caty to be his girlfriend and she'd agreed.

Here ended just as Brian pulled into the parking lot of Empire, the restaurant they were going to that day. It was Valentine's Day, and Caty had never celebrated it before. She'd never been in a relationship during Valentine's Day.

The morning did not start out great. At first, it was normal. Caty walked in to see Jake give Rae earrings that matched the ring her gave her for Christmas and James give Alyssa earrings that matched her guardian necklace. It seemed obvious that Jake and James had gotten their presents together. Caty walked up to the group to greet them. Ellie joined them, fuming. Adam had given Jade a necklace with a silver heard shaped pendant. Half the heart was crystal studded.

Caty laughed along with Alyssa at Ellie's attitude. They couldn't really sympathize because, as they'd told Ellie several times before, Adam would be hers, except she said no.

Then Misha and Nina had dragged Caty to Debate Team practice even though they'd just finished and won a meet the previous day and they usually didn't have practice the day after a meet. She realized the reason they'd dragged her there when Brian walked up to her with a bouquet of roses.

"I know irises are your favorite, but I already got you irises, and I figured these would be the next best thing, but if you don't like them-"

"They're beautiful," Caty breathed, and they really were. She loved them.

"I have something else for you too," Brian had told her. "But I'd like to take you out tonight and give it to you then, if you're not busy."

"I'm not busy," Caty said.

Hay Lin had given Team GRACE Valentine's Day off and Misha and Nina heard that "tutor circle" was cancelled, they'd helped her clear her schedule in case Brian asked her out for that night.

"Great. I'll pick you up a 6?"

"Sounds good."

All of that should've made Caty happy, but while she walked up to her locker and opened it, with the roses in her hands, Tony had showed up with a bouquet of his own. Irises.

He looked shocked at the roses and asked Caty who they were from. Immediately, Lili's warning about how Tony would eventually figure out Caty was dating Brian came back to her. Caty told Tony that Brian had given her the roses and when he asked her why, she explained that she and Brian were together.

Tony was shocked, and seemed disappointed, but congratulated her and told her he hoped Brian made her happy. He also told her to tell him if Brian ever hurt her. Caty gave him a strained smile. Although her heart was beating out of her chest as she blushed at Tony's protectiveness, she felt bad because she knew in the end, she would be the one that hurt Brian. Then Tony gave her the irises, wished her a happy Valentine's Day, and walked away. That brought Caty's mood completely down because she spent the rest of the day wondering how different things would be if she was dating Tony, the guy she _actually_ liked.

The baby was due any day now, and Iris was on bed rest. All Iris and Jeremy could talk about was the baby, and Caty couldn't stand it, so she spent most of her days at different friends' houses. It was an unspoken agreement that Gabi and Caty would go over to Alyssa's house on days that Caty and Brian had a date, and Gabi would help Caty get ready in Alyssa's room.

The three of them had gotten very close. Caty and Alyssa were the only people who knew Sienna was the one that gave Gabi the phone case, not Ariel, and were the only people who knew the conversation Josh and Gabi had in Gabi's car after Christmas. Usually Gabi would tell Bree that stuff. Alyssa and Gabi were the only ones who knew that Caty opened Audrey's letter and what it said, even though she originally thought once she opened the letter, Nina would be the one she'd tell. Gabi and Caty were the only ones who knew about the conversation Taranee and Alyssa had after Christmas. Alyssa hadn't even told Rae that.

Caty had been feeling down about Tony for most of the day, but when Brian picked her up, her mood started to lift. He told her he wanted to take her to Empire, which was a new restaurant that opened a few months ago in Star City. It was sort of fancy, with tables both outside and in, long windows overlooking the ocean, and food of many different cultures. However, it wasn't too expensive. Caty was really excited because she'd wanted to go there ever since Iris and Jeremy, who went there when it first opened, told her about it.

Then Brian turned on the radio so they could start their song game, and Caty instantly felt better.

As usual, once Brian stopped the car, he rushed out so he could open Caty's door for her. She shivered instantly. It was really cold out, typical for February, but Gabi wouldn't let her wear something warm. Instead she picked out a tan, spaghetti strapped dress from Bree's clothes, a pair of tan sandals that Alyssa owned that went perfectly with the dress, and gave her a cream wrap that Gabi herself brought over to wear with it. It didn't protect from the cold at all, but Gabi said it was the best she was getting.

Conversation came easy during dinner. The first few minutes were spent debating over what to get. Caty liked to get a small meal and splurge on dessert. Brian liked to order several appetizers as a meal. He also liked to splurge on dessert, so they often got two desserts and shared both.

The food did not disappoint. Caty tried a bite of all four appetizers Brian had ordered. He didn't like the siriacha shrimp at all, and Caty, who loved it, got to eat the rest. They had a long conversation centering on their mutual favorite show, Once Upon A Time. It was Misha and Nina that got Caty into it, and Brian's sister got him into it.

After that conversation, Brian mentioned how it was cool to have a sister because she could help give Caty new interests. Caty said that all the upsides of having a sibling came much later in life, and she did not want a baby in the house. Then she changed the subject and told Brian about Audrey and the letter.

"Did you read it?" Brian asked.

"Yeah."

"What did it say?"

"Just that she didn't want to give me up, but she couldn't keep me and she couldn't tell me why, but she hopes one day we can reunite, but we can't right now. She said she's happy I'm friends with Alyssa because the two of us were supposed to grow up together, and she says she's sorry I'll never get to know my dad. She told me my real name was supposed to be Alessia Cook, as a variation of Alyssa, and she told me everything Alyssa told her about me. She says she wants to keep in contact, but we can't do that either, and then she's sorry she had to give me up. She also said she never meant for my parents to be Iris and Jeremy; that my grandparents were supposed to be my real parents. She told me that Iris was best friends with her sister. She didn't know about how crazy my Aunt Dawn and Aunt Alexia were, she just knew Mom was well behaved and sweet, so she thought what better people to leave me with than the people who raised her? But she's glad Iris and Jeremy are good parents. She said she loves me and thinks about me every day and can't wait until the day she can see me again."

"But why can't she see you now?"

"Well, she didn't tell me in the letter, but she told Alyssa that the reason she couldn't keep me was because she and my bio-dad were in danger and I would be too, if I stayed with them. And she can't reunite with me for the same reason."

"What kind of danger?"

"I'm not sure," Caty said shrugging. "I'm not even sure if I believe her. But it's okay, because honestly, I don't actually want to see her."

"Why not?"

Caty shrugged, but gave him a definitive answer. "Maybe she is in danger, but if she's lying about that, then I don't know why she'd give me up unless she didn't want me. She had a great support system in Alyssa's parents, money because of her job plus whatever my bio-dad had made playing basketball, which was a lot according to the contracts we found online, and a pretty nice house. She lived in one of those big houses on Pillar Drive. She could support me in every way."

"Then she must be in danger, because otherwise, she wouldn't have just given you up. Why wouldn't she want you? You're smart and capable-"

"But I was a baby. I mean, I was four when she gave me up, but still not old enough to show her how smart and capable I was. Maybe she was just tired of dealing with me."

Brian opened his mouth to protest, but Caty didn't let him.

"It's okay. I don't care. Or at least…I didn't. I love my mom and dad, and until this whole pregnancy thing, I didn't really care that my bio-parents gave me up. It's only now, because of Catherine, that I'm feeling a little insecure and unloved."

Before Brian could respond, their waiter took away their empty plates and gave them dessert menus.

Caty was delighted to see they had a whole page of cheesecake options. Cheesecake was a favorite of hers and Iris, but while Iris preferred chocolate cheesecake, Caty's favorite was strawberry. Brian knew that's what she would order the minute he saw it. He ordered a mini lava cake and they shared both, as usual, reveling in every bite.

They asked their waiter for the check half an hour later. While they waited, Brian took gave her the small bag he'd brought in to the restaurant. "The present I promised," he said.

"Brian, you shouldn't have. The flowers and this dinner were enough, and besides, I didn't get you anything," Caty said.

She wanted to get Brian something from Valentine's Day, but after the Christmas disaster (Brian got her a charm bracelets she loved so much that she wore it every day while she'd gotten Brian a rather ugly scarf that he couldn't wear anyway since it was made of wool, which he was allergic to), she wasn't sure what to get, and decided against getting anything at all. She didn't realize until that morning that she should've specified to Brian that they shouldn't do presents for Valentine's Day.

"I wanted to," Brian said. "I was actually shopping with Brianna, helping her get Christmas presents when she suggested this for my Christmas present to you. I already bought you the charm bracelet, so I decided I'd buy it and wait til the next special occasion. I thought about waiting until your birthday, but I couldn't sit on this any longer. Plus, it seemed to make more sense for Valentine's Day than your birthday."

Caty's curiosity was officially piqued. Their waiter dropped off their check. Brian grabbed it immediately so that Caty couldn't even see and offer to pay, put his credit card in the envelope, then looked at her expectantly.

Caty took out the tissue paper and pulled out a small velvet box. She opened it to reveal a gorgeous necklace. A delicate silver chain with a pendant of two linked silver hearts. Inside one heart was the letter C, and inside the other was the letter B. Both letters were crystal studded.

"Oh, wow," Caty breathed, not sure what else to say.

"Do you like it? Like I said, my sister picked it out. I'm not good at romantic gifts, but I figured she'd know best. I showed your friends too. Nina loved the necklace, but she wasn't sure if _you'd_ like it. Misha was sure you wouldn't."

In actuality, Caty loved it, though she understood why her friends were skeptical. This was not usually the kind of thing Caty would like. She wasn't much for jewelry, and she always made fun of heart shaped pendants. But she found herself fighting the urge to fling herself onto Brian and kiss him senseless, humiliating them both.

"I love it," Caty declared. She took it out of the box and made a move to put it on before remembering Tony.

Right. She did love the necklace and it was sweet of Brian to get it for her, but she didn't like him. She liked Tony. And Lili told Caty that Tony liked her too, which he sort of proved by giving her the irises and looking disappointed when he found out Caty was dating. If she wore this, then it would affirm to Tony that she was really taken and she would never have a chance with him. The application for the internship was due the first week of April, just after Sheffiled's Sadie Hawkins dance. She'd be able to break up with him right after, and maybe Tony would ask her to prom. So she had to make up a lie about why she couldn't wear even though she, for some reason, really wanted to.

"But I can't wear it because…it's…fake!"

"Huh?"

"It's not real silver, is it?"

"No, it's just some cheap metal."

"That's what I thought. I love it, but I'm allergic to fake metals. I can only wear silver, gold, and platinum."

This was true. Caty was allergic to fake metal. Her ears got really red and started to bleed if she wore fake earrings for more than one day. In seventh grade, when she and Tony had first gotten together, he gave her a necklace made of nickel. It was a really pretty pendant that spelled out 'Caty', but she'd given it back when they broke up, and realized she'd developed a rash where the fake metal had touched her bare skin. A trip to the doctor confirmed it was the fake metal. She couldn't wear fake metals for more than day every few weeks.

"Oh…like my bracelet? That's silver."

"Yeah, and that's why I can wear your bracelet," Caty agreed.

"I'm so sorry Caty, I didn't know," Brian apologized.

"That's okay. It really is sweet Brian, I love it so much. I can wear it every now and then. I'll wear it on our dates."

Brian smiled and nodded.

The waiter took the envelope for Brian and brought back the card and receipt within a few seconds. Brian wrote down a tip and signed, and the two left. Even though Brian seemed fine, Caty felt really awkward since she basically rejected Brian's present. However, Brian immediately turned the radio on and the song Hotline Bling by Drake came on. Both smiled at each other before Brian started the car. This was the perfect song to start their game.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next day was Tuesday, and Gabi and Josh walked down into The Silver Dragon basement to find Cara and Chris in a screaming match.

"What's going on there?" Gabi asked Alyssa, who was telling Rae and Sage about her latest art project.

"Carter Hall asked Cara to the Valentine's Day Dance, and Chris found out and isn't letting her go. He's threatening to tell Eric, who'll definitely shut it down since Carter is three years older than Cara, unless Cara tells Carter that she can't go with him herself tomorrow."

"Can't Hay Lin vouch for Cara?" Gabi asked.

"Hay Lin will agree with Eric," Alyssa said.

"What's Chris's deal anyway?"

"He thinks Carter's too old for Cara," Rae said, answering for Alyssa.

"He is! Three years is a lot of years," Josh broke in.

"Wow, mathematician here," Gabi said sarcastically, making Alyssa and Rae laugh. "Anyway, I personally think brothers shouldn't get a say in who their sister dates."

"_What makes you say that?_" Alyssa asked, linking herself to Gabi and Rae. "_Michael doesn't want you to go out with Josh even after he got Michael back together with Ariel?_"

"_He's still convinced Josh won't treat me right, but after that conversation about how hard it is for him to be nice, I get it. He'll be nice if we're in a relationship…right?_"

"_Oh definitely. He was nice to Rae because he liked her, and even when he got over her, he continued being nice because it was habit. And he was nice to me. He can be nice,_" Alyssa assured her.

"_Wait, what conversation?_" Rae asked. "_It's hard for Josh to be nice?_"

"_It's nothing you need to concern yourself with New Girl_," Gabi sighed.

Rae bristled, but before she could say anything, Ellie came downstairs complaining about Adam taking Jade to the Valentine's Day Dance.

"It's bad enough he had to go give her his Valentine's Day present in front of me yesterday, but he officially asked her to the dance in front of me today."

"In front of you on purpose or in front of you because you're always creeping on them, trying to spy?" Gabi asked.

"I'm not creeping on them!" Ellie said, basically confirming Gabi's suspicions.

"Why isn't the Valentine's Day Dance over? Shouldn't it have been last Friday instead of this one, to make it closer to the real date?" Rae asked.

"The Valentine's Day Dance is always the Friday after Valentine's Day, or the Friday of, if Valentine's Day is on a Friday," Alyssa said, shrugging. "Are you and Jake going?"

"Yeah. You and James?"

"Yup. This way we won't have to go to the next one."

"That's the same reason I agreed to go," Rae said.

With James signing up for Dance Committee for every dance and Jake being on Student Council, meaning he took part in organizing the dance, both weren't thrilled that their girlfriends didn't want to attend the Hollidazzle Dance. The girls agreed they'd go to half the dances held that year. The dance after Valentine's Day was the Sadie Hawkins in March, and neither wanted to go that. Then there was junior prom in the last week of May, which both girls did want to go to and the End of the Year Ball the last week of June which they were going to skip.

"You want to sleepover after?"

"Sounds good. Want to double to dinner before?" Rae asked.

"Yeah, sounds great. Can we go to Empire? Caty went with Brian yesterday and said it was amazing."

"Oh definitely! Mom took one of her clients there last month and raved about it. I've been dying to go," Rae said.

"Dying to go where?" James asked as he joined them.

"Empire. Can we go to dinner there with Rae and Jake before the dance on Friday?"

"Yeah. Caty told me today in AP Government that it was amazing. I want to check it out."

"I love how we're always in agreement," Alyssa cooed.

"I wish Adam and I were in agreement about the fact that he shouldn't date Jade," Ellie said.

"But Friday's our date night. So are we going to push it to Saturday this week?" Alyssa asked, ignoring the air guardian.

"That's what I was thinking," James said.

"Agreement again," Alyssa smiled. Then she gave James and a kiss.

"You guys make me sick," Ellie huffed.

"Me too," Josh muttered so only Gabi could hear.

Hay Lin came downstairs then, followed by Caty, and they started training. Cara and Chris were supposed to double team Gabi while the other girls worked on teletransportation, but they were so mad at each other that they ended up ignoring Gabi and tried to destroy each other before Gabi thought they were getting to violent and got Hay Lin involved. Hay Lin broke them up and asked them to explain. Neither said anything, but the next morning, Carter would tell Ellie he and Cara weren't going to the dance together and ask Ellie to go with him, as friends.

Hay Lin told Chris and Cara to go back home and not come back until they cooled off. Neither returned to practice. Hay Lin had the rest carry on as if nothing had happened.

"That was pretty wild with Chris and Cara," Gabi said as she drove herself and Josh home that evening.

"Well, she's fourteen. She shouldn't be going out with a seventeen year old guy anyway."

"It was one dance, and what right does Chris have to dictate who she goes out with anyway?"

"Are you saying if Michael told you that you can't go out with a specific guy, you wouldn't listen?"

"I wouldn't like it."

"But you would listen."

"Because my dad would never say it. He's not enough of a parent. Michael takes care of me, so I listen to him. But he wouldn't try to dictate my life, and Chris and Cara aren't the same. Cara has two parents that care about her."

"Your dad cares about you!"

"Let's not talk about that," Gabi said. "Are you hungry?"

"A little bit, yeah."

"Let's get ice cream!"

"Too cold. Let's get coffee."

"Coffee is not a substitute for food. How about fries?"

"Too many calories."

"What are you, a cheerleader?"

"I'm saying this for your benefit."

"I'm not afraid of a few calories Josh."

"Then let's get pizza."

"Too greasy."

"And fries aren't?"

"How about milkshakes."

"Again, too cold. Let's do donuts."

"Now that's definitely too many calories. Oooh, how about pie?"

"I've never had pie."

"You're missing out."

"Then let's get some," Josh said with a smile that made Gabi's heart skip a beat. Ever since that intense conversation in Gabi's car, Josh had been nice to her. He was honest and friendly. Things were getting back to the way they used to be; the friendship they had before the paper messed things up.

Gabi drove them to the nearest diner, and they ordered a slice of apple pie and a slice of cherry to go since Gabi didn't want to sit in the diner.

"Okay, which one should I try?" Josh asked when they were seated at the island at the Shay's house.

"Apple is my favorite," Gabi said. "It's the sweetest in my opinion."

Josh shrugged and took a bite. "It's too sweet," he decided.

"Then try the cherry."

Josh took a bite of that as well and cringed. "Oh, this is terrible! I'm having apple!"

Gabi laughed and took the cherry for herself, watching the door as she ate.

"I don't know how things work here on Earth," Josh began, his tone joking, "but on Meridian doors don't usually move, so we don't watch them."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "I just get worried when Luc's not home before me."

"Doesn't he have karate today?"

"Yeah."

"And his friend's mom is driving him home, right?"

"Yes, but still. Michael's always taken care of me and I've always taken care of Luc. That's how it's always been. So yeah, I worry like a mother, because he hasn't got a real one."

"I'm not criticizing, but I don't think even a mother would worry about her 11-year-old son when he's with the mother of his friend."

"An over-protective sister would," Gabi declared, but took her eyes off the door.

The pair finished their pie in ten minutes, but stayed at the island for almost an hour, talking. Gabi liked that they were getting their old friendship back, but she wanted more, and she knew the only way to make that happen was to push Josh.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, interrupting his story about how he reacted when Julia and Jilly were first born.

"You just did," Josh replied, smirking.

"Funny," Gabi said airily. She hesitated for a moment, then said, "You always say you're really good at reading people, so I know you know that I like you. Like…as more than friends."

Josh chewed on the inside of his mouth before replying, "Yeah, I do."

"Well, I didn't say anything because I knew you liked Rae-"

"But I don't anymore," Josh said quickly, then looked sorry he said it.

"I know," Gabi said. "But then there was the issue of Sage."

Josh rolled his eyes. "Did everyone know that Sage liked me?"

"Everyone besides you apparently," Gabi said with a laugh. "But on Christmas, Sage told me if I wanted to be with you and you wanted to be with me, then it was okay. She'd be happy for us."

"Oh," Josh said, not sure what else to say.

"I'm not going to presume to know you or your thought process or your feelings, but everyone keeps saying that you _do_ like me, and you're just resisting for some reason."

"Oh," Josh repeated.

"And if you don't like me, that's okay. But for a while there, you even resisted being my friend. So what's going on Josh? How do you feel about me and why were you working so hard to make us enemies?"

Josh let out a breath. He was hoping this talk would never come, but he should've known better. He stared determinedly at his empty plate, not sure what he should say.

"I asked you something similar once before," Gabi said. "And I told you to be honest with me. So I'm asking you that again. Just be honest with me."

Josh closed his eyes and sighed. "I like you. And I think you know that."

"You're right, I do. What I don't know is why you keep fighting it. I'm right here. Why can't we just be together?"

"I like you Gabi. But I _can't_ like you."

"Why not?"

"Because!"

"Because is a word Josh, not a reason!"

"I know!"

"So then give me what I'm looking for. All I need is a reason Josh. One reason. One _honest_ reason."

"Because you drive me crazy Gabi!"

"Oh," Gabi said, hurt.

"You and I have only known each other for five months and already we've had so many ups and downs. We went from fighting all the time to really good friends to me hating you to becoming friends again to me making you my enemy to friends yet _again_. Sometimes you make me so angry I want to pull my hair out. But other times…"

"Yeah?" Gabi asked, leaning forward.

"Other times you show me that you're this amazing person. I look at you and I'm blown away. I think about you and it puts a smile on my face. When you look at me, my heart goes crazy. You remember how you described Ariel? How you said when she looks at you, you feel special? Well, that's how make me feel. Like I'm special."

Gabi blushed. "That's a good thing though, isn't it?"

"I don't know. When I first got here, I thought I liked Rae. It was kind of the way it happened with my father. When he first met the guardians, he thought he liked Will, but then he ended up having a crush on my mother a few weeks later."

"How long did it take you to like me?" Gabi asked.

"I don't know. I didn't know it right away. But when I first admitted to myself that I liked you, it was at Alyssa's birthday party."

"And you picked a fight with me and told me you hated me the day after," Gabi said softly.

Josh nodded. "Like I said, I thought I liked Rae. She's funny, helpful, loyal, and take charge. All the traits I wanted in a girl. And we were friends. We had fun together. It was so…_easy_. Then there was you. It was easy for us too, once we became friends, but at first, we fought constantly. And after the paper, when I thought it was you, I _hated_ you, not just because you did that to Rae, but because I thought you were better than that and you proved you weren't and I felt stupid for falling for you act. And then I realized it wasn't you and we became friends again. And I realized you had all the traits I looked for in a girl too, and then you kissed me and I knew you were the one I liked, not Rae. But…"

"But?"

"But it wasn't as easy with you. I managed to always be nice to Rae. I managed to open up to Rae. It wasn't the same with you. I couldn't be as nice or open."

"Why?"

"Because Rae was always the same. She was always nice to me, she never made me mad. You did. You sparked all kinds of emotions in me and I knew if we got together, it wouldn't all be smooth sailing."

"This isn't going to be easy Josh. It's not supposed to be. But why would that make you not even want to try?"

"It scared me Gabi. I've never felt so many things for one person all at once. You can do so many things to me. You can drive me crazy in both a good and bad way. And you make me second guess everything."

"I do?"

"Yeah. I have to watch myself around you. Am I being too much of a jerk or too nice? Am I being too open or not open enough? Is what I'm doing something you'll like or hate? And even after I made an enemy out of you, I still had all these thoughts. I thought, by telling you I hate you, you'll lose interest in me, but it didn't take me long to figure out I couldn't lose interest in you."

Gabi blushed even deeper.

"And you make me a better person. I'm more honest because of you, and more accepting. And even though you didn't like the other guardians at first, the way you are with Bree taught me the values of friendship."

"I did all that?"

"You did."

Now Gabi was smiling. "Then I really don't see the problem. I like you for you. And you, for some bizarre reason, like me for me. You make me a better person, and I make you a better person too. We both want to be with each other. Why can't you just take the plunge?"

"I'm not that person. I take risks for my land and for my queen, but otherwise, I'm not impulsive or a risk taker. I have to think about all my decisions."

"You can't think about this one Josh, you have to just do it. I get what you're saying. You're scared because you've never felt this way before, right?"

Josh nodded.

"Well, everything you're telling me about how I drive you crazy in a good and bad way, about how I have all the traits you look for in a girl, about how you've never felt so many things for one person…I feel all that too. I've never felt this way before either, but I know it's a good thing. It's a risk yes, but I'm willing to take it. Are you?"

"I don't know. I don't think I am."

Unable to stop herself, Gabi leaned forward and kissed him. He responded immediately. When she pulled back, he looked disappointed.

"How about now?" she whispered.

"I…I don't…"

"It's okay," Gabi said, giving Josh a smile. "All I asked for was honestly. Not a relationship. I didn't ask you for anything more than an answer, and I got that."

"But-"

"No, listen. If you're not ready, I'm not going to force anything. I like you. I am all in with you. If you're ever ready to be all in with me…well, you know where I live. You live in the same place."

Josh gave her a half smile. She gave him a bright smile back, put her plate in the sink, and walked into her room. She was a little upset that Josh couldn't take the plunge, but at the same time, she now knew he liked her, and how could she be unhappy about that? She wanted a relationship with him, and hopefully she'd get one. But she knew he needed to be ready, and she was okay with that. She could wait.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I mean," Phoebe Chester continued Wednesday at lunch, making Caty and Misha sigh, "I'm _still_ writing '2015' as the year when I date my papers instead of '2016.' And when I talked to some of my friends, they said the same thing. So I thought it would be fascinating to write a story on how even the simplest of habits are hard to shake."

"Really? Fascinating?" Misha asked, as if she were really curious, making Nina giggled quietly as she waited for her friends to finish up this conversation.

"Oh yes, definitely," Phoebe said, not noticing Misha's sarcasm. "Because, think about it. When-"

"Thank you Phoebe, we'll take your idea into consideration and get back to you," Caty broke in. "Just give us until next week to think about it."

Phoebe nodded, gave them a smile, then headed over to her own friends. Misha, Nina, and Caty walked into the Mock Trial classroom where the team was having a lunchtime practice.

"She is the dullest girl I've ever had the displeasure of knowing," Misha groaned.

"I _know_!" Caty agreed fervently. "The only thing duller than her is that pitch. I mean really, habits are hard to shake? Why would we put that in the paper?"

Nina giggled. "I thought the whole thing was kind of amusing."

"Only because you're not editor-in-chief and don't have to be cordial and take her seriously," Misha informed her.

Caty nodded as the three girls put their stuff down on one of the tables in the front. An iHome was set up on the table, with an iPod hooked up to it. Music always played in the Mock Trial classroom as they waited for everyone to arrive. Jason Derulo's Ridin Solo was the current song playing.

"I'm so sorry that it didn't work out," he sang, "I'm moving on…"

"Then maybe he should actually move on instead of singing about it," Caty joked.

"What?" Misha asked as she and Nina regarded Caty with a confused look.

Caty flushed. "Uh, nothing, never mind."

The three girls gathered their notes and were going over them when Brian walked over and greeted Caty with a kiss. He'd gotten a lot braver since their Valentine's Day date a couple of nights ago. The pre-chorus of the song started again. Jason sang, "I'm so sorry that it didn't work out/I'm moving on…"

"Then maybe he should actually move on instead of singing about it," Brian said.

Caty laughed, glad someone understood.

Nina and Misha stared at Brian, then Caty, shocked. Did their best friend have a private joke with her fake boyfriend? And was that real delight on her face?

Lili walked into the room before they could pull Caty aside and ask her about this.

"Caty!" she cried, running over to where the group was. "Aunt Iris is in the hospital!"

"Is she okay?" Caty asked, wondering why, if her mother was in the hospital, Lili was smiling like a mad man.

"Better than. I mean, she's in a lot of pain, but it's because she's in labor."

"What?!" Misha and Nina cried as Brian's mouth dropped open. Caty looked like she got the wind knocked out of her.

"Catherine's coming," Lili said. "And the doctor says everything looks okay, so the placental abruption might not affect her as much as we originally thought. Isn't that great? Uncle Jeremy got both of us permission to go meet them at the hospital. You're going to get to meet your new sister soon!"

"We can't drive," was all Caty could think of to say.

"I can get one of Varsity cheerleaders to drive of us. They're all allowed to borrow Traci's car as long as they ask."

"That'll take too long. I'll drive you," Brian said, stepping forward. "I got here early so I got a pretty good spot."

"Um…yeah. Yeah, okay," Caty said, still in shock.

"We'll come too, if that's okay," Nina offered.

Caty nodded. She really did want her best friends there with her.

Brian told his friends where he was headed. They all packed up and made a move to leave.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Sheila Breslin asked when she noticed.

"None of your business nerd!" Lili snapped. "Uh, no offense," she added, looking at her cousin and her cousin's friends.

Sheila rolled her eyes, as if Lili wasn't even worth her time, and said, "We have a Mock Trial semi-final match against Crawford next _Monday_."

"Stuff it Shelia," Misha said.

Nina and Lili both laughed as the five walked out the door. Caty sat in the passenger seat of Brian's car, while the other girls climbed into the back.

"How long does labor typically last?" Nina asked.

"Active labor is typically between three to five hours," Lili, who was well informed thanks to the birth of her sisters and brothers, said. "But it can take up to 18 hours. On average, it's eight hours, and since Aunt Iris is a first time mother, it shouldn't take too long."

Caty gave Lili a mournful look.

"Not that she is a first time mother," Lili said quickly. "I just mean this is her first time giving birth. Why?"

"I just want to make sure we'll get there in time. But it's only a half hour ride at the most. How long has she been in labor?"

"According to my mom, her contractions are still only ten minutes apart, and they're only lasting for a few seconds. Active labor doesn't start until they're two to five minutes apart and last for a full minute. We have time."

Caty sighed and stared straight ahead. The radio was on softly, and the song was #Selfie by The Chainsmokers. Caty knew Brian didn't switch the station because this song hadn't come on the radio while they were in the car together, and there were so many different ways to make fun of this song, but Caty didn't even want to play their game right now.

"Are you okay?" Brian asked halfway through the drive, taking her hand. Lili was listening to music and Nina and Misha were talking-or rather, badmouthing-Sheila Breslin.

"Sure. I mean, I'm not the one in the hospital, am I?"

"That's not what I meant," Brain said, his voice gentle. "Tell me how you feel."

"I don't know how I feel. We all knew this baby was coming. And we all knew it would be in February. But I'm still shocked."

"I know you haven't felt any better about her arrival since our first date, when you told me how much you didn't really want a sister. But she's here. You gotta let go of those feelings of resentment. Can you do that?"

"I have to, don't I?"

"It's not letting go if you do it because you have to. You can take your time. But you can't let it show."

"And I won't," Caty said. Brian squeezed her hand and she took a calming breath.

Brian held Caty's hand for the rest of the drive. Caty's heart beat faster, not because of the baby, but because one of the things she found attractive in every guy is when they drove-specifically turned-with one hand.

When the group got to the hospital, Lili used the text her mother sent her to direct them to Iris's room. Dawn was outside, waiting to meet them. She explained that Iris was okay, but the doctors had decided, because of the placental abruption, the doctors had decided to do a C-section for the baby's sake. Jeremy was in the delivery room with her.

Catherine Lewis was born two hours later, at 3 p.m. She was a good height of 18.75", but she weighed in at only 4lbs. That was the effect of the placental abruption. However, the doctors said, although she would most likely be underweight most of her life, she was healthy in all other aspects, and would be just fine.

Caty was relieved when she first heard that news. Rae was underweight, and had been for all her life as well, but she was fine too. Caty hadn't killed or hurt her sister…at least, not permanently.

It was another hour after Catherine's birth was announced that Caty finally got to see her. While Dawn stayed with Iris, Jeremy took Caty and Lili to the hospital nursery. He told Nina, Misha, and Brian they could come, but the three of them decided this was a family thing, and after making sure Caty was alright, left.

Jeremy pointed out which one was Catherine, but while Lili cooed about how cute not just Catherine, but all the babies in the nursery were, Caty was unimpressed. Catherine was just a little, red, pruney faced _thing_. In fact, when you compared her head to the rest of her, she looked sort of like a blowfish. There wasn't anything cute about her.

Dawn and Jeremy both wanted to stay with Iris, who wasn't allowed to go home right away, so Jeremy drove Caty and Lili to Lili's house, so Caty wouldn't be alone. Caty reminded him that her grandparents were at the house-sleeping in her room-but didn't fight too hard because she'd be more comfortable with Lili anyway.

It was two days later when Iris got to come home, Catherine in her arms. She put Catherine down in her crib and went to her own room to get some sleep. Caty peered over the top of the crib. Catherine's face with a little less red and pruney, but still resembled a blowfish. Catherine woke up almost immediately. It was Caty's grandmother who picked her up, and when Catherine calmed down, coaxed Caty into holding her.

She had a few wisps of blond hair like Jeremy, and her eyes were ocean blue like Iris's. She was going to be very pretty, and not at all blowfish like, when she got older. _And_, Caty couldn't help thinking, _nothing like me_.

She didn't expect Catherine to resemble her in the least…or at least, she shouldn't have. They weren't related. But, even though she wouldn't admit it, Caty imagined, and even hoped, that maybe Catherine would have her bright blue eyes or her long eyelashes, or her dimples.

"Isn't she lovely?" her grandmother whispered lovingly.

"She's so…tiny," Caty said in a small voice. "Even for a baby."

"Yes, the placental abruption took its toll. But thank the Lord it wasn't worse," her grandmother responded.

Caty nodded slowly. She willed the baby to cause an abruption. Could she will the baby to grow? Probably not. That sounded more like magic than mind control.

Caty tried to avoid looking at or holding the baby after that. It just made her feel terrible. She would've preferred to ignore the baby altogether, but her constant crying ruled out that possibility.

Caty began sleeping over at Nina's house every time something important was happening at school. She slept over Sunday night before their Mock Trial competition in which Caty was the defense lawyer (and she, and Sheffield by extension) won. She slept over Tuesday so she could study for her big AP Government test on Wednesday. This worked out well for two weeks, but then Iris demanded her home, saying they all had to deal with the baby, and she needed Caty around the house to help out.

For the first three weeks since Catherine had come home, most people called her "the baby." Finally, one day, while Iris was rocking Catherine to sleep and Caty was dusting the furniture in the nursery, Iris said, "I think it's time to come up for a nickname for your sister, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Caty asked, knowing exactly what Iris meant.

"Well, Catherine's a mouthful. We should think of something shorter to call her."

"Like what?"

"Well, I'd been playing around with the name ever since I decided and I finally settled on one, but I'd like your opinion."

Caty nodded, fearing the worst. This would be where Iris would announce she wanted the call the baby-her real baby-Cathy or Cat, or something even closer to Caty's own name, like Cate. So that Iris would feel like she didn't waste her favorite baby name on a baby that wasn't really hers.

"Rin," Iris said.

Caty looked her mother, dumbfounded. "What?"

"R-I-N, Rin," her mother said. "I thought it was cute, but if you don't like it-"

"No Mom, it's great," Caty said quickly. "I'm just surprised, that's all. It's not really all that common."

"That's what I like it about it."

"I just thought you'd call her something like Cathy or even Cate."

"But that's practically your name. I wouldn't do that to you."

Caty smiled for what felt like the first time since her sister was born. "Rin. I like it Mom. And I think she will too, once she's old enough."

Iris beamed at Caty, and Caty didn't feel so bad.

It was a week before Caty's birthday when Ellie and Sage, the two of her friends who were most excited about the baby, begged to come over and see her. Caty agreed they could come home with her that day and the three could head to guardian practice together afterwards.

"She's beautiful," Sage said as the three of them leaned over the crib.

"So cute," Ellie agreed.

"Well her face isn't red and pruney anymore," Caty said. "But I still think she looks like a blowfish."

Ellie laughed and stuffed her face in a pillow so it wouldn't wake Catherine.

"A what?" Sage asked, confused.

"Never mind," Caty said with a smile.

The two girls spent a few minutes cooing over how adorable the nursery was when Catherine woke up and began to cry. Caty sighed. She was the only one in the house, meaning she was the one who had to calm her down.

Caty picked her up and rocked her the way she'd seen Iris do. "Don't cry Rin, everything's okay," she whispered.

It took Caty a few minutes, but Rin calmed down and went back to sleep. Caty put her back in her crib and the girls slipped out of the room.

"What did you call her?" Ellie asked as they headed to the kitchen.

"Rin. Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to tell you. Mom chose Rin as her nickname."

"Then I guess you can't call her 'Miss. Practically Has My Name' anymore, can you?" Ellie teased.

"Shut up," Caty mumbled, making both Ellie and Sage laugh lightly.

Iris and Caty's grandparents came home an hour later. Iris went to Rin's crib immediately. She started to cry.

Iris came back into the kitchen.

"What's wrong with her now?" Caty asked with an eye roll.

Iris rolled her eyes too, at Caty's attitude. "She's hungry. Can you watch her while I prepare her bottle?"

"She's a month old Mom, what do you think she's going to do, attempt to break out of her crib?" Caty asked, but headed to the nursery, Ellie and Sage following closely behind.

Caty looked at Rin. "You're a noisy baby, aren't you?"

Rin stopped crying and looked at Caty almost curiously.

"Everyone thinks you're cute," Caty continued, "but I know you're more of a sea creature."

Rin lifted one tiny hand towards her sister and her face resembled a smile.

"She's smiling!" Ellie cried, delighted.

"Technically, babies can't smile until they're three months old," Sage said.

"So what would you call that?" Ellie asked.

"Gas," Caty replied flatly.

Ellie rolled her eyes, and Sage gasped. "Oh my _god_ Caty, look!"

Ellie and Caty turned to look at Rin and saw, to their immense surprise, a pink bubble was forming from her fingertips. When it was large enough, it enveloped Rin.

"What is that?" Caty asked, terrified.

"It's a force field," Sage said. "Watch." She put her hand out and the pink bubble forced it back.

"Whoa," Ellie said.

"But how did she do that?"

"Remember the conversation we had with Hay Lin? How she said Will's brother had magic? Maybe your sister does too," Ellie said.

"Not maybe. Definitely," Sage said.

"Well that's great, but my mom is going to freak out if she sees Rin inside a force field. We have to get her out."

"Nothing can penetrate a force field. That's the point. The only way to break it is for Rin to want to or for her to get so tired or unfocused that she can't keep it up."

"Okay, then let's break her concentration," Caty said. She reached up and spun Rin's dragon mobile. Rin looked up at the colors that started flashing and almost immediately, the force field vanished.

"Thank God," Caty breathed. "But that can't keep happening."

"Yeah," Ellie agreed. "Who knows when she's going to exhibit magic again? What if she's in your mother's lap one minute and growing guardian wings and flying the next?

"So, what do we do?" Caty asked.

"Don't worry," Sage said. "Taranee probably has a suppressing root we can use to suppress her powers. Mom told me they had to ask for some from the Oracle to suppress William's powers."

Caty nodded. "I'll go over there after guardian practice today. Anyone want to come?"

"I will," Ellie and Sage said in unison.

"Thanks. Now, speaking of practice, we should probably get going."

"Or, are you going somewhere?" Iris asked, coming in with Rin's bottle.

"Yeah, tutor circle. And I might go to Alyssa's for dinner."

"Alright honey, just don't be home too late," Iris said. "Nice to see you girls again," she said to Ellie and Sage.

"So, we should probably tell Rae the prophecy started," Ellie said when they were out the door.

"It has?" Caty asked.

"Uh, yeah. 'A child of magic two shall birth,' remember? That's probably Rin," Ellie said in her best 'duh' voice, reveling in the fact that she realized something before Caty did.

"My _sister_ is in the _prophecy_? Great," Caty said.

"It shouldn't be too important," Sage soothed. "The next line is 'Child of Lightning, beware the Daughter of Earth.' It has nothing to do with Rin."

"But for the line to be in the prophecy at all, it has to mean something," Caty said logically.

"We'll talk to Rae and the others. Hay Lin might be able to figure it out," Sage said.

Caty nodded, but she only had one thought in her head now. Rin's very existence is more important than anyone originally thought. And Caty almost killed her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty knew she shouldn't be walking to anyone's house in the dark, especially not Ellie's. Ellie lived farther away from her than any of her friends and she lived in a shady neighborhood. But Ellie was also the one Caty really wanted to see.

The previous day, she was horrified at herself for almost killing Rin. But it turns out Caty could only feel bad for so long before Rin's constant crying that kept her up all night got too much for her. Now it was 9 o'clock Thursday night, and she just needed to get away.

At first, she wanted to see Nina, Alyssa, or Gabi. No one really approved of her feelings on her sister, but at least Nina, Alyssa, and Gabi would pretend to be sympathetic. But then she realized she didn't want to talk or even complain about her sister. She wanted to get her mind off it. She needed someone who could distract her, cheer her up. She needed someone who could always instantly put a smile on her face and that was Ellie.

When she got to Ellie's door, she rang the doorbell. No one opened the door, and she didn't hear the faint sound a doorbell would make from the other side, so Caty figured it must still be broken. Before she could raise her hand to knock, she heard yelling from inside. This time however, she could make it out.

First was a female's voice. She sounded a lot like Ellie, but was definitely older.

"Do you think it's okay for you to talk to me like that?" she screeched. "Whether or not I clean dishes in my own house it _my_ business!"

"I'm sorry," a girl's voice said insistently. Ellie!

"Shut up!" the other voice snapped harshly.

For a second, Caty couldn't hear anything, but then there was a grunt from the woman, like she was gathering power, and then a scream from Ellie.

"Shut your mouth! I don't need the neighbors to hear your pathetic screams of pain you pitiful girl!" the woman yelled.

Caty gasped, then started to bang on the door. Immediately, both voices ceased.

Caty heard footsteps, but no one opened the door. She stayed out there for a couple of minutes. Even if no one was going to let her in, she wanted to make sure Ellie was okay. There were no more voices, so Caty figured it was over for now. She knew she was right!

Caty knocked again, but still no answer, so she did the only thing she could think of: she went outside and climbed up the fire escape.

To Caty's dismay, Ellie's curtains were drawn, so she couldn't see inside. She banged her fist on the window in frustration, not realizing Ellie would hear. Ellie shrieked in fright and opened the curtains. When she first saw Caty, she wore an expression of shock, but it soon turned into one of anger. Her face disappeared from the window, and a minute later, she was outside, wearing her pajamas, a jacket, and bunny slippers.

"Caty, what the hell are you doing?" Ellie demanded.

"Um…" Caty noticed she had some small twigs stuck in her hair from the three she was leaning against. "Looking for some new hair accessories?"

Ellie groaned. "How could you possibly justify spying on me _again_?"

"That's a pretty smart sounding sentence," Caty said. Her weak attempt at humor.

"God Caty, what is your _problem_?" Ellie cried.

"_My_ problem?" Caty asked, suddenly angry. "The only one here with a problem is _you_. This happens every day, doesn't it? You come home to this. You always act like everything's okay, like you're so brave and you have everything together, but you can't even stand up for yourself!"

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

"No, you _honestly_ don't know what _honesty_ is! _You're being abused _Ellie!" Caty cried. "You get hit and yelled at for stupid things that aren't even your fault and you won't do a damn thing about it!"

"Why do you care so much Caty? This is my fucking problem! _Mine_. So let me deal with it."

"You're _not_ dealing with it! And I care because I'm your friend. I care about you and I'm…well, I'm not Alyssa."

"Alyssa was a better friend than you. At least she didn't sneak around my house after dark trying to see whatever it is you were trying to see. Were you the one banging on my door?"

"Yes, because I knew you were hurt. Why can't you admit what's going on?"

"Because nothing is going on! I'm fine Caty. Take my word for it."

Caty groaned in frustration and ran down the fire escape so she was facing Ellie. "I _can't_!"

"Well then _that's_ your problem. Maybe you should deal with that instead of butting into my life," Ellie replied, turning around and walking away.

"Ellie, stop!"

Ellie stopped dead. Caty ran towards her and turned around so she could see Ellie's face, which had a nasty bruise on it.

"Don't use your creepy magic on me," Ellie spat.

Caty realized she had stopped Ellie accidentally, and normally, she wouldn't apologized, but this time, she was thinking it wasn't such a bad thing. She even contemplated using her mind control to get Ellie to admit her mother was abusing her, but then her morals kicked in.

It wouldn't be right. She didn't want to force Ellie to admit it. She wanted Ellie to admit it because she trusted Caty. Besides, forcing her wouldn't help the situation any. She could just deny it all later, and then where would they be?

"Ellie, I just want to help you.

"I don't want help. I definitely don't want _your_ help. How many times do I have to say it? I don't need you or Gabi or Alyssa trying to insert yourselves in _my_ life."

"But Ellie-"

"_No_! Caty, just go home!"

Caty bit her lip to keep from crying and nodded. She wanted to do something, but what was she supposed to do when Ellie wouldn't say anything?

She remembered a moment from her childhood when she was still living with her grandparents. Aunt Dawn had called after getting arrested _again_. Caty's grandfather had gone to get her. Her grandmother turned to Caty and said, "You're probably too young to understand this, but I'll tell you anyway. You can't help someone who won't help themselves."

Caty was too young to understand it, but she never forgot it. And it rang completely true.

"Okay," she said. "But I'm here, if you need me." Caty walked away before remembering something. She turned back to Ellie. "Oh, and uh, you can move now."

Ellie sighed in relief and walked back into the building, never once looking back.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie was officially not talking to Caty, which made Gabi stand with Caty in solidarity and officially not talk to Ellie. Caty clearly told Alyssa what had happened, because all Alyssa wanted to talk about was Ellie needing to tell someone, which meant Ellie was officially avoiding Alyssa. In short, Ellie was rapidly losing friends, meaning she needed to do something that she admittedly should've done a long time ago. So Friday, while the drama club was sitting in their club room eagerly awaiting their drama advisor's announcement of who would play what part in Les Mis, their Spring Musical, Ellie walked up to Adam, who was sitting with a few of guy friends and Jade, and asked him if they could talk.

Adam and Jade exchanged looks, but then Adam nodded. He removed his right arm from around Jade's shoulders, got up, and followed the brunette out.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Well…I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?" Adam repeated.

"Yeah. To you and Jade, but I thought I'd do it separately so both you can air out your griefness if you have any."

"Our _what_? You mean grievances?"

"If you say so," Ellie agreed.

Adam's face showed the tiniest hints of a smile before his expression became nonexistent again.

"I was being stupid and, like you said, a brat. Of course you have the right to move on and like someone else, because I never did like you back. You're my best friend, but I don't have a right to you or anything. I wasn't sure if you and Jade would last, but that wasn't something I should've said. I should've supported you, and now I see you do make each other happy. I mean, it's been three months, and that's the longest relationship Jade has ever kept."

Adam laughed. "Yeah, she has a tendency of scaring guys off with her temper."

"But she didn't scare you off because you're used to it. You guys are friends and you make a good couple. So if you guys are happy, then I support you."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

Adam grinned and threw his arm around Ellie. "Good, because I miss us all hanging out together. You've basically been hogging Milly and Sage. And I missed my best friend."

Ellie grinned back, comfortable and happy in the familiar feeling of Adam's arm around her. "I missed mine too…wait, you did mean me, right?"

"Please. Why would I declare you my best friend when Sage is around?"

"You're a jerk! I have no idea _what_ Jade sees in you."

"Oh you love me," Adam teased as they walked back into the classroom.

"Yeah," Ellie agreed, and for the first time ever, she wondered if she meant she loved him as just a friend.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Everything but people!" Josh cried as he and Gabi arrived at guardian practice that afternoon. Ellie was texting Carter what time to pick her up for the dance, Chris was brooding about something, Sage and Cara were sparring, Caty and Rae were talking about some test they took that day, and Alyssa and James were whispering about something, pausing every now and then to kiss, but everyone looked up when Josh spoke. "All I wanted was one art class where we paint everything _but_ people, and what's our next project? Portraits!"

"What's the big deal?" Rae asked. "You're good at people."

"That's what Gabi said too," Josh said. "Why isn't anyone on my side?"

"I'm on your side," Chris said darkly. "This project sucks."

"I bet I know who you got," Alyssa giggled. Then she looked at Ellie, whose eyes went wide.

"No. Please no!" she cried.

"Yes," Chris confirmed, making Ellie groan and pretend faint. Sage giggled.

"Not a laughing matter," Ellie warned as she picked herself up.

"What's going on?" Rae asked.

"The honors art class got assigned portraits today," Alyssa explained. "And drama club finished their Spring Musical auditions yesterday and found out who plays what part today. And since there are as many big roles in their musical as there are student sin the honors art class, each of the artists have to do a portrait of one the actors dressed as their character."

"Oh, what's the musical?" Cara asked.

"Les Miserables," Ellie answered. "And to think I was excited up until this point."

"Wait, I'm still confused. What's the problem?" Gabi asked.

"Well, we don't get to choose who we paint. We picked names out of a hat. I think Chris got Ellie," Alyssa said.

Chris nodded his confirmation, and everyone began to laugh.

"Not funny!" Ellie insisted.

"So who are you playing?" James asked.

"Eponine. And Sage is Cosette, Jade is Fantine, Adam is Valjean-"

"Oh who cares?" Gabi cut in, even though she technically wasn't speaking to Ellie. "Sage, who is playing your Marius?"

"Logan Benson," Sage said.

"Oh, he's _so_ hot!" Caty cried.

"And that's who I get to paint," Josh said, rolling his eyes.

"Who'd you get Lyssa?" Chris asked.

"Oh, actually I haven't looked yet. I hope I get you Sage."

"If you get Sage, trade with me," Chris said. "If you get anyone else, trade with me."

"Are you okay with that El?" Alyssa asked.

Ellie nodded slowly, even though she knew if Alyssa traded with Chris, she knew what their conversation would be about.

Alyssa unfolded a piece of paper and her face darkened. "I'll let you choose if you want to trade or not," she said to Chris. "I got Adam."

"Ouch," James said.

"Times a million," Alyssa added.

"I _would_ trade Lyssa," Chris said, "but I think I might actually punch him in the face. It's just safer for me to stick with Ellie."

An awkward air set around the room. Alyssa blushed at what Chris said, knowing he meant he'd punch Adam in the face for abandoning Alyssa, but he wouldn't punch Ellie because he wouldn't hit a girl, James looked unsettled that another boy made his girlfriend blush, and Caty, Gabi, and Ellie locked eyes, 'punch him the face' reminding them of what was going on with Ellie.

Everyone noticed this new air, though not sure what brought it on. Luckily, Hay Lin came downstairs at that moment, calming everyone down.

"Okay, so before we start, I want to say, I'm sorry Caty, but I still don't know what your sister's significance in the prophecy could be."

"That's okay," Caty said.

"Are you using the suppressant root?" Rae asked.

Caty nodded. "Taranee helped me grind the root into powder and she said I just have to put a quarter of a teaspoon in Rin's bottle once a month. I put it in yesterday, so we should be good until April."

Hay Lin nodded, happy.

"Okay. Then I've got something for all of you." She took out a little sack from her Silver Dragon apron. "In here is Kandrakaran Life Powder."

"And that would be?" Gabi asked.

"Something to help you sustain life. We don't know if Angel is going to switch sides or not. Here is what we do know: when you became guardians, Kandrakar became the source of everything for you. Not just your power, but your life. If the Heart is destroyed, you die, unless you have life powder from the origin of existence."

"Isn't the origin of our existence Earth?" Alyssa asked.

"Not anymore. There is life powder on every realm, and Earth life powder would help to sustain James, and the Regents, and former guardians. But current guardians need life powder from Kandrakar, just like Meridianites like Sage and Josh need life powder from Meridian. I got this for you guys in case the Heart _does_ break."

"Wow. Thanks Hay Lin. But shouldn't every member of the team have some?" Rae asked, as leader like as ever.

"Life powder is hard to come by. The Oracle only gave me some after I told him about Ellie's dream, and only enough for a one time use, so if the Heart accidentally breaks, and your life powder gets used, the next time it breaks, you're on your own."

"Meaning…?" Caty asked slowly.

"Well…no heart, no guardians," Hay Lin said solemnly.

"So how do we use it?" Alyssa asked.

"Well normally you'd have to carry it around, but with Sage's help, I can infuse the powder into the necklaces you made for GRACE so you'll always have it. Just make sure to wear the necklaces all the time and not lose them."

"That should be easy. We only take them off when we shower," Caty said.

The other girls nodded. Even Gabi loved the necklace.

Sage infused the powder into the pendants, and the team started practice.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Do you want me to just take a picture of you?" Alyssa asked Adam the following Monday. "That way, we don't have to meet at all."

"Please take a picture of _me_!" Ellie begged Chris.

The Studio III and Drama III classes took place during the same period, so the art students joined the drama students in their classroom to start work on the portrait pieces. Some of the actors in the musical were in the lower or higher level drama classes, and the art students assigned to paint them were going to have to meet them at another time, and stayed in the studio to wowithrk on an art project they had to do simultaneously to the portrait project.

Alyssa still wasn't speaking to Josh, but when he and Chris came into the studio that day, before the students left for the drama room, she heard Josh tell Chris that he was going to take a picture of Logan in his costume today, and just work off the picture since he and Logan weren't friends and didn't really want to spend time on this. Apparently, a lot of pairs who weren't friends were doing the same thing. Alyssa decided she'd ask Adam if she could take a picture of him and do the same thing. He and Ellie were chatting when she and Chris set up their easels in front of them, and next to each other.

"We're mature young adults. There's no reason we can't be civil towards one another," Adam replied.

"Seriously?" Alyssa asked. "You _want_ to come meet me after school and pose for me?"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like you, that's why not!" Alyssa cried.

"Lyssa!" Ellie cried.

"Oh, don't even start Ellie. You just begged Chris to take a picture of you because you hate him."

"Yeah, but you just told my best friend you don't like him," Ellie protested.

"And you tell my close friend you hate him practically every day," Alyssa shot back.

"Okay, you have a point," Ellie conceded, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. Alyssa gave her a playful smile back.

"So, picture?" Alyssa asked. "Or do you really want to torture me?"

"I didn't realize it was such torture working with me," Adam said, although if he was at all hurt by that comment, he didn't show it. "Look, I'd rather pose for this portrait than do certain other things after school, okay? So you'd be doing me a favor."

"Oh, well then that changes everything! Now that you told me I'd be doing you a favor, it makes me want to do it so much more," Alyssa said sarcastically.

Ellie laughed into her palm and Chris hid a smile. Adam looked surprised. This was the most sarcastic Alyssa had ever been since she became friends with Rae, and Adam didn't know the sarcastic Alyssa at all.

"If you do this for me, I'll buy you one book for every hour we had to be together. I won't restrict you either. They can be any price."

Alyssa's eyes lit up. "Okay, I guess we can do this," she said.

"Well, unlike Alyssa, you can't buy me with books. So you taking a picture or what?" Ellie asked.

"You could probably buy her with sheet music or something," Alyssa said.

"He doesn't need to. He doesn't want to spend any time with me either."

"No, I don't," Chris agreed. "But Mom was in this class when she went to Sheffield, and remembered this was around the same time her Studio III class did portraits of the musical actors. When she found we were partners, and remembered we hated each other, she insisted we work together. Apparently, people had the picture idea in her class too. Now we have to work in the basement every day before…_my shift_."

Alyssa guessed by the way Chris said, 'my shift' he meant guardian training. Hay Lin probably wanted Chris and Ellie to do the project for real so that it would be easier for them to work together on missions and in battle.

"And what if we don't?" Ellie challenged.

Chris looked at Alyssa and she understood. Concentrating hard, Alyssa set up a mental link between the three of them.

"_So what if you don't_?" Alyssa asked.

"_If we don't, Mom won't teach you about lucid dreaming._"

"_You want to learn about lucid dreaming El_?" Alyssa asked, surprised.

"_Well, Hay Lin said her grandmother taught her about lucid dreaming, so whenever Hay Lin had a vision, she knew it was a vision and was aware of her surroundings and what was real and what was not, and could even control it to some extent. Like, her guardian powers worked and she could use them to control the vision, like go invisible to possibly get a look at who's talking if she has a vision of a conversation but can't see who's talking._"

_ "So is that a yes to working for real, or do you still want me to take a picture_?"

"_Fine, let's do it_," Ellie sighed.

"El?" Adam asked, clearly wondering why Chris, Alyssa, and Ellie were standing around staring at each other, not saying a word, but still seemingly having a conversation.

"I'll come over today after rehearsal," Ellie said to Chris.

"You _will_?" Adam asked incredulously. "But why? What reign does his mother have over you?"

Ellie knew she couldn't use the tutor circle excuse because that only explained why she hung around _Chris_, not Hay Lin. But Ellie didn't call herself an actress for nothing.

"Hay Lin is a great martial artist. She's my karate teacher, and she's training me for free. If I don't at least try to get along with Chris though, she won't be too enthusiastic about teaching me."

"Why are you learning karate?"

"You hear all the rumors about my neighborhood. Most of them aren't just rumors. My training is helping me feel safe. It was sort of your idea."

Adam nodded. He had suggested on several occasions that Ellie should look into getting self-defense training because of all of the muggings and other things that took place in Ellie's neighborhood. Ellie always said that between tuition for both her brothers and the cost of raising her, her family just couldn't swing it. They had no money to pay for extra things like self-defense lessons (and if they did, Ellie would choose voice lessons or an acting coach instead). If someone was actually teaching Ellie for free, then who was he to stand in the way?

"Do you want Alyssa and I to come over and work with you guys in…what was it, a basement?"

"The Silver Dragon basement," Ellie said. "And yeah, if you and Lyss don't mind."

"I don't mind," Alyssa said. Working alongside Chris while Ellie was there would make it a lot more bearable to paint Adam. Besides, the three of them needed to be there eventually for guardian training anyway.

"And of course I don't," Adam said.

"Chris? You okay with this?" Alyssa asked, knowing Chris probably wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea of not just Ellie, but also Adam, in his basement.

"Yeah. At least you'll be there," Chris said. Alyssa smiled.

"Okay, so today after rehearsal?" Adam asked.

"Yeah," Chris replied as cordially as he could. He knew this was going to be one hell of a project.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: I hope you guys liked it. I wanted to tell you guys a couple of things. First, I just made up what Caty's dress looked like, instead of googling a dress, and couldn't find one on google that matched closely enough with what I imagined, so even though a bunch of you PM me, thanking me for the links, I did not post a link for Caty's dress. Also, I tried to match the dates and days perfectly, but I realized too late that Valentine's Day is on a Sunday, and didn't want to change anything.**


	38. What Was Stolen

**A/N: Hey guys! So this is the second chapter, and as usual, the other half of the shout-out are here.**

**ONE BIG NOTE: For those of you who remember, Gavin was first introduced to be 19-years-old, right in-between Ellie, who is 16, and Jason, who is 21. In order for everything to fit together though, I decided to make Gavin and Ellie twins. Gavin is still precocious, going to boarding school, which is why no one knows him, and is now in college, but age wise, he is two years younger than his classmates. I changed his age and story in all the chapters he's mentioned.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: I'm glad you liked the Christmas chapter. I thought it'd be fun to show everyone's family dynamic by explaining how they celebrate Christmas. My best friend and I always spend Christmas together with my cousins, so it's kind of like Caty's Christmas. And I love Secret Santa, it's one of my favorite Christmas tradition. I adore Christmas anyway, it's my favorite holiday. I'm glad you liked Jake and James' gifts, they seem to fan favorites. I'm guessing you loved the Gabi and Josh scene in the last chapter. And there's some information about the prophecy in this chapter. Hope you like it!**

**Taylor: I'm glad you liked it. I want a guy to give **_**me**_** something like that too. I went online to get gift ideas. The collage and date jar were both on there. Somewhere between seeing an idea for a necklace online and browsing through etsy for a charm bracelet I wanted to get my best friend for Christmas, I got the idea for the ring. If you liked the Gabi/Josh scene in chapter 34, then you must've loved the one in the last chapter. I realized I didn't mention Caty's gift to Brian as soon as I posted the chapters, so I put it in the last one, as you know now. And some prophecy stuff happens in this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Zazzie: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. And thanks for the tip, you're right. My original intention was to include Cedric as a big character, but that didn't work out. I removed Cedric from the characters. I hope you continue to read and enjoy the story, and thanks for the review! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Saturday, when Ellie walked into The Silver Dragon three hours before guardian training, she saw Chris behind the counter. He saw her and put up a hand, telling her he'd be just a couple of minutes.

For most of the week, Ellie, Adam, and Alyssa had headed to The Silver Dragon a couple of hours before guardian training to work on the portrait project. It worked well for the most part. No one got on anyone's nerves with all the buffers involved, and the portraits were coming out nicely. Every time Chris and Alyssa took a break from painting or let Ellie and Adam take a break from posing, Ellie and Adam could run lines or catch each other up on any funny events that happened during the classes they didn't share (something they'd normally do with Sage, Milly, and Jade after rehearsals before this project came along).

They'd hit a couple of snags of course. On Wednesday, Adam asked if he could watch Ellie's martial arts class, even get in on the training. Ellie was having an off day, and could not, for the life of her, think of a reason Adam couldn't stay (though Alyssa and Chris both told her later that she could've gotten away with something as simple as 'Hay Lin typically doesn't like observers in her class), so she said yes. She, Alyssa, and Chris explained the situation to Hay Lin, who explained it to the other members of the team. Hay Lin had no martial arts training, so when she came downstairs to meet Adam, she told him she was feeling tired and was going to let Chris teach. Chris spent the two hours of guardian training teaching Team GRACE-and Adam-basic hand-to-hand combat. It was so basic, that not only did Cara, Sage, and Josh already know it, but Rae and Alyssa knew it from their previous training sessions with Josh and Chris.

On Friday, Alyssa and Adam had to make up an honors biology test after school that they missed because of a Math Honors Society field trip, so they met and worked on the portrait during lunch, neglecting to tell Ellie and Chris. Rehearsal was cancelled that day (that was the reason Adam could make up the test after school), so he never got a chance to tell Ellie, and the two of them found out too late it would be just the two of them. Needless to say, the actress and the artist engaged in many little arguments, leading to a big argument that ended with both of them covered in oil paint.

But other than that, everything was going well. Except, of course, today, Adam had picked up extra shift at work at the last minute, and Alyssa had an SAT Prep class, meaning Ellie and Chris were going to be alone _again_. Chris invited Ellie over three hours before guardian practice, saying if she did, they could finish that day and wouldn't have to suffer through anymore posing sessions. Ellie came, but she had a bad feeling there was going to be another fight.

Ellie sat on one of the bar stools. A girl asked her if she could get her anything. Ellie replied she was just waiting for Chris.

"I've been here for twenty minutes, and that's fifteen more minutes than my take out order was supposed to take," the man at the counter said.

"I'm so sorry sir. As you can see, we are very busy today, but you're order will be right out, I assure you," Chris said kindly.

Both Ellie and the man looked around at Chris's words. Sure enough, every seat was filled, plus there were a few people waiting for a table. Only two bar stools, excluding the one Ellie was at, were available.

"Fine," the man grumbled.

A minute later, someone Ellie recognized as Jamie Fullbody, senior, jock, captain of the boys everything at Sheffield (and older brother of Layleen Fullbody, captain of the girls everything) came out of the kitchen and handed Chris a plastic bag with take-out containers inside it.

"Sorry," Jamie said. "Eddie's working slowly today."

Ellie used her enhanced hearing to hear Chris's reply. "Alright, well tell him that I'm giving this man his appetizers and desserts free, and the difference is coming out of his paycheck."

"Okay. That'll definitely help him pick up the pace. Nice idea."

"I picked it up from Gabi," Chris replied, making Jamie grin before he headed back into the kitchen.

"Here you are sir," Chris said, his voice coming in very loudly. Ellie stopped using her enhanced hearing. Chris opened up each box so the man could make sure they were giving him what he ordered. Once he was done and packed everything back up, he said, "I'm taking off the charge for the dumplings and the green tea ice cream."

"Good. And I'm hoping you're not expecting me to tip."

"Of course not sir."

"Good answer," the man said smiling. He handed Chris $30, and when Chris began to make change, the man told him to keep it and walked out.

Chris had a huge smile on his face as he put $10 in the tip cup next to him. Clearly the man wasn't too upset about the wait.

A woman walked up to the counter with a little girl of about five next to her. The little girl was holding a red bear with webs all over it. A spiderman print bear.

"I'm here to pick up a take-out order. I placed it ten minutes ago."

"The pork dumplings, two orders of shrimp lo mein, and the one order of General Tso's chicken for Colleen?" Chris asked.

"Yes."

"It'll be right out," Chris said. He looked at the little girl, who was hiding behind her mom, and smiled. "That's cute bear," he said.

"Thanks. His name's Peter," the girl said, peeking out from behind her mother, a smile on her face.

"Like Spiderman?"

"Yeah. Because he's Spider-Bear!" the girl cried happily, coming into full view.

"Very cool. You got him at Build-A-Bear?"

"Yeah!" the girl exclaimed. She looked at Chris's nametag. "What does that say?" she asked, pointing.

"It says Chris. That's my name, short for Christopher."

An even bigger smile grew on the girl's face. "My name's Kris too, short for Kristine. But it's K-R-I-S. And Mommy calls me Krissy."

"Well, I think Kris is a great name," Chris said, making Kris giggle.

Ellie found herself smiling at Chris's attitude. He was actually pretty sweet.

Chris looked up at Kris's mother. "Build-A-Bear is great, isn't it?"

"Certainly occupies her time."

"But expensive. I took my little cousin there a month ago, and she got this huge monkey and it cost an arm and a leg for a stuffed animal."

"Oh I know!" the woman-Colleen?- agreed. "The amount of stuffed animals in our house from Build-A-Bear is ridiculous, and the price of them all is even more ridiculous. Krissy's five and her sister is three, and she adores Build-A-Bear, because of Krissy's influence."

"The curse and gift of an older sibling. My mom used to appreciate it when my sister picked up a good habit from me, and blame me when she picked up bad one."

Colleen laughed.

"Of course now, my sister is much older, and far too independent to pick up anything from me."

Before Colleen could respond, Jamie came out of the kitchen again, holding another bag. "Eddie's working a lot faster now. We should thank Gabi," he said, handing Chris the bag.

Chris laughed lightly, then turned back to Colleen and Kris. "This should be your order. Have you ever ordered take-out from here before?"

"No, I haven't."

"Okay, then I'm going to ask your permission to open everything up so you can make sure you're getting what you ordered. If you would like me to not open anything up, that's okay too."

"Oh no, go ahead. I would like to find out now if there's a mistake," Colleen said.

Chris nodded, and opened everything up. Colleen gave Chris a credit card. When he gave it back, she put a five in the tip jar and left, Kris following behind her.

Ellie's smile grew bigger. Chris was so polite, and he sounded genuine about it, not like he was being polite because he _had_ to since that was his job the way Gabi did.

Chris spilled out the money in the tip jar and pocketed it as two boys Ellie recognized as Ben Solace, one of Chris's artsy friends, and Gary Lansing, one of the nerds that hung around with Brian and his friends.

"How come you get to work register on your own and we always have to work together?" Ben complained.

"What, you don't like me?" Gary joked, fixing his glasses.

"I don't like splitting tips," Ben replied.

"I work the register alone because I work register in the morning. You guys work nights, which means more business, which requires more help," Chris said. "Besides, I've been working here since I was twelve. I can handle it."

Ben rolled his eyes. Chris took off his apron and hat and went into the storage room to hang them up. Then he came back out and motioned for Ellie to go downstairs.

Ellie hopped off the bar stool, grabbed her backpack and headed to the basement. Once there, she took out her phone and plugged it in to the outlet nearest to where Chris's easel was, then went into the bathroom to change. The costume her drama adviser wanted her to wear for the portrait was the one Eponine wore when she disguised herself as a guy. Her hair, however, had to be sticking out from her headpiece and stuck to her face with water and she had to have blood on her. The portrait was the preamble to the scene where she died in Marius's arms.

For an hour, Chris worked silently while Ellie posed. When Ellie's phone made a beep signifying a text, she rushed to it.

"Ellie!" Chris complained.

Ellie always did this. When her phone made some other kind of noise-a noise that signified a social media update or a news update or even a phone call, she ignored it if she was posing, but the minute it made a text noise, she rushed toward it. Chris knew from spending so much time with Ellie that she was not usually that way. It was only this past week that she obsessively checked her phone.

Ellie looked at the message. Her face twisted up in fury as she tossed the phone back down and returned to pose in front of the easel.

"Are you okay?" Chris asked cautiously, as if he wasn't sure whether or not he was supposed to be asking that question.

"Totally," Ellie replied.

"Is that why you looked like you wanted to throw your phone across the room?"

Chris expected Ellie to snap at him with a rude response, or at least tell him that they're not friends so why should they act like it? He was surprised when Ellie sighed and actually began to answer him.

"It's just…you know that whole thing with me and Adam and Jade that split us up for a little while?"

"Adam, Jade, and I," Chris said.

Ellie gave him a, 'So what?' look, and he backtracked.

"I mean, yeah. What about it?"

"Well, when I apologized to Adam, he forgave me in a second. I guess he missed me as much as I missed him. But Jade's been really weird about it."

"Weird how?"

"Well, she's been trying to get me to talk to her and make up for weeks, and now that I finaly apologized, she's really suspicious as to why I suddenly am okay with them being a couple when I wasn't before."

"Well, what did you tell her?"

"The truth. That I wasn't okay with it before because I was jealous that Adam used to like me, and it wasn't going to be easy to let that affection go. And that I know from my previous boyfriends that it's hard to spend time with your best friend when you're in a relationship, and even though it'll be a little better since I'm friends with both of them, I still won't see Adam as much as I used to."

At least, that's what Ellie told Jade since that's what everyone else was telling her. But as she told Jade that, she was wondering if that really was the truth, because it sounded false. She was tired of being petty and jealous, but she definitely was upset that Adam's affections were directed to another girl and that she was going to see less of him, but it still seemed like she was lying.

"It sounds like you might be more interested in Adam than you think," Chris said.

"Not the topic at all," Ellie said flatly, glaring at him.

"Okay, okay. Keep going."

"Okay, well, once I told her that, she seemed to believe me, but she's also been cold and distant."

"So you think she hasn't forgiven you yet?"

"I _know_ she hasn't. The three things you _need_ to know about Jade to be her friend are that she's slow to forgive, her phone is everything to her, and she lives her life on the stage. When Jade is ready to forgive you, she texts you. I haven't gotten a single text from her since last Friday, when I apologized. I thought by now I'd at least get the first text from her three text system."

"Her what?" Chris asked, starting to wonder why he asked Ellie if she was okay in the first place because now she wasn't making any sense.

"Jade has a three text system when she forgives a person. The first text is to confirm rehearsal time or to ask about homework. It'll tell the person she's fighting with that she's starting to warm up to them again. The next text will be about some funny story or joke or something she could've told you in person, but chose to text you about it instead. It'll tell the person she's fighting with that she's almost ready to forgive them. You know you're forgiven when you get the third text, which will be one asking you to run lines with her.

"Sounds complicated."

"It is, but you get used to it. I mean, if it's just a little argument, it's not a big deal. The texting thing only comes into play when it's a real fight, because she doesn't like to apologize or come right out and say she forgives you, so she'll do the texting thing. Obviously, if she's the one who needs to apologize, she'll swallow her pride and do it, but if she needs to forgive, then she needs to text you. If it's a small fight, then she'll skip right to the running lines text, and if it's a medium fight, she'll skip to the funny story, then do the running lines text, but this was a big fight, and I haven't even gotten the first text."

"Why do you think she's taking so long to forgive you?"

"I don't know."

"Sounds to me like you need to talk to her about it," Chris said. "Because if she's still upset about something, she's not going to send you that first text until you fix the entire problem."

Ellie frowned, but nodded. "I guess you're right. Um…thanks."

"You're welcome."

Hay Lin came downstairs at that moment and asked them if they could work upstairs because she needed the basement for a rather long staff meeting.

"Shouldn't I be at this meeting?" Chris asked.

"I can fill you in later," Hay Lin said. "But I need the basement. Can you finish this in your room?"

Chris nodded.

"Which one's your room?" Chris asked.

"Upstairs, first door on the right."

Ellie grabbed her bag and phone and put it in Chris's room before going back downstairs to help Chris with his art materials.

"Thanks," Chris grunted as he set his easel down and grabbed his materials from Ellie.

This was the first time Ellie had ever seen Chris's room, and she was amazed by it.

"Chris, it looks like a museum in here!" she cried.

Chris laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, I…my parents took me to the Met when I was seven and I was so inspired by it that I put up all my drawings in my room like it was set up there. As I got older, I replaced the pictures with my newer work. Everything in here right now is all stuff I did last year.

Ellie walked closer to the walls, looking at each piece. Every canvas was in a fancy looking frame, and there was a plaque next to each one detailing the piece, just like in a museum. Most of them were oil paintings or watercolors. She knew from Alyssa that Chris's favorite medium was paint. However, there was one charcoal sketch of him and his dad in their regent forms and two sketches done in black marker. One was an action drawing of the old guardians and the other was a portrait of his sister. Ellie wouldn't have known that if she hadn't read the plaque because Cara was very young in the drawing.

"This is amazing. It shows how passionate you are," Ellie said. It reminded her of her own room, which was covered in playbills, tickets, flyers, and posters of Broadway plays she wanted to see and saw, and school and community theater productions she was in.

"I'm hope every time my parents come in here, it hits them that I want to be an artist instead of take up ownership of the restaurant," Chris admitted. "My mom was an amazing artist. See there?" he pointed to one of the walls where there were piles and piles of canvases. "Those are mainly my pieces, but in the back are a lot of my mom's. She gave up on art and went into business so she could inherit the restaurant because that's what her parents wanted. I know she regrets it, but she never says so. I don't want to give up on it."

"But your parents aren't supportive of that?"

"No."

"But you're so talented!"

"Thanks. Somehow, that's not enough for them. I guess they don't consider 'artist' a real job."

Ellie frowned. "Hay Lin and Eric always seemed like the type that would support whatever you wanted. I mean, Eric was part of Wreck 55, right? Band member is just about as real as artist. And it worked out so well for him."

"Yeah, until they broke up because they're girlfriends had a big blow up," Chris said.

"That's beside the point. I'm going to be an actress even though I know my parents don't support that. If you're parents don't support your career, then do it without them. Get a scholarship to some great art school and go there and live your life."

"And just forget my family? I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I love them!"

Ellie stayed silent. She wasn't exactly sure how that felt anymore.

Chris frowned, wondering why Ellie wasn't saying anything. An awkward air set around them as Chris desperately tried to find something to say to make them comfortable again. Ellie beat him to it.

"That's cool," she said, gazing at the ceiling. Pinned to the ceiling were several replicas of famous art work. Ellie recognized Van Gogh's Starry Night and Picasso's Three Musicians from hanging around Alyssa so much.

"Oh yeah. Um, Cara gave me that idea actually. She ran out of room on her walls to hang posters so she asked me to help hang some up on the ceiling and I thought, since my walls always seemed to be missing famous works, I'd buy replicas and pin them up there."

"I like it. I like how they're all centered and overlapping instead of covering the whole ceiling."

"I did it artistically. I didn't want it to be cohesive."

"What does cohesive mean?"

Chris laughed, but it was kind. Usually when he laughed around Ellie, he was laughing at her, and it sounded condescending. "It means organized," he said.

"Oh. Well it's nice."

"Thanks."

"So should we get back to the painting?"

"Oh yeah. Good idea."

Before Ellie could get back into her pose however, Hay Lin came upstairs.

"We have a little problem," she said.

"We need to move back downstairs?" Ellie asked.

"Yes, but not for whatever reason you may think. There's a portal down there."

"Why?" Chris asked.

"That's what happens, isn't it? Portals open up wherever there's a hole in the veil?" Ellie asked.

"Not indoors. That only happens if someone opens it from one side or the other," Chris said.

"I opened it," Hay Lin said. "Cornelia got in touch with me."

"Really, why?" Ellie asked.

"She and Caleb got some valuable information they need to share with the guardians. I wanted all of you to go, but I can't get in contact with anyone."

"Alyssa, Rae, and Caty are taking an SAT class. They turned their phones off," Ellie said.

"And I heard from Josh that Gabi called an extra cheer practice for today," Chris added.

"Okay, well the information is vital, but there shouldn't be any danger. I'll need the two of you to go alone. Just go to Cornelia's house, and then come back. It should be quick. I'll close the portal from this side once you guys cross through, and you can use this to open another portal back."

Hay Lin handed Chris a pouch full of dust.

"What's that?" Ellie asked.

"It's portal dust. I got it from Taranee. You just have to sprinkle some in water while thinking of the place you want the portal to lead to, and portal will open. Make sure you think of your bedroom honey, because once I close the portal, I'm starting the staff meeting, so you can't come back through into the basement."

Ellie and Chris nodded and raced downstairs. Ellie got there first, but paused. This would only be her second time going through a portal and her second time in Meridian. It made her nervous. She looked back at Chris, considering asking him to go first, but knew that if he went through first, she might not follow. She took a deep breath and walked through.

Chris followed soon after and the portal closed behind them.

"It'll be easier and faster if I fly you to Cornelia's house. Do you mind?" Chris asked.

Did Ellie really want Chris carrying her anywhere? Not really. But it _would_ be faster, and if they could get back soon, maybe they could still finish this portrait project today.

"No, I don't mind."

Chris let out a yell and turned into Shagon. He scooped Ellie up in his arms and carried her bridal style as he took off in the air. They were at Caleb and Cornelia's cabin in just a few of minutes. It took Ellie, Rae, and Alyssa nearly fifteen minutes the day they walked, and that was Aldarn's shop, which was a lot closer to the house then the canyon the portal was in.

Chris put Ellie down and turned back into himself before knocking on the door. Cornelia opened the door. She looked frazzled. Her hair was flying in a million directions and her glasses were hanging on her ear.

Chris and Ellie exchanged confused looks. Cornelia was like Gabi, never letting anyone catch her looking less than perfect.

"Oh, you're here!" Cornelia exclaimed. She put her glasses back on and attempted to smooth out her hair before stepping aside to let them in.

Ellie smiled at the previous Earth guardian.

"Hi Mrs. Hart," Chris said politely. "I'm sure you know this, but I'm Chris Lyndon."

Even though he knew Josh, Jilly, and Julia well, this was his first time meeting Cornelia. The only other time he'd really seen her was when he, Josh, Caty, and Cara were attacked, and there were no formal introductions then.

"Yes, you look a lot like your father," Cornelia said pleasantly. "And please, call me Cornelia."

Some laughter was heard from outside and two girls came bounding inside. Jilly and Julia stopped short when they saw their mother.

"Mom. When did you get back from the store?" Julia asked curtly.

"I got back a little while ago. Where were you too?"

"Just out," Jilly said. "And we're going out again."

Both girls turned and left, not even acknowledging Chris and Ellie.

"I'll go get my husband," Cornelia said, looking after her daughters sadly.

"What was _that_?" Ellie asked when Cornelia disappeared into one of the back rooms.

"Jilly and Julia have been fighting with Cornelia and Caleb ever since the news about Caleb and Taranee's affair came out. They're mad at their father for having an affair, mad at their mother for staying with Caleb, and mad at both of them for hiding it from them. They're pretty mad at Josh for that last one too."

"It's hard to believe one secret could cause this much drama."

"It's a pretty big secret."

"I'll say."

"But even small secrets can cause their fair share of trouble," Chris said seriously. "Any secret can. That's why I have a policy to not keep them."

"Excuse me?" Ellie repeated.

"I don't keep secrets. I mean, if someone tells me something in confidence, I'm not going to tell. I just don't keep any secrets of my own."

Ellie frowned. When she thought of Chris, the first words that came to her mind (after the hateful ones) were decent, kind, and honest. Those were the words that came to everyone's mind. Chris was extremely honest. But if he really didn't keep secrets then…

"You like Alyssa," Ellie said bluntly. "I mean…you _really_ like her. You'd do anything to replace James as her boyfriend."

Chris went red, but nodded. "Yeah, I do."

Ellie was surprised he didn't deny this, but pushed through to get to her point. "But you never told her. Isn't that a secret?"

"It's not supposed to be. But somehow you are the only person that could ever tell. Believe me, I had no intention of keeping it a secret, but by the time I was ready to tell Alyssa, she was already with James. I don't want to interfere."

Ellie smiled slightly. "Chris, you know I'm not your biggest fan, and you're not really mine either. But I have to admit, what everyone says about you is true."

"What does everyone say about me?" Chris asked curiously.

"That you're a really good guy."

Chris went red again and Ellie's smile widened. She thought it was adorable when Chris blushed.

'_Did I really just think of _Chris Lyndon _as adorable_?' Ellie asked herself. That was weird.

Cornelia walked back into the room with Caleb following her, some scrolls in his hands.

"Hi Mr. Hart," Chris said, polite as always.

"You can call me Caleb," the brunette said, turning to look at Chris. "Oh, my wife was right. You look just like Eric."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Chris admitted with a smile.

"It's a good thing, trust me," Cornelia assured him.

Caleb opened up one of the scrolls, spreading it out on the table.

"Is that a map?" Ellie asked.

"Yes. Of Queen Elyon's castle," Caleb said.

"What's this?" Chris asked, pointing at a glowing red 'X.'

"That's where the Heart of Meridian was," Cornelia said.

"But I thought Elyon had the Heart around her neck," Ellie said.

"No. We heard about Kasson and his family taking over smaller, weaker kingdoms a few years ago. We weren't sure if he'd try to take over Meridian, but just in case, Elyon duplicated the jewel that held her power as the Heart of Meridian. She wore the fake, duplicate version around her neck, and put the real necklace in a locked box inside a sealed vault in a secret room in the castle that not even Phobos knew about."

"In other words," Caleb said, taking over for his wife, "it was heavily guarded. When Elyon was captured, we knew it was only a matter of time before Kasson discovered the jewel around Elyon's neck wasn't the real Heart. However, we never imagined he'd be able to find this room. It took Elyon years on the throne before she discovered this room. However, we have spies working for Kasson, and we got word that Kasson found the room, broke through all the magical defenses, and is in possession of the true Heart of Meridian as of this morning."

"What does that mean?" Ellie asked. "What can he do with the Heart?"

"The Heart of a world is the world's core. All life and energy and magic comes from it. Every world has a Heart. It is mystical and gives the owner magical powers," Caleb said. "You've seen this first hand through Rae and the Heart of Kandrakar. This is true of all Hearts. Elyon's magical ability came from the fact that she is the Heart of Meridian. When she put that power into her necklace, all of her magic came from it. Though she can perform magic without the Heart on her person, once the Heart is stolen, all her powers are gone and the powers are given to the holder of the Heart."

"But I thought a Heart had to be given willingly," Chris said. "You can't take the powers if you steal the Heart, right?"

"There is one way to control the powers of the Heart without it being given willingly. That is to entrap the holder of the Heart inside any mystical talisman. When Nerissa took the Heart of Meridian, she trapped Elyon within the Heart itself. According to our spy, the Heart does not work for Kasson yet, but he knows what he needs to do to get it to work, so he will either trap Elyon in the Heart or in another magical talisman," Caleb said.

Cornelia looked ready to burst into tears. Ellie remembered that Cornelia and Elyon were best friends for most of their lives. This must be hard for her to hear.

"And once that happens, he will not only have the Heart of Meridian, but the Heart of Eldantia too, not to mention the Hearts of the other kingdoms he took over."

"Now those other kingdoms were small," Cornelia jumped in, "so their Hearts combined with the Heart of Eldantia were inconsequential compared to the Heart of Kandrakar, because Kandrakar's is the most powerful Heart. But once he gets the Heart of Meridian to work, he'll get the Heart of Eldantia to absorb it, and he'll have two hearts to your one, making him more powerful than the guardians."

"Great," Ellie muttered.

"So what do we do?" Chris asked.

"Unfortunately, we do not have much of a plan," Caleb said. "The only reason we are telling you is because we thought there might be an allusion to all this in the Thousand Year Prophecy."

"The first two lines," Chris said. "The girls must find the one who has turned/to find what was stolen and have it safely returned."

"What does one who has turned mean?" Ellie asked. "We thought it could mean Kasson, because he used to be friends with Elyon before he married Cassandra."

"Well, if the line about the stolen item is talking about the Heart of Meridian, then the line about the one who has turned should mean Kasson," Cornelia agreed.

"And we definitely think the item that's been stolen is the Heart."

"Rae will be happy to know the events of the prophecy are starting at least," Ellie muttered, rolling her eyes. Then she realized something. "There's another line in the prophecy. Um…despair for a life entombed in stone/and fail without friends to fly home alone…or something like that. Could that mean Elyon? We thought it meant someone died, but maybe it just means Elyon is trapped within the Heart of Meridian. I mean, it's a jewel, so it could be called a stone, right?"

"Makes sense to me," Chris shrugged.

Cornelia and Caleb nodded. Ellie knew they wouldn't give them false hope, and began to feel better. They were worried about what they would tell Sage if one of her family members died, but if it really just meant Elyon was trapped in the Heart…well, that would give Kasson more power, but at least she wouldn't be dead.

"Thank you for telling us," Chris said. "This was something we needed to know."

"Of course," Cornelia said.

"We should be getting back," Ellie said. "Can we have some water to sprinkle the portal dust into?"

Chris reached into his pocket and his fingers came out of the other side. "Shit. There was a hole in my pocket. The portal dust is gone."

"Gone? Chris!" Ellie cried.

"Sorry! We can fly back to the canyon and see if it's there."

"And if it's not?"

"Then we'll look for it."

"That could take forever!"

"Well I don't really have another plan."

"You should've let me keep it!"

"Like I would trust you! You could lose-"

"HEY!" Caleb yelled, making both of them jump. He lowered his voice and said, "Go look for it at the canyon. If it's not there, come back, and we'll contact Hay Lin so we can get you back."

Ellie and Chris nodded, knowing they didn't really have another choice. They exited the house, and even though Ellie didn't want to, she let Chris turn into Shagon and fly them to the canyon.

When they got there, Chris found the pouch with the portal dust right away.

"There are probably some puddles in that cavern over there," Chris said as he turned back into himself. "Let's go in and get out of here."

Ellie nodded and they entered, Chris in the lead. A little ways in, Ellie saw a puddle and ran over to it excitedly. A few seconds later, she realized Chris wasn't following her.

"I can't go home without you. Mainly because you have the dust," Ellie said impatiently.

"Well as heartfelt as that was," Chris replied sarcastically, "I can't go any further. It feels like there's some sort of wall or…force field…blocking me."

Ellie frowned. "How come I didn't feel it?" She walked back to Chris. She reached her hand out to feel the force field and couldn't. She took a few more steps and was next to Chris. She turned around and went back and was able to. Chris couldn't.

"So…what? It's a force field that only affects you?" Ellie wondered. "How?"

"Magic, right?" Chris said jokingly.

"Chris, this isn't funny. How are you supposed to get home?"

"El, you have to go on your own. When you get back, just tell Mom what happened and she'll get me out."

"But what if you get attacked or something?"

"I'll morph into Shagon. I'll be fine," he assured her.

Ellie frowned, but nodded. Chris dug into his pocket for the dust, but before he could pull the pouch out, Ellie got thrown back by an invisible force.

"Ellie!" Chris cried, running forward. He forgot about the force field and it threw him back, out of the cavern.

Ellie rose to her feel slowly, looking around, trying to figure out what happened. Before she could, she felt a gust of air that threw her against the wall. She cried out in pain as the wall of the cavern pierced her side, where she already had a large bruise.

Chris turned into Shagon and ran into the cavern again, hoping his regent form would get him pas the force field. No such luck. Since he was stronger as Shagon, he managed to stay on his feet when he was thrown back. He blasted the force field with lasers, but the minute they touched the force field, they were nullified.

Ellie tried to find the source of the wind, but couldn't. She heard a giggle, and when she turned towards the sound, another gust hit her. It wasn't as strong as the first two, but still managed to knock her down. She'd twisted her ankle yesterday, so she already wasn't too stable on her feet.

Another gust of wind caused her to knock her already wounded shoulder against the wall. Another giggle sounded and finally Ellie saw a figure. It didn't look human however. The form was _made_ of air, practice invisible, but Ellie could still see it. It took the form of a ghost, floating in the air with no feet. The giggle sounded female so Ellie figured it was a girl. She had long eyelashes, dark blue eyes, and a mischievous grin. No nose.

She sucked in a breath and let it out, throwing Ellie back again.

"Chris. Do you see what I see?"

"Yeah! She's the Air Nymph!" Chris yelled back, still in his Shagon voice.

"An air nymph?" Ellie yelled through the harsh winds that were blowing against her. "What's that?"

"Not _an_ air nymph, _the_ air nymph."

"Difference being?"

"Every time a new generation of Thousand Year Guardians are found, a nymph rises with the abilities of each guardian. The water nymph lives in the Lake of Meridian, the Earth nymph lives in the mountains of Daradia, the fire nymph lives in the desert land of Sulfuria, the Quintessence nymph lives on Jumelle, and the air nymph lives wherever she wants. I guess this one chose Meridian. In the course of your guardianship, you will face your elemental nymph as many times as it takes for one of you to defeat the other."

"Defeat how?"

"If the guardian wins, the nymph goes back to the place she was locked up in until a new batch of Thousand Year Guardians are chosen. If the nymph wins…well, she's not as gentle."

"As in, she could kill me?" Ellie asked, trying to use her meager powers to battle the nymph's winds.

"I doubt it. Maybe when you first started out, but the nymphs aren't traditionally stronger than the guardians, and you've had a lot of training."

"But I'm not a guardian. I mean, I am, but I'm in human form. What happens then?"

There was a pause. Since the Shagon mask never changed expressions, Ellie didn't know what Chris was waiting for, but finally he said, "I don't know. I've never heard of guardian facing off against her nymph in human form before."

"Great," Ellie muttered. "So what do I do?"

Chris shrugged. His Shagon muscles tensed up as he did, and Ellie found herself blushing at how much she loved his arms in this form. It distracted her and the nymph gained the upper hand, throwing her back again.

"Concentrate! What the hell are you looking at me for?" Chris cried, returning to his human form.

Ellie should've been repulsed by this form, considering she hated Chris with every fiber of her being. But she wasn't. In fact, she finally agreed with Alyssa, Gabi, Lana, and every other girl who thought Chris was hot. Feeling another gust of wind, Ellie snapped to attention.

She realized she knew when the Air Nymph was going to attack again without looking at her, but since air was everywhere, and the attack was aimed both at her and all around her, that didn't help much. Why couldn't she have been the guardian of water? That would be so much easier!

Ellie kept up the battle, while Chris could only watch helplessly. Ellie began getting tired ten minutes later. In human form, she couldn't keep up the battle for long. Ellie's air blasts got weaker and weaker until they were just small, short lived gusts of wind.

The Air Nymph began to grin maliciously when she realized Ellie was losing power. She stepped up her game. Ellie began choking as the air around her grew stale. The Air Nymph could do that? Then the nymph used Ellie's tornado trick to trap her in a tornado.

Ellie fell to her knees but refused to die this way. Maybe this Air Nymph would kill her, but not with her own trick. Ellie held her breath, calmed herself down, and gathered her strength. She spread her arms out, and with a burst of energy powered by adrenaline, managed to destroy the Air Nymph's tornado.

The Air Nymph was so shocked that all the winds stopped for a minute. Ellie was breathing hard, ready to pass out. Just as the Air Nymph burst out of stupor, ready to attack again, and Chris was screaming for Ellie to try and run away, the air guardian was enveloped in a bright pink light. Chris shielded his eyes and the Air Nymph, scared, hid behind one of the rocks in the cavern. When Chris peeked again, the pink light was gone. Now Ellie was enveloped in a ball of gray light. When the light disappeared, Ellie was in the air, looking completely rejuvenated.

"Air!" she cried.

"El, you're in guardian form!" Chris cried in shock.

Ellie looked down and realized he was right. She was flying and wearing her guardian outfit. She remembered Hay Lin saying that all the injuries she gathered in human form went away when she was in guardian form, which explained why she felt no pain and wasn't tired anymore. The Air Nymph peeked out from behind her rock and squealed in fright when she realized Ellie was in guardian form.

Ellie grinned evilly. "Who's the strong one now?" she taunted.

The Air Nymph began to float away. Ellie chased after it. She was much faster and stopped it in its ghostly tracks.

Chris, forgetting about the force field, ran after them, realizing suddenly that the force field was no longer up.

He changed into Shagon in order to help Ellie. "Hey El!" he said when he saw her. "The force field's not up anymore!" Ellie looked over at him in time to see him crash into something and get thrown back.

"You were saying?" Ellie asked.

"I guess that's the Air Nymph's doing," Chris said as he got up. He changed back into himself, seeing no reason to stay Shagon if he couldn't help. "She can only keep it up to a certain area. Once she fled, the other one was gone, but she put one up here."

"So you want to be one on one, huh?" Ellie asked the nymph, who sneered at her. "That can be arranged."

The battle went fairly quickly after that. Ellie turned the air stale and trapped the nymph in a tornado. The nymph was unable to break free and passed out. Just like in a movie, she disappeared in a mess of sparkles.

Chris reached his hand out. "The force field's gone. You did it."

Ellie sighed in relief and landed in front of him. "So…how did I get into guardian form?"

Chris shrugged.

"Could this be the extra power Hay Lin said Thousand Year Guardians have? Maybe our batch can turn into guardian form without the Heart."

"It makes sense. According to the journals, a lot of batches of Thousand Year Guardians found out what their extra power was when they were in a desperate situation, just like you were."

"Useful power. I guess it's a good thing we found out we could do this _after_ we got our second powers or else Rae would feel even more useless than she used to.

Chris laughed in agreement. "So, should we go home?"

Ellie nodded. "Do you think I can get out of this form?"

"Try."

Ellie concentrated on her human self and managed to get out of guardian form. Chris sprinkled some dust over one of the puddles in the cavern, taking them back into his bedroom. Ellie collapsed on the bed, all the fatigue and pain from her injuries coming back. Chris put the pouch of dust on his desk, then looked back at Ellie.

"I'm gonna die," she moaned.

"Don't be so dramatic," Chris said lightly, taking out a first aid kit. "Where are you hurt?"

"I twisted my ankle during practice yesterday, and it hurts more now. And my shoulder is bleeding, and my side burns, and the back of my head."

"Okay, let's see."

Chris concentrated on the back of her head first. "It's bleeding," he said, "but it doesn't seem like too deep of a cut." He cleaned it up and worked on her shoulder next, cleaning up and bandaging that cut as well.

"I can't do anything for your ankle except give you painkillers if you want them."

"Yes," Ellie said immediately.

"Okay, there's some Advil in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom."

Ellie took a couple of tablets and went back into Chris's room.

"Um, my side hurts too. I tried to clean myself up, but it hurts to move. Do you think you could-?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," Chris said.

"But um…I'd have to…I mean…" Ellie's face went redder and redder as she tried to explain herself. Finally, she just sighed and started to take off her shirt.

Chris went red too, but didn't say anything, knowing this was the only way he could treat her.

Ellie threw her shirt on the ground and had to fight the urge to place her arms over her bra and cover herself up.

Chris avoided looking everywhere except where she got hurt. He sucked in a breath. "Ellie, that looks nasty. How badly does it hurt?"

"It just kind of burns."

"It's going to hurt a lot when I clean it up. Just warning you."

Ellie nodded. He cleaned up the blood, put some antiseptic on it, and bandaged it with gauze. The antiseptic caused it to sting and burn more, but Ellie had patched herself up enough times to know she needed it.

As soon as Chris said he was done, Ellie put her shirt back on. Both of their faces went red again. Ellie spotted the easel and thought she could ease the tension by suggesting they get back to work, but when she looked at the clock, she saw there was only half an hour left until guardian training started.

"It's probably a lost cause to try painting anymore today, right?"

"Yeah. But it's okay. I actually want to talk about something."

Ellie frowned at Chris's serious tone, but sat down next to him on his bed. "Okay. What?"

"Ellie…" Chris hesitated. "When I cleaned up the wound on the back of your head, I saw an old gash that was still healing under the blood from the new wound."

"So? I probably hurt myself during practice or something."

"I think we would've known if you cut yourself on the back of your head during practice. We didn't. At least I didn't. And when you hurt your shoulder, you opened up a cut that was probably only a day or two old. That's why it was bleeding so much. When the nymph threw you against the cavern wall and you hurt your side, it looked like you had already hurt it once. When you changed into your guardian form, I could see a bruise there. Transforming only gets rid of recent injuries. That bruise was there for a while. And you said you hurt your ankle yesterday during practice, but I know you didn't."

"Again, so what?"

"I keep hearing Caty and Gabi whispering about asking Bree about you and about you possibly being abused and I notice that you're always hurt. Alyssa said you guys ended your friendship because she found out a secret about you, and she stopped being your friend so that you would 'save yourself.' I had no idea what that meant…at first. I think I get it now."

"What's your point Chris?" Ellie asked, irritation evident in her voice.

"I know you're being abused Ellie," he said, more serious than she'd ever seen him.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!" Ellie exploded. "Just because I'm always hurt, I have to be getting abused? Maybe I'm just clumsy! Maybe I trip all the time."

"And that's why you're one of the best dancers at Sheffield," Chris said sarcastically.

"Why can't everyone just leave this alone? Why can't anyone just mind their own business? You don't even _like_ me Chris! Why do you care?" Ellie was yelling now.

"I don't want you getting hurt! And after everything we went through today, I think that constitutes us being friends." Chris raised his voice as well.

"Well, I don't even tell my _best_ friends what's going on."

"So something _is_ going on?"

"No!" Ellie rose from the bed and turned to look at Chris.

"Ellie, how can you look into my eyes and blatantly _lie_ like that?"

"I'm not lying! You and everyone else just think I am. Well guess what? You and everyone else can just take your righteous attitudes, stupid opinions, and spying tendencies and shove them up your asses!"

"I've never spied on you," Chris said quietly, as he rose from the bed and walked over to the air guardian. "But I can understand why your friends did. Everyone just wants to protect you El. They care about you. Why can't you see that?"

"Why can't you see there's nothing wrong?"

"I don't call bruises all over your body nothing," Chris replied, his tone gentle. He stepped closer and their faces were only inches apart.

"It's fine. _I'm_ fine," Ellie said softly.

"You're not fine. And if you ever want to tell me what's going on, I'm here."

He took a step back and started cleaning up his art supplies. Ellie furrowed her brows. He wasn't going to make her talk about it? He wasn't going to insist she tell him? That was refreshing.

"Abuse is not nothing," Chris said. "But it's hard to come to terms with."

"How do you know that?" Ellie asked dully.

"My grandfather used to hit me."

"Really?"

"He would babysit Cara and I when we were little and he'd get drunk and he'd get mad if we were making too much noise or if we were being lazy or if we were messing around in the kitchen. But the truth was, we weren't making too much noise. He just didn't want to hear us at all. And we weren't being lazy. We wanted to play inside instead of outside. And we weren't messing around in the kitchen. We were hungry and too scared to ask him for food. And usually he was angry about other things. He and my grandma just got divorced and I remember one day when he was really angry, he got laid off. We got yelled at and hit for things that weren't our fault. I used to make Cara run or hide while he took out his anger on me. He was smart about it. He never hurt us too bad or at places where Mom and Dad would see. He'd grab my arm or hit me on the back or hurt my leg and tell Mom and Dad my arm cramped up or I fell or I twisted my ankle."

"Why didn't you ever tell them?"

"I was really little El. For a long time, I thought that's what grandfathers are supposed to do. When I got older, I got scared he'd hurt me if I told. As I got even older, I figured no one would believe me. This was my _grandfather_. My father's father, and his hero. So I kept quiet."

"Until when?"

"I was twelve and Cara was ten. I always managed to protect her for the most part, but that day, she didn't want to hide. She wanted to help me. He hit her too. He slapped her right in the face, then pushed her out of the way, and she fell, hitting her head. That was the last straw. I stepped in front of her and he took out the rest of his anger on me. When Mom and Dad took us home, I told them."

"What happened?"

"Mom and Dad cut him out of his life, and they wrestled with it for a while, but finally reported him to the police. He was arrested. He got out this year, but we have a restraining order."

Ellie was shocked. She'd never met anyone who'd gotten abused before. And by their _grandfather_? _That_ was a new one.

Chris finished cleaning up and said, "Fifteen minutes til training." He saw the air guardian looked ready to cry.

"El? You okay?"

"It's my mom. And my uncle. Sometimes one of them. Sometimes they both gang up on me."

Chris sat down and Ellie took the spot next to him. "My uncle used to live with us when we were young and he used to hit my brother. Jason, because Gavin was always away at some boarding school. My mom didn't know. He left when I was seven and everything was okay for a while. But when I was nine, my parents started fighting a lot, and my dad would walk out when the fight got too intense and my mom would hit me and Jason to get rid of her anger. She'd always apologize immediately, but then she'd do it again. It got really bad a year later, and Alyssa found out. She promised she wouldn't tell if I told, and I said I would, but I didn't want to see her again because she found out because she snooped around and spied and asked questions and Jason ended up telling her the whole story. So she promised to stay away if I told."

"But you didn't?"

"Mom wouldn't hit us whenever Gavin was home, so we thought she'd get better and stop eventually."

"When did you realize she wouldn't?"

"Gavin and I were twelve, and Jason was eighteen. He wanted to tell then because he was an adult and could take care of us, but when we researched it, we found out eighteen isn't old enough to take care of your siblings in this situation. He'd have to be twenty one. If we told then, Gavin and I would be put into the foster system."

"And then it got even worse?"

Ellie nodded. "My dad started coming home later and later, then he came home less and less. I see him one or twice every six months now. He has a girlfriend, I'm pretty sure, but my parents aren't actually divorced yet. And my mom started getting drunk and jumping from one job to another, and since there's no official divorce, there was no alimony or child support money. And she yells at Jason all the time and hits me, and her flakiness caused Jason to drop out of college and work 80 hour weeks. And my dad doesn't help at all, but every time Bree's dad comes calling, he starts preaching family and togetherness."

"Ellie, if you're sixteen now, doesn't that mean Jason is 21? Why don't you guys tell now?"

Ellie sighed. "Jason wants to, but Gavin doesn't. If Jason tells, then they interview both of us. All three of us need to report abuse in order for Jason to be granted custody of me. But Gavin won't support his story, and that could get Jason in trouble. At the very least, nothing will change because Gavin denying Jason's claims won't prove Mom to be an unfit parent."

"Why won't he say anything?"

"Mom still doesn't hit him, and even though his presence at home doesn't stop her from hitting me like it once used to, but she does immediately apologize like she used to when she first started hitting us. And I don't know if Gavin doesn't believe how cruel she is or doesn't want to, but Mom is her old self around him, and he still thinks she'll become her old self around me and Jason eventually."

"That's…naïve."

"I know. But there's nothing we can do as long he won't cooperate with us. The only other way to get me out is if Mom relinquishes custody of me and allows Jason custody, but she won't do that. She's still in love with Dad, and the only reason he keeps coming around is because of me. Jason can go live on his own and Gavin lives on campus, but as long as I'm still at home, Dad will keep coming every couple of months to check up on me. If she gives Jason custody, Dad would have no reason to go visit Mom anymore, he could see me and Jason at the place we'd get if he ever got custody."

"Have you ever tried talking to Gavin about this?"

"Of course. We tried everything we could. He and Jason even got into a really bad fist fight when he visited over winter break, but nothing doing. He won't…uh, I don't know the word…implicitate?"

"Implicate?" Chris asked.

"Yeah. He won't implicate Mom. I understand to a point. When I was young, I used to think she'd eventually stop hitting us and become the mother I knew again, but I know now that it's not going to happen. Jason says maybe she'll return to normal if we leave and she gets a break, but until Gavin agrees to corovate…corborate…uh-"

"Corroborate?" Chris asked

"Yeah! Until he agrees to corroborate our story, we're out of luck. And my uncle moved back in with us last month, and now he hits me instead of Jason. They yell at Jason and push him around, and he protects me whenever he can, but he's tough. They like hitting me better because I scream and they like that."

Chris looked like he was going to throw up. "Ellie, that's _sick_! How can Gavin not see what's going on?"

"Jason says he likes to pretend what we're saying isn't true. Something about ignorance."

"Ignorance is bliss?"

"Yeah."

"Why doesn't your mother hit him?"

"I don't know. When we were little, he and I used to play fight about who Mom favors, and even though we knew she didn't really have a favorite, he and Jason seemed to think it was me because I was her first and only girl. She used to tell my brothers not to get in the way when she was cooking and stuff, but she'd let me be in whatever room she was in and we used to dress in matching outfits…she used to be a really good Mom. But when she became abusive, I guess Gavin became her favorite. She won't lay a hand on him."

"You have to _do_ to something!" Chris cried. "What if I help you talk to Gavin next time he visits?"

"He doesn't even know you. I don't see why you think you can help."

"He knows me. I came over with Alyssa and Adam when we were little."

"Yeah, like three times. Gavin won't remember you. Adam's my best friend, and Gavin doesn't even remember him half the time. He only remembers Alyssa, and in a bad light because she used to have a huge crush on him. He was really relieved when he saw her during winter break and met James."

Chris sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking troubled. He got up and began to pace.

"I didn't tell you to make you feel bad or jump into protective mode or anything," Ellie said, her voice devoid of any emotion. "You told me about your grandfather so I told you about my mother. It was just an information exchange."

"Ellie-"

"And I'd appreciate if you kept this to yourself. I don't want anyone else, especially not Caty or Gabi, knowing."

"I can't-"

"You said you keep other people's secrets. So keep mine," Ellie said. "Anyway, what good will telling them do? It's not like it'll make things better or make Gavin agree to tell a judge that Mom is an unfit parent."

Chris didn't agree with that. If Gabi, Rae, and Alyssa knew, Ellie could stay with any one of them. They all had the room. Then again, that would be a temporary solution. As long as Mrs. Kramer had custody, Ellie had a legal obligation to live at home, and stay at home, when Mrs. Kramer demanded it. And it still didn't fix the Gavin problem.

"Please Chris?" Ellie asked, switching tactics, going from the emotionless voice to a pleading one. She got up too, and stepped up next to him, grabbing his arm.

"El-"

"I'll owe you forever! Just…sit on it for a little while, okay?"

"How long?"

"Til I'm away at college."

"Ellie!"

"What? Once I'm gone, that's it. That's the end. I'll be a legal adult. I don't have to live under her thumb. Jason can move out and I can go this place whenever I'm on break."

"But there's more than a year left before you can go to college."

"My birthday's in April. Once I'm eighteen, I'll be able to legally move in with Jason. He wants to look for and find a place just before my eighteenth birthday."

"It's the first week of March El. That's still over a year away!"

Ellie sighed, exasperated, and desperate to find a way to keep Chris quiet. She let go of his arm and tugged at her hair, thinking.

"If…if you don't keep my secret, I'll tell Alyssa you're in love with her."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "You really want to be responsible for causing trouble in Lyssa's life?"

Ellie sighed. No she didn't. And, she honestly didn't want to threaten Chris either. She wasn't thrilled to admit it, but they were kind of friends. In fact, after what she told him, they were definitely friends. But now what was going to happen? She told him, _trusted_ him, and now he was going to tell _everyone_. She sank down to the floor, looking ready to cry.

Chris looked back at her, willing to do anything to get rid of the tortured look on her face that made his heart hurt.

He sighed loudly. "Okay, fine," he said. "I'll keep your secret."

"Really?" Ellie asked, her face lighting up.

_For now_, Chris thought, but didn't say so. Instead, he just nodded.

"Oh, thank you Chris, so much!" Ellie cried, leaping up to hug him.

Chris was surprised, but just hugged her back. Normally, any kind of positive contact between Chris and Ellie would've been awkward, and should've never happened. But in that moment, it just felt right.

"And thank you for listening. I _am_ glad I told you," Ellie added as she stayed in his embrace.

Chris just tightened his hold in response.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"But who _are_ the nymphs?" Rae asked. "Why do they only have an interest in Thousand Year Guardians and how do they break out of wherever they're sealed?"

The others looked at Hay Lin curiously, all wanting to know the answer.

When Chris and Ellie got downstairs, they were already almost half an hour late to guardian training, so even though Hay Lin needed to know what happened at Meridian, she launched right into training first, extending the time by half an hour so the team would have the full two hours, and had Chris and Ellie explain what happened after practice was over.

"Allow me," Eric, who was called down for the information session, said to Hay Lin, excited because he had enough knowledge about this topic to explain it. "The nymphs are the spiritual remains of the second set of Thousand Year Guardians, the one after MAGIC."

Alyssa, who'd read the most journals, since she was the most interested, thought back to their acronym. "I'm on the sixth set right now, POWER. The second set was…KARMA."

"That's right," Eric confirmed. "Kaila, the leader and keeper, Alicia, the guardian of Earth, Regina, the guardian of fire, Marina, the guardian of water, and Allie, the guardian of air.

"What do you know about them Lyssa?" Rae asked.

"Not much," Alyssa admitted. "I read all the journals of the other groups religiously, but I couldn't understand the handwriting of most of KARMA, so I kind of skipped over them. Eric, what can you tell us?"

"Remember how, in CHYKN, Nerissa grew power hungry, and the Heart corrupted her, and the Oracle was forced to take it away from her and pass it on to Cassidy?" Eric asked.

The team nodded, wondering what this had to do with anything.

"Well, besides with POWER, when the Heart rejected Portia, CHYKN was the only group that had a power hungry problem. Or, so the Oracle says. He doesn't tell other guardian groups about KARMA, because they have no bearing on any groups besides the Thousand Year Guardians. But you guys need to know. In KARMA, all five guardians were corrupted by the power of the Heart. See, the Keeper has the ability to harness the power of the Heart of Kandrakar, meaning she has the ability to control Kandrakar and the Council should she need to. The Oracle has needed to relinquish the leadership position he has of Kandrakar and hand it to the current Keeper in the ten thousand years the guardians have been in existence.

"When the guardians reach Zenith, the Heart reveals to the Keeper abilities that it had not yet revealed to her. KARMA's extra power was that they could all control the Heart's powers, and the Heart revealed the Keeper the other abilities it has even before they reached Zenith. After defeating the enemy trying to take over Kandrakar, KARMA fell off the grid for a while. They mastered control of Zenith and seized control of Kandrakar."

"Seized control? Like, they took it over without permission? I thought the Oracle was powerful enough to stop them," Alyssa said.

"Not if the guardians can control themselves in their Zenith forms. Then they are stronger than the Oracle and the Council," Eric said. "So KARMA seized control or Kandrakar and entrapped the Oracle, but in a stroke of good luck, the members of the Council escaped. They hid out for a long while, trying to convince the kings and queens of other worlds, such as Meridian, to help them take Kandrakar back. Many kingdoms were experiencing a Golden Age at this point, so none of them wanted to mess that up by taking on the Guardians. Meridian's queen was all for helping the Council take back Kandrakar, but would not risk her people unless she thought they had enough help to win. It took many years for the Council to gather the support of enough kingdoms for Meridian to join the army. They took back Kandrakar and freed the Oracle. The Oracle needed to take the Heart away from them."

"Doesn't that mean they aren't guardians anymore?" Ellie asked.

"No," Hay Lin said stepping in, "This is where the story gets complicated. If the Heart breaks, then there are no more guardians. But in a situation such as this, in which the Heart gets taken away from the Keeper, and isn't able to be passed on to another guardian, then the guardian group retains their abilities, but they are much weaker. The Oracle was forced to lock them away, but not before the girls gave themselves over to their zenith forms."

"What happened then?" Ellie asked

"Because the Oracle locked them away while in their zenith forms, they did not die. Instead, they became spirits that retained their powers and memoires of their time as guardians. The nymphs try every thousand years to defeat the guardians and take over their bodies so they may be guardians again, but since they were so weak, they've never been able to defeat a guardian. Since Ellie defeated the Air Nymph, there are only four left to fight."

"When will we have to fight the others?" Rae asked. "Can we just go to where we know they are and take them on?"

"No," Hay Lin said.

"Why not?"

"Because…" Hay Lin trailed off.

"Hay, I don't see why that's such a bad idea," Eric admitted. "We'll have them all go together. There's not rule that the guardian and nymph have to duke it out amongst themselves. They're allowed to have help. If they can be fast enough, they can take out the nymphs before they put up a force field like the Air Nymph did. Plus, it's great practice. I'll go with them too, so they'll have some extra power."

Hay Lin bit her lip, but finally relented. "Alright," she said. "Next weekend. But I'm coming too. Meet here at nine o-clock Saturday morning and we'll map out a course."

The others nodded. Rae and Alyssa were pretty excited to get some real experience while Sage and Josh excited to get back into it. The regents and James were up for anything. Ellie was just happy her battle was over, but Caty and Gabi were less than thrilled with this plan.

"A whole Saturday?" Caty complained. "We can't do that!"

"Classics is coming up," Gabi said, alluding to the biggest cheerleading competition of the year that took place in May. "We're having Saturday practices every week."

"And Saturday is our SAT class," Caty added.

"It's just a test that day," Alyssa said.

"And if we miss it, we won't know what the teachers are talking about Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when they tell us how to improve!"

Caty was freaking out about the SATs more than anyone expected her to. She, Misha, and Nina wanted to take a class before they took the test, so they signed up for the test given at the end of March, but as the three girls, plus Alyssa and Rae, who were in the same class, did their homework, Caty would keep exclaiming she should've taken the test in January, which had a bigger grading curve.

The reason for this was probably the result of the first tests. Every Saturday, a practice SAT was administered, and the classes in the following week would help the students improve for the next practice test. Last week was the first test. With no guidance or studying, Alyssa got a 2150, Rae got a 1990, Misha got a 1910, and Nina got an 1880. Alyssa and Rae's scores were amazing and Misha and Nina's were respectable. Caty ended up with a 1610, a terrible score not just for a prospective Yale student, but in general. And she knew she didn't do much better on that day's test.

"One day is not going to kill you," Rae said. "We need to do this guys."

The guardians exchanged looks. Rae had never been quite so forceful before. They knew something was up, but didn't say anything.

Hay Lin and Eric announced they had to get back to work. Josh's shift had just started, and Chris, Cara, and Gabi's shift would start in twenty minutes. Sage went upstairs with Josh. Chris and Cara decided to head up too. Gabi said she'd be there in a few minutes.

"Chris, before your shift starts, do you think you could make me a Shirley Temple?" Caty asked sweetly.

"Oh, sure."

"Me too!" Alyssa and Ellie cried in unison.

"I want one as well," Rae said.

Now Chris looked sorry he agreed, but nodded.

"While you're at it, do you think you can make me a milkshake?" Sage asked sweetly.

Chris nodded because it was impossible to say 'no' to someone like Sage.

"I'll make the milkshake," Cara said.

"Really? Thanks," Chris smiled.

"Sure. Now you can make _me_ a Shirley Temple too," Cara said grinning. She ran upstairs, Sage and Josh following her.

Chris muttered something about annoying little sisters before following them.

"Rae, why are you so adamant about finding the nymphs?" Caty asked.

"Do you have the prophecy with you?"

"Uh, no, I didn't bring it. I thought it was safer in my lockbox at home."

"I wrote it down in my notes on my phone," James said, taking his cell out from his pocket. He opened the app and handed the phone to Rae.

"Okay, listen to this: 'One will perish in the land without rain.' When I first suggested we go to the land without rain, everyone told me that there were too many places that could be. But according to Chris and Hay Lin, the Fire Nymph lives in Sulfuria, a desert land, which could mean-"

"That Sulfuria is the land without rain," Alyssa realized.

"So do you think the 'one will perish' is alluding to the nymph?" Caty asked.

"Maybe. I'm wondering if the places that other nymphs live have something to do with the prophecy too."

The girls and James read through the prophecy carefully. There was no other line that seemed related to the nymphs, but Rae was still excited that things were coming together.

"I just think once the prophecy plays out and it's all over, everything will settle down for us," she said. "And as for the nymphs…well, the more practice we get, the less time we'll need to spend in training."

"Why do you want get out of training so bad?" Ellie asked.

"The less time we all spend down here, the less reasons Jake will have to be suspicious. I don't like keeping things from him, and he's getting more and more agitated that he doesn't know what we're doing right now."

"I'm glad I don't have that problem with my boyfriend," Alyssa said, giving James a kiss.

"Stop reminding me how perfect your relationship is," Gabi groaned. She wanted to wait for Josh to be ready, but it was really hard.

"And Rae, don't even complain. At least you're dating the boy you like. I'm forced to be with one guy when I really like another," Caty added.

"I'd take that problem if I could _have_ a boyfriend," Ellie declared.

"Then you should tell Chris you like him," Alyssa giggled.

"Shut up Lyssa!" Ellie replied. She began to roll her eyes, but stopped midway when she realized Alyssa's teasing might be more on point.

"You know what's interesting? If Ellie does date Chris and Gabi dates Josh, then it'll be just like the old air and Earth guardians. Hay Lin dated a Lyndon and Cornelia dated a Hart," Caty said.

"And Jake is kind of like Matt. He has no idea what's going on, but he knows it's something and even though he doesn't know what we're doing, he wants to be a part of it," Alyssa added.

"Now all I need is for his last name to be Olsen," Rae smirked.

"Maybe we'll all date within guardian families," Gabi said.

"If that were the case, I'd be dating Lainey's brother…who's fourteen," Caty said dryly.

"And Alyssa would need to date an Ashcroft…as in her own brother," Rae added.

"But you guys aren't really related right? So the only problem is that John is six years younger than you," Ellie said.

Everyone gave Ellie a 'Seriously?' look.

"El, John and Lyssa share a mother," Caty said. "They're half siblings, meaning they are still related. So it would still be incest."

"What's incest?"

"Ew, no!" Alyssa exclaimed. "We're done with this conversation because it's making me physically ill."

"You do look a little green," Rae agreed.

Gabi opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off.

"No!" James said immediately. "I know that look in your eyes Gabi, and whatever gross of offensive thing you want to say, just…don't."

Gabi giggled. "Fine, but only cuz you're just so charming."

"Hey. Mine!" Alyssa said playfully.

Caty laughed and said, "Come on guys, let's go get those Shirley Temples we asked for."

"Asked? More like forced Chris to make," James said.

"You're just upset you didn't ask for one. You can share mine," Alyssa said, and James perked up instantly.

Gabi led the way up the stairs. Caty followed after. James put his arm around Alyssa before the pair made their way up the stairs. Rae was about to follow when she noticed Ellie still sitting down, staring into space.

"El? You okay?" Rae asked.

Ellie gave Rae one of the smiles she always wore before she assured someone she was fine, but before she could say anything, the smile dropped off her face and she sighed. "Yeah, but…I think Alyssa might be right."

"As always," Rae said. "Right about what specifically though?"

"She always teases me about having a crush on Chris, but for the first time, I think she might be right. I might like him."

"Really? That's so cute!"

"But he _hates_ me."

"I don't think so," Rae said. "I don't know what happened between you two, but it went past an art project and a mission in Meridian."

"What makes you say that?" Ellie asked curiously, and if Rae wasn't so sure of herself, she'd take the statement back because Ellie's tone was so convincing.

"There was something different, some _new_, in his eyes today. Whenever he looked at you, he seemed to take on a protective edge. Like he wants to take care of you. I've only ever seen him look at Alyssa like that before, and even with her it wasn't the same."

Ellie mulled this over. She _had_ told him a secret that would make him protective. And if he was protective, then maybe Rae was right and he didn't hate her.

"Adam hates him. He wouldn't like it," Ellie said.

"So what? This is basically his situation with Jade in reverse. You had no bearing on who he likes or dates and he should have no bearing on who you like or date. And if he does say something about it, you can throw the whole Jade thing in his face."

Ellie smiled a little.

"Besides, you don't need to worry about it now. He might not like you back, and then it wouldn't matter."

Ellie threw Rae a tortured look and Rae grimaced.

"Sorry. I had to put it out there. And, whatever happened between you two, maybe you're just feeling that. Maybe you don't really like him. You may just think you do."

"Really?"

Rae shrugged. "It could be like hero worship or something. Like…if Chris had saved your life, you probably wouldn't hate him anymore. You might even think you had a crush on him. But in a few days, that would wear off."

"So you think it'll wear off?"

"I don't know. Maybe you do really like him. But I think you should take some time. Focus on everything else, and in a few days, reevaluate."

"What does reevaluate mean?"

"It just means think about it again in a few days and see if you still feel the same way."

Ellie nodded. "Okay. Thanks Rae."

Rae gave the air guardian a smile. This was the first time the two of them had a real conversation. Ellie had always been wary of her, but maybe she was finally warming up to the Keeper.

"Anytime."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you think? I hope you guys liked it. All of this Ellie/Chris stuff was something I'd been dying to get out for a LONG time. I'm not saying they will for sure to be together, but I wanted them to have a chance. The next chapter will deal with a couple of Caty-centric events, and then the battles with the other nymphs.**


	39. Happy Birthday Caty

**A/N: Hey guys! I want to start with thank yous. I'd like to thank my faithful reviewers for sticking with me for this long. I'd also like to give HUGE THANK YOUS to 100gamesvictor and Whooeva U Gonna' Bee for following this story and an EVEN HUGER THANK YOU Candymation for favoriting **_**and**_** following this story!**

**And now I want to-predictably-start by apologizing for the long wait! Normally I don't like to make excuses since I think they are the the worst thing in the world, but I actually have a legitimate one.**

**This winter break, my best friend and I managed to score internships at the same company, which was a big hope of ours. And lucky for us, our boss needed us to keep working through the semester. I've had weekend jobs during school before, but never an internship that required me to week three days of the week in addition to weekends. It is also my last semester of my last year of school, meaning it is my hardest and most important semester. So I've been swamped with schoolwork and work-work. For that reason, it took me forever to get these two chapters out. On the other hand, it is my fifth double update in a row, so I hope that will make up for it.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**WaterAmulet: Oh good! Maybe you should always wait til there are four chapters to review haha. The cheating wasn't Taranee's fault, but she still erased Alyssa's memory and lied about it. The magical cheating will be explained towards the end. And thanks, I'm glad you liked the gifts. I remember you were my biggest Jake and Rae fan, but since they got together, you seemed to have lost interest and latched onto Gabi and Josh. I'm glad you liked their moments in the chapters. Josh doesn't like emotions. They're too messy for his taste. But he'll come around. So which couple do you like more, Josh and Gabi, or Chris and Ellie? Chris and Ellie are my favorite of the possible couples and Alyssa and James are my favorite established couple. Anyway, I hope you like these chapters!**

**Emily: Well thank you! And stfu, it's an adorable game! Yeah, it did, but I finally figured it out. Well, I looked up nicknames for Catherine to find something different from Caty's name, and Rin was one of the suggestions. I was gonna use Erin, actually, but a lot of people said that was a good name on it's own, and I realized that was right (about the fact that if you want to call your baby Erin, you should name her Erin, not about it being a good name, you know I hate that name). And I loved the idea of Rin immediately. And yes, I did think of Isuzu instantly, but who wouldn't? Blowfish like Isabelle. Yes, finally! Thanks for the play-by-play of the chapter I wrote and know inside and out. I needed that. It was all I could think of! I knew you'd like that. By the way, thank you for being a terrible beta! At one point, I read through it and had to correct the word 'spear' to 'sphere'...**_**after**_** you beta'd it!**

**Taylor: Quintuple double update now! Yes, one more is happening soon, sort of at the end of the next chapter, but mainly in the next update. Yeah, I tried to do a lot with that chapter, I'm glad you liked it. Josh and Gabi seem to be most people's favorite. I think you'll be very pleased with the way they finally get together, but it won't happen for a little while. Hope you like these two chapters!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I don't think I can do this," Alyssa panted the next day during guardian practice. "I feel like I'm going to throw up at any moment."

"I feel faint, like I'm going to pass out," Caty added, sinking to her knees.

"I can't even do it, and I'm the one that found out we _can_ do it," Ellie said. Even though it was freezing out, she was sweating from the exhaustion.

"You guys are so lame," Gabi said as she floated above them.

"Ow!" Rae cried as she crashed into a wall.

Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie wore amused smiles, glad that she was still crashing because she was having the easiest time today.

Since they were so busy talking about the prophecy and focusing on the nymphs yesterday, the team all but forgot about Ellie and Chris telling them that Ellie found out what GRACE's Thousand Year Guardian power was: they could transform without the Heart.

It was Gabi who realized it as she and Josh drove to The Silver Dragon for practice. She ran inside, delighted to see Ellie was already there since she and Chris were still working on the portrait project. Alyssa and Adam were there too, so Gabi pulled Ellie aside and asked, "Wait, did you say you transformed without the Heart yesterday?"

"Oh yeah, I did."

"How?"

"Hay Lin said we'd have an extra power since we're Thousand Year Guardians. That's probably our power."

When Gabi asked Hay Lin, after Adam left and practice started, she confirmed this. Gabi wanted to practice, so Hay Lin only made them spar for an hour and a half and let them use the other half hour of guardian practice, and any extra time they wanted, to practice transforming without the Heart. She let the rest of the team cut out early. Josh, Sage, and James were in the basement waiting for Gabi, Rae, and Alyssa to be done. Chris and Cara were up in their rooms, and Hay Lin went back to work.

Instruction was left up to Ellie, since she was the only one who did it so far.

"I mean, I was desperate," Ellie told them. "I thought I was going to die. I was ready for it when I transformed."

"Well what about when you turned back into a human? How did you do that?" Alyssa had asked.

"Oh, well…I imagined how I looked as a human, imagined how I _felt_ as a human, because I feel a little different, I guess a little _weaker_, when I'm human, and it kind of just happened."

"Okay, so let's do the opposite," Alyssa had suggested. "Imagine how we look as guardians, and how we feel when we're guardians. We all feel that little surge of power, so imagine that feeling."

Rae got it within the first five minutes. She'd been able to turn back into a human two minutes later, and had been able to change at will very easily and quickly after that. It had taken almost forty minutes for Gabi, but finally, she managed to do it too. It took her five more minutes to change back into a human. Now she could also do it at will, not as quickly as Rae, but as easily. The girls had now been at this for an hour and a half, and Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie were just left exhausted and sickly, and they were no closer to being able to change without the Heart.

Gabi figured it was easy for Rae because she was the one who could transform them in the first place, so she probably knew how to imagine the feeling of transforming better than any of them. And she probably got it easily because she wanted it the most. From the first time she found out that Thousand Year Guardians get an extra power, she wanted it to be the power to transform without Rae and the Heart. And her wish came true, to her surprise and delight. This was what she wanted from the very beginning. This whole guardian thing was working out in her favor.

"Let's stop," Caty suggested.

"Please," Alyssa begged.

"I don't know why we didn't quit sooner," Ellie replied.

All three girls lay on the grass that was damp from the snow melting and just focused on catching their breath. Rae and Gabi smirked at each other as they landed and changed back.

"You think we'll ever get this?" Caty asked fifteen minutes later when the girls headed inside.

"I'm sure eventually. I mean, Ellie couldn't do it today, but she did it once before."

"Yeah, in a life threatening situation. I'd hate to think that's what I'd need to be able to transform at will," Caty replied dryly.

"Rae and Gabi did it. If they can, we can," Alyssa said confidently.

"Yeah! Just be optrisitc!" Ellie advised.

"You mean optimistic?" Caty asked.

"…okay."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Morning Lyssa. Where are your best friend, boyfriend, and wannabe boyfriend?" Ellie asked teasingly the next morning when she saw Alyssa by her locker, alone. Usually Alyssa was with Rae, Jake, James, and sometimes Chris. Ellie was okay with Chris not being around because she'd been getting very nervous every time she looked at him since Saturday, but was truly curious as to where everyone else was.

Alyssa rolled her eyes at the 'wannabe boyfriend' comment and replied, "Rae's with Jake in the library. He wanted to look something up last minute for a presentation and she went with him. Chris went to the art studio talk to our teacher about something, and James is finishing up a math test. Their teacher said if they didn't finish in the time allotted on Friday, they could come in early this morning or during lunch to finish. James chose the morning so he could spend lunch-"

"With you," Ellie finished knowingly. "You seriously have the _perfect_ relationship."

"I don't have any complaints," Alyssa giggled. "But no relationship is perfect. I'm sure we'll have a problem eventually."

"Knowing you two, you'll fix it in the same minute you find it," Ellie replied.

"You'll find that someday too," Alyssa assured her. "I kind of thought you already had."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know Adam always asked you out and you always said no, but I thought maybe you liked him anyway."

"I don't think so," Ellie said so quietly Alyssa wasn't sure she heard it. She looked very nervous.

"El?" Alyssa asked.

Ellie sighed. "Lyss, don't be mad, but…I think I might like Chris."

First Alyssa just stared at her. Then she laughed. "Oh, I _knew_ it!" she crowed. "I _called_ it! Ha!" Then she frowned. "Wait, why would I be mad?"

"I…I don't know…I mean, he likes you, and I thought…"

"I'm with _James_. I think I could love him. Regardless, I _don't_ like Chris."

"Yeah, I knew that," Ellie said, sighing and sitting down, her back against a locker. "I don't know, I guess I'm just nervous because the other person I want to tell _will_ be mad."

"Adam?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry about him," Alyssa said. "He should have no bearing on who you date."

"That's what Rae said too."

"You talked to Rae about this?" Now Alyssa looked a little less happy.

"Yeah. She told me not to even tell Adam, cuz maybe I don't really like him. She thought something happened between us and something sort of did."

"Like what?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"Like…" Ellie paused, not wanting to give away too many details. "Chris told me a huge secret of his that he's never told anyone else."

"Really?" Now Alyssa frowned. Chris had a secret he'd never told anyone else? He'd always told her that he didn't have secrets, that he didn't believe in them, and that he never withheld anything from her.

"Yeah. And Rae said that might have made me like him more, but maybe I don't actually have a crush on him."

Thoughts were swirling around quickly in Alyssa's head. Since when did Chris keep secrets from her? Since when did Ellie talk to Rae instead of her? And since when were Rae and Ellie friends?

"When did you and Rae talk?"

"Saturday, when you, Gabi, and Caty went upstairs, she noticed I hadn't moved and wanted to make sure I was okay. That's why we were still in the basement when you three were already upstairs."

Alyssa frowned again. She'd been so busy talking with Gabi and Caty that she hadn't even noticed Rae and Ellie weren't there.

"What's going on with you two anyway?" Ellie asked.

"What do you mean? Nothing's going on with us…wait, what two?"

"You and Rae! If I had asked this question a few weeks ago, you'd know exactly who I was talking about. But you guys don't seem the same anymore."

Alyssa took a seat next to Ellie. "You're right. I haven't brought it up, and neither has she, but I know she notices it too. Even though we made up about this whole 'Rae not telling me about me being Josh's sister thing' maybe I, subconsciously, haven't gotten over it."

"There's that word again," Ellie said.

Alyssa laughed, and Ellie smiled, pleased.

"But you forgave me and Chris, and Caty and Gabi."

"Yeah, but like I said, I wasn't totally mad at you or Chris, and Gabi and Caty really had no obligation to tell me. Rae and Josh were the ones who did, and I'm way angrier and Josh, and I get _why_ Rae didn't tell me, but maybe I'm still not completely over it. And then there's Gabi."

"What about her?"

"I started getting close to her. But she and Rae are still sort of at odds, and I don't think Rae likes how much I've been hanging out with her."

"But Gabi's awesome."

"You think that because you like her. Rae doesn't."

Ellie nodded. "Too bad. My life's been a lot better since I became friends with Gabi. I get invited over for all the holidays my family doesn't celebrate. And Caty's life has been better too. She got Brian, just like she wanted, and she told me ever since Gabi helped her with her make-up and wardrobe, she's felt better about herself."

"Dress for success," Alyssa said. "And I'm glad Gabi enriched your lives. I like having her as a friend too. But some people just don't mesh."

"But Rae and I were like that. We never fought like she and Gabi did, but I didn't really like her at first. And I still don't know her _that_ well, but I think I could like her."

"I'm really glad about that," Alyssa said. "There's something different with us now, but she's still my best friend, and I'd really like it if she could get along with my other best friend."

Ellie beamed at the fire guardian, never happier. All this time she thought she and Alyssa would never be back to where they were, but she'd just called Ellie her best friend. Something good had come out of the guardian thing.

"I've been reading more of the journals," Alyssa said.

"You're obsessed with those."

"I think they're interesting. And actually, I went back and reread some of the journals of the girls in POWER. That's the group where Emily, the air guardian, was a double agent. And I really think we should do it, now more than ever. Kasson has the Heart of Meridian."

"I really don't know about this."

"But with my telepathy, I'd be great at reading his mind, and your invisibility, you could sneak around and snoop. We'd be unstoppable."

"Alyssa, that's so dangerous. What if your telepathy doesn't work or I suddenly go visible without even trying or he sees through us right away and kills us? I'm really scared."

"I'm scared too! I mean, every day it becomes more real that we could die at any time. But that's also why we're _around_. So that we can prevent the deaths of several other people, like the inhabitants of Meridian and Kandrakar who could die at any time."

"I don't understand why we were chosen. Actually, no. I understand why _you_ were chosen. You're the smartest person I know, and you have a strong sense of duty, and your mother was a guardian. I don't get why _I _was chosen. I'm not brave or smart or useful or anything. The only thing I have going for me when it comes to the guardians is that I was related to that first air guardian."

"Ellie, come on! You know that's not true! Oh, and her name was Corrine," Alyssa said.

"Yeah, Corrine. And it is true!"

"No, it's not! Just because you're scared, doesn't mean you're not brave. Just because you don't get good grades, it doesn't mean you're not smart. And you're absolutely useful. You did everything Rae said during that first battle even though you were scared. You went through the portal with us even though you could've refused. Gabi did. _You_ were the one who figured out Snake Dude wasn't trying his hardest when he fought us. And you have all these visions with your dreams that helped us. We know never to give the Heart to Angel. We know never to go to Meridian without at least two other members of Team GRACE. And you're the best flyer on the team, which helps you immeasurably in battles."

"What does immeasurably mean?"

"Basically, so much that it exceeds any determinate amount."

"What does exceeds and determinate mean?"

Alyssa just laughed. "And you're the funniest, sweetest person I know, and you can act your way out a paper bag, and even though it may not seem like it now, I bet all those things will be able to help us with the guardian stuff too."

"Thanks Alyssa," Ellie said softly, feeling much better.

Alyssa put her arm around the air guardian. "Don't thank me. It's all true. You just need to believe it."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That afternoon, Ellie and Chris were working alone again. Rehearsal was cancelled, Adam had to stay after school for something anyway, and Alyssa started her shift at Lange's at the same time Adam was going to be done at school, so they decided they'd just meet up during lunch the next day.

At first, both Ellie and Chris were quiet. It was a little awkward for them to be alone together after everything they talked about on Saturday. Ellie didn't say a word as she walked into Chris's room or as she changed into her costume or as she got in her pose. Chris, in turn, said nothing as he set up his easel or put paint on his palette, or even as he started to work. The first words uttered between them was an hour later when Chris stopped working.

"Okay El, you can take a break now. I need more paint," Chris said.

Ellie relaxed and sat down on Chris's bed. Even though the basement was empty and theirs for the taking, the two of them decided to work in Chris room for past two days.

Chris squirted some red paint on his palette. "I'm almost done," he said. "I just need to wait for one part to dry so I can paint the blood over it, and I need the background. I'm thinking of leaving it white and putting light gray areas in it so that it won't distract from you, and it won't look gaudy or out of place. It'll go nicely with the cream, black, and green of your costume."

Ellie nodded although she had no idea if that were true or not. She wasn't an artist.

"Have you seen Alyssa's portrait? She and Adam aren't nearly done, but it looks great."

"Are you surprised?" Ellie asked.

"Not entirely. I do know acrylic paint is her least favorite medium though. She likes watercolors because they blend together, and she's really into blending techniques because her favorite medium is charcoal, which requires blending."

Ellie nodded again, still having no idea what Chris was saying. Chris put his palette and brush down on his desk, took a fancy looking pencil, and began to work on the background. Ellie watched for a while, impressed with how accurately he painted her. After a couple of minutes, she got up off the bed and started to look through his paintings.

Chris had just finished with the background when Ellie said, "Whoa, this is _amazing_!" She took out a painting of WITCH and Elyon, WITCH in their guardian forms, and Elyon in her princess dress. They were inside a dark, depressing room, and most of the painting was black and white, but each of the guardians produced a shield in their guardian color, with Elyon producing a sea green shield. The shields were all in color. The shields were protecting them from some sort of attack that was launched by a tall, mean looking man.

"That's Phobos," Chris said, pointing to the man. "This was the last battle the guardians had with Phobos, and with Elyon joining them, they were able to defeat and jail him. Mom did this. The painting is from Caleb's point of view, because obviously Mom didn't see it like this. He described it as best he could, and Mom painted what he saw, and he said it's a really accurate depiction."

"_Hay Lin_ did this?" Ellie breathed. "Uh…what does depiction mean?

Chris laughed. "Yup. And depiction means portrayal."

"Oh. Thanks. I can't believe she gave it up. Art I mean. She was so talented."

"I know. She could've shared her passion with the world. Instead, she owns a Chinese restaurant. I love The Silver Dragon, but I don't want to be robbed of that chance…to share my passion with the world. I want my art to be out there."

"You deserve for your art to be out there," Ellie said. She put down Hay Lin's painting and picked up a different canvas. This one was a painting depicting GRACE's guardian training. They were outside by their clearing. Rae was sprawled across trash by the dumpster, an annoyed look on her face. Clearly she'd just fallen in again. Alyssa was floating above the lake, practicing shooting heat waves at Chris, who was in his regent form. Caty was standing by the lake, using the water to make a wave. Cara and James were practicing shooting arrows at targets. Sage and Josh were sparring, Josh with his sword, and Sage with her dagger. Gabi and Ellie were sparring as well. It looked like Ellie tried to do an aerial loop, but there were vines around her wrists. Ellie remembered that battle from a couple of weeks ago.

"Mom took that picture and I thought it was great so I wanted to paint it," Chris said.

"It's amazing."

"Thanks. It's one of the paintings I'm most proud of, but I can't put it up or even put in the front of all my works because if any of my friends see it, they'll start asking questions."

"I get it," Ellie said, putting the canvas back behind some other paintings.

Chris got back up and walked over to the painting, running his hand over where the blood was supposed to be. "It's dry enough," he muttered to himself. He picked up his palette and brush, took a quick look at the way the blood looked on Ellie's costume, and painted it.

"Need me to pose again?"

"No, I'm good. You can change out of that if you want."

Ellie did so, and when she came out of the bathroom in her regular clothes, Chris was done.

"Wow, that looks amazing! You really are a _great_ artist," Ellie said. "I was afraid I was going to look bad or something, but you made me look better than I normally do."

"I painted what I saw," Chris said. "You look exactly like that."

"The girl in the painting is really pretty."

"So is the girl standing in front of me," Chris replied.

Ellie's face went red, but Chris just smiled. He went into the bathroom to wash his palette and brushes. When he came back into the room, he saw Ellie looking at more of his paintings. She'd just seen the portrait of Alyssa.

"You really like her, don't you?"

"More than she'll ever know," Chris replied sadly.

"I like James. Honestly," Ellie said. "But I think maybe Alyssa chose wrong."

"Chose is funny word. It implies she once considered me as a boyfriend. But that was never the case."

"Even Alyssa can be stupid," Ellie replied, making Chris smile.

"Thanks."

"Sure."

For a little while they were quiet. Ellie looked at the clock and realized they still had two hours before guardian training so she brought something up that she'd been avoiding.

"Chris? Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Are we getting along better now because…since you know what happens to me at home…do you feel bad for me?"

"Are you asking if I'm nice to you because I pity you?"

Ellie nodded.

"No. Telling me your secret helped us become closer. You trusted me with that and it made me feel like we're friends. Do I feel bad for you? Yes. Is that why I'm nice to you? Absolutely not."

"So why _are_ you nice to me? Just because I told you a secret?"

"Sort of. You told me a secret and it made me realize that there's no reason for us to hate each other anymore. I didn't like you because you dropped Alyssa. And even after she told me it wasn't like that, I still didn't like you. If you were really her best friend, then you wouldn't have let anything, even a fight, destroy your friendship. And Adam left too, but only _after_ Gabi made her…well, the biggest loser in school. That made me hate him. And I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why you two wouldn't want to continue being friends with someone as awesome as Alyssa."

"And I hated you because you insulted me and Adam-"

"Adam and I," Chris interrupted.

Ellie gave him a 'Seriously?' look.

"Sorry, go on."

"I hated you because you insulted _Adam and I_ every chance you got. And I knew why you did that it made me even angrier. It always made me mad how everyone just assumed I _dropped_ Alyssa, and you made me angriest because you actually said something about it. You just assumed I was the kind of awful person who would drop Alyssa and you assumed that I didn't even care. But we were friends and I thought you should've known me well enough to know something had to cause my break up with Alyssa and that _of course_ I cared. I regretted it, every day of my life."

"Then we both made mistakes. I never gave you, _my friend_, a chance. I just turned my back on you."

"And I turned my back on her. On Alyssa."

"But you guys are friends again and I get it now. I'm ready to bury the hatchet if you are."

"I'm definitely ready," Ellie said because she was fairly certain she had a crush on Chris and he'd never go out with her if they were still fighting.

Chris gave her a heart melting smile, then frowned. "El...is that a bruise on your left shoulder?"

Ellie was wearing a tank top under a sweater which she'd taken off when she felt warm in Chris's room. She quickly grabbed her sweater and put it on. "It's not a big deal," she muttered.

Chris sighed and got up.

"Where are you going?"

"Not me. We. Come on," Chris said, grabbing her hands and pulling her up. He left the room, motioning for Ellie to follow.

He led her to the basement she was so familiar with.

"What are we doing here?" Ellie asked, but Chris didn't reply.

He opened up a large cabinet and took something out. It was one of the dummies he and Cara liked to practice on before officially sparring with each other or with Josh, Sage, or James.

"You have powers Ellie, but there are some situations in which they can't save you. Like when your mother hits you. You can't trap her in a tornado and call it a day."

"No, I can't," Ellie agreed slowly.

"So I'm going to teach you to fight."

"You are?"

"You won't tell anyone what's happening. You won't try and stay with anyone else. The least you can do is fight back when she tries to hit you. Or even when your uncle tries to hit you. You have to protect yourself Ellie. This is one way you can do that."

Ellie wasn't sure what to say. She'd tried to fight back before, but she had no strength or skill. If Chris taught her, maybe she actually could _do _something.

"Okay."

So Chris and Ellie spent almost two hours training, at the end of which Ellie felt too exhausted to even participate in guardian training. But even though Hay Lin wasn't too sympathetic to her situation, telling her that she shouldn't have trained so hard if it was going to take away from the work she could put in during practice, Ellie's good mood didn't break. She felt like she really accomplished something thanks to Chris. Maybe everything would turn out alright.

Pepsi cola

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

On March 13th, Caty awoke to someone shaking her. When she groaned and opened her eyes, she could make out two figures. It was dark except for three candles.

"Happy Birthday!" two female voices cried.

Caty groaned again. "Go away you two. Idiots," she muttered.

Misha and Nina laughed because this happened every year. It was Caty's seventeenth birthday, and Misha had an odd habit of wishing everyone 'happy birthday' at the exact time they were born. As she made more friends and realized some people were born at odd times, (like with Emma, who was born at 3:47 in the morning), she knew she could not do this for everyone. However, Caty was born at 5:20 in the morning, which was less than an hour before they got up for school, so every year, she and Misha, with Iris's help, would go to Caty's house and wake her up at 5:19, so they could wish her happy at birthday at exactly 5:20.

Then, if it was a weekend, they'd eat whatever treat the girls brought over and then all go back to sleep. When they woke up, Caty would open her presents and the three girls would spend the day together doing whatever Caty wanted. If it was a school day, like that day, they'd eat whatever the girls brought over, and Caty would open her presents immediately after, and the three girls would then get ready for school.

"Come on Caty, up," Nina insisted. "We have great presents!"

"You have no sense of…ugh, I can't even _think_ at this hour!" Caty cried, but she sat up.

Misha and Nina had brought cupcakes this year and placed a candle on each one. They held all three up to Caty so she could blow the candles out at the same time.

Caty was never much of a 'make a wish' sort of person. She didn't believe in all that. Wishes were stupid. Everything you got, you got from hard work. But after everything this year, she was inclined to believe everything.

'_I wish…_' she thought. '_I wish for GRACE to become too powerful to lose the battle for Kandrakar._'

She blew out the candles and gave her friends a big smile, although no one could see it in the dark. Misha turned on the lights, and she and Nina crawled under the covers of Caty's makeshift bed in the living room.

"Okay, mine first cuz Nina's is better, and I don't need pretend love for my gift after seeing Nina's."

"I'm sure I'll love it either way," Caty said, but opened Misha's gift first anyway.

Misha had gotten her 'How to Get Into College' kit complete with books about different colleges and universities and what they expect, study charts, practice books for SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject Tests, SAT and ACT flashcards, an enrollment into a week long college essay writing class for the summer, a step-by-step guide on how to format and put together the perfect application, both in general, and for Yale specifically, and several information packets and brochures about Yale. A bunch of them were new ones that Caty wanted but didn't get.

"This is usually stuff you thrive in getting, but you've been so busy with your tutor circle this year that you haven't had time to come shopping with us for all of this stuff, so I got it for you."

"This is awesome Misha. And the essay writing class sounds awesome."

"Nina and I are taking that too. I know Alyssa signed up for it, and Rae is hoping it's not full so she can too. It should be fun."

Caty nodded eagerly as Nina handed over her package.

"Wrapped in newspaper?"

"I couldn't find wrapping paper," Nina said sheepishly.

Caty smiled playfully and ripped it open. Her jaw dropped when she saw them. They were white, pristine, and beautiful. On the sides, in all caps, was her name 'CATY' and her soccer number, '23' written in calligraphy in electric blue ink.

"New soccer cleats," she breathed.

"You always buy yourself new cleats before the season officially starts and complain about how much they cost, so I got them for you this time when I went shopping for mine," Nina explained. "The calligraphy part was all Alyssa though. I had her do that. I suggested she use red, so the cleats would be red and white like our school colors, but she said electric blue would be better, that the color had special meaning to you, which doesn't even make sense since your favorite color is orange, but I trusted her."

"I like electric blue," Caty said.

"Good. Just in case though, I had her draw soccer balls on the other side of the cleats, but instead of black on white, they're red and orange."

Caty looked and smiled. "This is so perfect Nina, thanks!"

"It was between these and a new soccer ball, but someone told me they were already planning on that, so I chose the cleats instead."

Caty smiled. Brian must've been the person getting her a soccer ball, which would be the best present ever. She'd been angling for a new ball for a long time, but since she didn't work, she never had money for anything like that.

The girls crawled out from under the covers and got ready for school. Caty's grandparents had presented Caty with her present the previous day: a powder blue Marc Jacbos peacoat. It was beautiful and comfortable.

Iris gave Caty her present before the girls left: brand new white gold hoops for her birthday, saying they matched her charm bracelet perfectly. Caty wasn't much for jewelry, but the earrings were beautiful and she loved them. Plus, Caty thought Iris was going to get a cake for her at Sweet Mistakes since she was so busy with Rin, but Iris assured her that she would, as always, bake Caty a cake.

Caty was showered with 'happy birthdays' when she got to school and even a new make-up kit from Gabi, a set of emerald green barrettes that looked great in her red hair from Ellie, and a new, "Gabi-approved" Calvin Klein cardigan from the rest of the team.

When Caty, Misha, and Nina reached their pre-calc classroom, Caty's subgroup immediately wished her happy birthday and presented her with their joint present: a gorgeous blazer that would be perfect for Academic Decathalon, Model U.N., Debate Team, and Mock Trial meets and competitions, and even her Yale interview if she could keep it pristine condition for that long.

Will, Nick, and Travis wished her happy birthday and Brian gave her a kiss, then handed her two things: a batch of M&amp;M brownies _without_ nuts and a mix CD.

"I know it's kind of lame, but I also know you share your mother's car which still has a CD player, and I think you'll like the songs. I wrote them on the back."

Caty looked and her face broke into a huge smile. The CD had their favorite songs to make fun of, from the first song they ever did it with, Girl on Fire, to their most recent-and most favorite-Justin Bieber's Love Yourself.

"Oh wow Brian, how awesome!" she cried.

"I have one more thing, but I'll wait til we celebrate your birthday with our date tonight for that," Brian said.

Caty nodded, thinking this was strange. If his present was a soccer ball, why would he want to give that to her during dinner?

Tony came in with a bag and Caty smiled. Tony was great at presents, or at least great at getting Caty presents. He always nailed it. Last year, he got her a wallet case for her phone, which she kept dropping over and over. It had seven pockets for cards, including a window pocket for her ID (and soon license), a slot for bills, a pocket for change, and of course a place for her phone. It was easy to take calls, answer texts, and use the camera in the case, and best of all, the case was made of faux leather (because Caty hated the idea of real leather), and looked like an leather covered book on the outside and was covered in newsprint on the inside.

She still used the wallet, because otherwise she would still be dropping her phone, which only didn't break because of Tony's present the year before. The year before, he got her an orange phone case, a set of really expensive orange ear buds, and stickers of things that represented all her activities, like Brian did with the charms for her charm bracelet. The wallet he got her had a clear back so she could still see the case decorated with the stickers.

"Happy Birthday Caty," Tony said, handing her the bag. He hugged her for longer than was acceptable. Caty saw Brian shifting uncomfortably from her corner of her eye, and pulled away.

Tony looked surprised and little disappointed that she pulled away, but motioned for her to look inside the bag. She did so, and saw, to her surprise, a soccer ball. She looked at Nina, and Nina nodded, trying to say, 'yes, he was the one who wanted to get that for you.'

She took out the ball and her mouth dropped open. In electric blue marker, all the black pentagons held a letter or number. Rotating it around, she realized the letters spelled 'Caty Lewis' and the numbers were 2 and 3 for her soccer number. The twelfth pentagon had a picture of an eagle, Sheffield's mascot. There were also letters on the white hexagons. It spelled out 'Love, Tony DeLuca,' and had the numbers 54, his soccer number. Three of the hexagons had stars drawn in them, probably because stars were Caty's favorite symbol, and the last one had a heart. Caty knew this would usually make her blush, but the heart kind of made her uncomfortable, just like the 'love' on the hexagons did.

"This is beautiful," she said anyway, because it really was.

"My sister always customizes my presents, so I thought you'd like a customized soccer ball," Tony said.

"I love it, thank you!" Caty cried, giving him another hug.

Tony gave Brian a smirk that went unnoticed by everyone but Brian himself. Caty couldn't stop staring at the ball. She loved it and she loved Tony for getting it, but it almost seemed like a waste. With all the use the ball would get, the letters, numbers, and symbols would just fade away. And it did beg the question, if _Tony_ was the one who got her the soccer ball, what was Brian's last gift?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Who on the team is going to Classics in May? Out of curiosity?" Gabi asked that afternoon at practice.

"Why? Scared you'll get attacked at your cheerleading competition?" Rae asked snarkily.

"Says the girl that's going," Alyssa teased.

"You're also going," Rae replied.

"Are we all pretty much going?" Caty asked.

"_You_'_re_ going to Classics? Why?" Ellie asked.

"You're going too, right? Why?" Caty shot back.

It was true Classics had nothing much to do with Ellie and Caty.

Classics was annual three day trip that culminated in a cheerleading competition where the a 21 member squad made up of JV and Varisty cheerleaders from ten different schools would gather at some four star hotel or the other to compete in a cheerleading contest the next day at the gym of the nearest high school. The ten squads invited would be based on the performance of the basketball team because Classics was also about them.

The basketball team would join the cheerleaders at the hotel and after the competition, the ten basketball teams would play a tournament until one team remained as the victor. The ten basketball teams invited could be from anywhere in the country. Sheffield's basketball teams were state champions for 25 years running, so they always got invited to Classics.

Besides the basketball team and the cheerleaders, each school had room for a few extra students to tag along. They all had to sign up, and the first students to sign up would be the ones to go. One student was always a reporter for the school newspaper so the paper could have an article on Classics. Other than that, the students that wanted to go were the girlfriends of the basketball players who either weren't cheerleaders, or weren't picked to be on the competition squad. For that reason, Rae and Alyssa, who both had boyfriends on the team, signed up to go.

"I'm going because of James," Alyssa said. "And Rae's going because of Jake. And, Gabi, you and Sage are on the competition squad. And James, Josh, and Chris are all on the team."

"And I'm going to support you and Sage," Ellie said to Gabi. "Jason played basketball and said Classics was awesome and always his favorite thing about Sheffield, and I finally have cheerleader friends and can go."

"And I'm coming because I didn't want to be left out so I offered to cover it for the paper even though usually someone on the paper's sports team would go," Caty added.

"And I'm not going because Mom says I'm too young, even though eighth graders get to go if there are spots left over. Mom remembers what went on at Classics during her time. Alchemy, Cornelia, and Elyon were on the competition squad their junior and senior years, and the rest of WITCH went along," Cara finished.

Usually, after the cheerleaders were done with their last few run-throughs of the routines, they, along with the basketball team and anyone else who came along to Classics, snuck out of their rooms after lights out and did whatever they wanted. Usually it was a trip to a club, followed by a private party with drinks while going for a swim in the pool or a soak in the hot tub of the hotel. Some years they got caught, and some years everything worked out. Besides Gabi, this was everyone's first year going to Classics, and they were all pretty excited.

"Speaking of," James said, "I heard usually everyone goes to a club. Is that like a 21-and-over, we need fake IDs club? Cuz I'm pretty sure mine got lost in the move."

"Depends on where the hotel is and what the closest club is to the hotel," Gabi said. "Last year it was a 21-and-over club, but during their all ages night. You only needed to be thirteen. Usually they try to do 19 and over clubs since those will be easier for us to get into than the 21 and over clubs. We don't drink there because some team or the other knows someone who can buy and provide drinks for the pool party after. This year it'll be Traci's brother Darren. And if you need a fake, there's this senior guy in the artsy clique that does a really good job for only about $50. It'll get you in anywhere."

"I'm not going to drink. Or go to a club illegally. Or sneak out of my room after hours," Alyssa said.

Everyone groaned.

"I'm not saying you all can't do it," Alyssa said. "But I refuse to break the rules."

"Well then, I'm staying in with you," James said.

"You don't have to."

"Then I wouldn't be a very good boyfriend, would I?"

"You should be a bad boyfriend for once," Ellie muttered, rolling her eyes. "Your relationship is too perfect."

"No such thing," Alyssa said, but walked over to James to kiss him.

Usually, Ellie's reaction to this would either say 'Aww' if it was a cute, short kiss, or 'Ew,' if they began to make out. Today, Ellie's first reaction was to look at Chris. She'd noticed every time Alyssa and James were affectionate to one another, Chris would immediately make a fist and glare at the ground. To her surprise, Chris was staring back at her.

Ellie looked back at Alyssa and James, who broke apart at that very second. Ellie felt strangely satisfied, glad that Chris didn't seem so bothered by Alyssa and James for once.

"So that means we're all going to Classics, except for Cara?" Gabi asked. "Cool. Who're your roommates?"

Rae and Alyssa pointed to each other, as did Ellie and Caty. Since they weren't cheerleaders or basketball players, they got to pick their roommates. The cheerleaders and basketball team got assigned roommates.

"I'm with Traci since we're co-captains," Gabi said. "And Bree's in a triple with Sage and Lili. And of course Lana and Kelli somehow got paired together."

"I'm with Jake," James said. "That was a stroke of luck."

"I'll say," Rae said, exchanging smiles with Alyssa.

"I'm in a triple too, with Axton and Trey," Chris spoke up. "And Josh is with my friend Max. I wanted to switch rooms, but Josh said no."

"Because if Axton and Trey trap me in a conversation about basketball, they're going to know something is up. Jake already thinks I'm strange, but he just lets it go. Axton and Trey won't," Josh said. "Max is quiet though, so he probably won't talk to me about anything."

"Oh Max is strangely quiet!" Ellie agreed. "But most people don't mind, cuz he's cute."

"That's why girls don't care that Josh is weird," James said. "I think every cheerleader on JV wants to date him."

"Except Lana," Gabi muttered, whose expression had soured remembering that every girl she was friends with had a crush on the boy she hoped was her soon-to-be boyfriend.

"Can we get this practice started? I don't want to finish late or else I'll keep Brian waiting when he comes to pick me up," Caty said.

"You _should_ keep him waiting. You're always so punctual, coming downstairs as soon as Alyssa answers the door," Gabi said.

"Because this is a tricky situation. Brian could change his mind about me in a flash if he decides I'm irritating. If I keep him waiting, that might do it. I need him to be into me until April, when recommendations are written."

"Does that mean three weeks from now, you'll be dating Tony?" Ellie asked.

"Maybe," Caty shrugged.

Everyone exchanged looks. Usually, when someone brought up Tony, Caty would wear a goofy smile on her face, let out a girly little sigh that was _very_ un-Caty like, and lose the ability to speak for a few seconds. Now it looked she barely even cared.

Finally, everyone shrugged and went outside. Hay Lin said she'd be late, so for the first half hour, GRACE worked on transforming without the Heart while the others sparred. Just like every other day, Rae and Gabi were the only ones who could do it, so when Hay Lin got there, Rae needed to change the others.

Hay Lin ended practice right on time, relieving Caty. Everyone wished her happy birthday one more time before she, Gabi, James, and Alyssa headed to the Ashcroft's so she could get ready for her date.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Nice necklace," Tony said to Caty the next morning as she got books out of her locker.

"Oh thanks," Caty said, turning to face him with a smile.

"Where'd you get it?"

"I told you, my friend made it for me," Caty said, her hand instinctively touching the pendant of Alyssa's necklace.

"I know, Alyssa Ashcroft. I meant the other one."

Caty looked down, not realizing she was wearing another necklace, then realized Tony was talking about the one Brian gave her last night at dinner. It was a white gold pendant in the shape of a small bird called a nuthatch. On the nuthatch was the stem of a flower and above the nuthatch was the flower head of an iris, Caty's favorite flower. Brian said he got it for her because the nuthatch symbolized intelligence, which he knew was the trait Caty valued above all else, and irises symbolized inspiration, which she instilled in him, so it was like a symbol of both them and the bond they shared. Caty was moved to tears when he explained it, and since the chain was real silver and the pendant was white gold, she could wear it with no allergic reaction. She loved it. It felt so right around her neck.

"Oh, Brian gave this to me, for my birthday," Caty said.

Tony's expression soured. "I thought he baked you brownies."

"He did. He also made me a mix CD and got me this."

"Wow. Generous."

"Yeah," Caty said frowning. Tony did not sound pleased.

"Caty, come _on_!" the pair heard Misha cry from behind them.

Caty gave Tony an apologetic smile. "Sorry, gotta go!"

Tony nodded and Caty walked over to where her friends were waiting.

"What did Tony want?" Misha asked with a smirk.

"He was just commenting on this," Caty said, showing her friends her necklace with a huge smile on her face.

Nina and Misha both gasped.

"Caty that's gorgeous!" Nina cried. "Who gave that to you?"

"Brian."

"He has excellent taste," Nina declared.

"Oh please. Someone helped him with that."

"No, he picked it himself," Caty said. "He told me. It was easy to pick it out because he knows I'm allergic to fake metal and I don't like the color of gold, so he picked a silver chain and a white gold pendant."

"That's a really cool pendant," Nina said. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"He said he made it. Like, he drew a picture of the bird-it's called nuthatch-with the iris peeking out from behind it, took a picture of what he drew, and uploaded it to the website and the website made a pendant. He ordered this for me after Valentine's day."

"Why a nuthatch though? I haven't even heard of that bird," Misha said.

Caty smiled even wider, which her friends didn't know was possible, and explained what the nuthatch and iris meant and what Brian said when he gave it to her.

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Nina gushed.

Misha rolled her eyes. She was clearly impressed, but trying not to show it. "But you still like Tony, right?"

"Oh, uh…yeah?"

"That doesn't sound very convincing," Nina said.

Caty frowned, thinking about it. At first, whenever Tony's eyes were on her or he hugged her or touched her arm, she would blush, her heart would beat wildly, and she'd be excited. All she wanted was to be with him. But as time went on, she started losing that feeling with him. Now her blushing and wild heart beat and excitement was reserved for Brian.

"Or maybe I like Brian."

Misha gaped at Caty, but Nina gave her a knowing look.

"He just knows me so well in such a short time and he's so nice to me and he treats me well and…I don't know. I used to think that I just liked all the compliments, but I think I actually like him for real."

"But _why_?" Misha asked.

Nina gave her a disapproving looks. "That's so rude!"

"I just mean, he used to be your enemy. And Tony was your crush for three years."

"Well, now all of the stuff that he does that used to make blush or happy makes me uncomfortable. That's a sign that I'm losing interest in him," Caty said. "I mean, I still think he's _really_ hot and sweet, and I still want to be as close with him as I am now, but I don't want him as a boyfriend anymore. At least, I'm pretty sure I don't."

"And you _do_ want Brian as a boyfriend?"

"Well…yeah. I mean, he's also _really_ hot, even though he has no idea. And he's so smart. We're on the same intellectual level, which is pretty important to me. He told me I inspire him, and when I think about it, he inspires me too. We talk about everything and it's so easy. I tell him things I haven't even told you guys yet."

Nina and Misha looked surprised Caty kept things from them, but motioned for her to go on.

"He has really pretty eyes too. I mean, even when I hated him, I loved those eyes. They're just so…_green_."

"No kidding," Misha said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Oh, you know what I mean!" Caty snapped. "It's so easy to just lose myself in them." She let out a little girly sigh Nina and Misha had only ever heard when Caty was thinking or talking about Tony.

"Yeah, you definitely like Brian," Nina declared. "But this puts you in an awkward position. If you want him to continue being your boyfriend, you can't take advantage of him."

"I know. I'll just do everything differently. I wanted to do this so he'll ask Ms. Mandel to write me a recommendation. But I'll ask another teacher today and tell him that so the thought won't even cross his mind. And I was going to write him a not so good eval, but I'll write him a spectacular one now."

"Wait a minute," Misha said. "I agree you should write him a good eval, but don't give up on the Ms. Mandel thing. If he wants to give up a chance at a recommendation from her for you, then that's his prerogative. You want this internship more, right? So just hold off on asking another teacher and see what he does."

"But that's not right," Nina protested.

But Caty began to nod, seeing Misha's point. It was true she wanted this more, and he might not even think of asking Ms. Mandel to write Caty a letter, but if he did, that was his choice. So maybe she shouldn't give that up.

"You're right Misha."

"Aren't I always?"

"Always full of yourself? Sure," Nina said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh you're just mad cuz Caty's choosing to follow my advice instead of yours."

"I guess devils always beat angels," Nina replied breezily.

"Are you seriously saying you guys are the two sides of my conscience?" Caty laughed.

"Who else?" Nina asked.

"Gabi and Alyssa," Caty said without hesitation.

"Oh, they are so much better than us!" Misha agreed immediately, and all three of them walked into their classroom laughing.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"How are you guys done already?" Adam asked his best friend that afternoon.

"Well Chris and I are friends now," Ellie said. "We have been since Saturday. So we met up on Sunday and Monday and got the painting done."

"Wait, you finished it on Monday?"

"Yeah."

"Like…last Monday?"

"Yes."

"It's been over a week since you finished and you still go to The Silver Dragon an hour or two before your self-defense classes."

"So?"

"Well, what are you doing there?"

"Hanging out with Chris."

"Why are you voluntarily hanging out with Chris Lyndon?"

"I _told_ you, we're friends now."

And it was true. Chris and Ellie worked on her fighting training every day before training and had gotten a lot closer during the process. Ellie was starting to think that maybe Chris had a tiny crush on her too.

"You told me that you told him about Jade's three text system and that you saw his room and told him to follow his dreams. That made you guys friends all of a sudden?"

"Yeah."

"But we _hate_ him."

"_I_ don't. He told me how to solve my Jade problem, I took his advice, and now Jade and I are good again. He's easy to talk to and fun and we realized there's really no reason to hate each other."

"What do you mean?"

Ellie told Adam about a conversation she and Chris had about why they hated each other and why it wasn't an issue anymore.

Adam sighed. "I don't understand this Ellie."

"It's not really that complicated Adam."

"Do my ears deceive me or is Ellie explaining something to Adam?" Jade teased lightly as she, Sage, and Milly joined the pair.

Jade gave Adam a quick kiss, and Ellie had to resist making a face.

"She's trying to tell me that she's friends with Chris Lyndon," Adam said.

"Why is that bad?" Sage asked.

"Cuz he's a jerk."

"Not anymore," Ellie insisted.

"Sounds like you guys buried the hatched. Good for you," Milly said.

Adam groaned.

"Speaking of Chris Lyndon, looks like he's heading this way," Jade said.

Ellie gasped, and looked in the mirror she stuck in her locker, making sure her makeup was intact. She smoothed down her hair.

"How do I look?" she asked.

"Fine. Why..." Jade gasped. "Ellie, do you _like _him?"

"A little bit. Or a lot," Ellie said, blushing.

"Aww, how cute," Sage cooed.

"Hey El," Chris said, finally reaching them.

"Hi Chris!" Ellie greeted, just the sight of him brightening her mood.

"You still coming home with me today?"

"Of course."

"Great. I just wanted to let you know basketball practice was cancelled, so we can go right now."

"Okay!" Ellie cried, cringing internally at her enthusiasm as Jade, Milly, and Sage tried to hold back laughter and Adam rolled his eyes, looking ready to barf.

"Not _right _now," Jade said. "She'll need a minute."

"Okay. I need to pick up some supplies from the Art Studio anyway. I'll meet you back here."

Ellie nodded.

"Wow, you _really _like him," Jade smirked when he was out of earshot.

"Well, I mean, he's really cute, and he's nice to me and..." Ellie trailed off, sighing happily.

"Like Jake Saunders all over again," Jade crowed. "But this time, the guy's actually attainable."

"I think you and Chris would make a really great couple," Sage said.

"But doesn't Chris like Alyssa?" Adam asked.

"Not so much anymore," Ellie said. "At least, it doesn't seem like it."

"Because why would anyone like anyone else when they've got our girl?" Jade questioned, throwing her arm around Ellie.

"Just be careful," Milly warned. "Because remember who else likes Chris."

"Lana Oller," Ellie nodded. Most of Chris's relationships were short lived because of something Lana did, though Chris had no idea. "I'm not afraid of Lana."

"She's not even that bad," Sage put in.

Even Adam was momentarily distracted from being disgusted at Ellie's choice of crush to roll his eyes as Sage's comment.

"Lana's not that bad to _you_," Jade said. "She _likes_ you. But normally, she's a bitch."

Sage didn't argue. She'd had that argument with Gabi enough times to know it was one she probably wouldn't win.

"Back to the original point," Milly said, "if you're willing to deal with Lana for Chris, then I know how much you must like him. So go get him."

Ellie beamed at Milly just as Chris headed back to them.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yup."

The pair walked away just as Alyssa made her way over to the group. She looked at Adam. "Ready?"

He sighed. Even though Ellie and Chris had finished the portrait project long before, he and Alyssa still had a little ways to go. She suggested they work at the studio after school.

"Let's go," he sighed, bidding the girls a goodbye, and giving Jade a kiss.

"See you at practice Lyssa," Sage said before the pair made their way to the studio.

"Why are you taking self-defense?" Adam asked.

"Because I want to be able to handle myself," Alyssa replied shrugging.

"Why would you need to though?"

"You never know what your life will demand of you," Alyssa replied.

Adam didn't say anything more, mainly because that was the weirdest and most cryptic thing he'd ever heard anyone say-even with Ellie admitting to him that she had a crush on Chris just a few minutes ago.

The pair entered the studio. Adam went into the studio's bathroom to change into his costume while Alyssa got set up. They worked in silence for a solid hour before Alyssa told Adam he could take a break.

"How much longer do you think this will take?"

"I think I can finish in less than two. Why? Getting tired of spending your time with me?" Alyssa asked, half sneering.

"No, I'm just wondering how many extra shifts I'll need to take to pay for all those books I'm getting you. With those two hours, it totals me buying you 20 books."

"Sounds good to me," Alyssa replied with a smirk. She chewed on her lip for a minute before asking, "Why are you even buying me those books?"

"That was the deal, wasn't it?"

"I mean, why did you even make that deal? I know you said we were both mature enough to do this project, but proving that maturity couldn't have been your reasoning for wanting to do this instead of just letting me take a picture."

"It wasn't. If you remember, I also said there's something I'd rather not do after school, and spending time with you doing this project helped me avoid that thing."

"And what is that thing?" Alyssa asked.

"Why do you think I'd tell you that?"

"Why not?"

"We're not friends."

"We could be. We were once. Ellie and I are friends again. What's stopping us?"

"Do you actually want to be friends?"

"No. But it might make Ellie happy if we at least got along."

"Well you know I'd do anything for Ellie. And of course I'd be willing to try with you because you want to make Ellie happy too."

"Good."

"Good."

Alyssa smiled slightly before asking, "Ready to pose again?"

Adam nodded. The two worked for another half an hour before she let him take another break.

"Why not?" Adam asked suddenly.

"Why not what?"

"Why don't you want to be my friend again?"

Alyssa sighed. She never wanted to explain this to Adam, but in the back her mind, she felt he deserved to know. "I don't trust you," she said. "Or at least, I don't trust the person you appear to be."

"And what does that mean?"

"I used to think you were a nice guy. But you're only nice when you want to be. And you're really hostile other times. I didn't notice that when we were friends. Which means, I never really knew you at all. And I don't like that. I can't be friends with someone who isn't who they first seemed."

"I'm kind to the people who deserve it. I'm hostile when the situation demands it. Maybe you're just too paranoid for your own good."

"Maybe I am," Alyssa agreed. "But everyone else in my life is open and honest. There's never a surprise. The only person that's not true of is Josh, who I am no longer friends with."

"I am honest Alyssa. I never hid anything from you. You knew everything about me. It's just your anger that's blocking you. You're still mad at me for abandoning you."

"No I'm-"

"You are. And I get it. That was a terrible thing to do. I was too preoccupied with self-preservation."

"You're not that type of person. That wasn't why. You said you were always honest with me. So be honest now."

Adam sighed. "Around that time Gabi gave you the nickname Klutzcroft...that may have also been the same time Ellie demanded I cut off contact with you."

Alyssa sighed as well. She should've known. Ellie said it would stop, but it didn't, and if Adam continued a friendship with Alyssa, Alyssa would eventually find out. Ellie needed to protect herself.

Alyssa looked at Adam and battled with herself harder than she ever had. There were so many times she considered telling him, but she never had. She knew she should, but she also knew Jason cared about Ellie more than anyone else in the world, and the fact that it hadn't stopped, the fact that Ellie hadn't told yet, even with Jason around, had to mean there was a reason they couldn't tell yet, and she had to respect that.

"You really would do anything for Ellie, wouldn't you?"

"Anything," Adam confirmed.

"Why do you like her so much? Not that you shouldn't...but why? You had a crush on her since kindergarten. What attracted you to her when we were that young?"

"Do you remember how we became friends?"

Alyssa thought back. "Um...it was the second week of kindergarten...it was during recess...Ellie and I were playing tag with some other kids…I think Chris and Max were part of the group...and Ronnie too…" Alyssa's voice got more confident as the memories came back. "Ellie pointed you out to me, asking why you were just sitting there all alone. I told her you always did that at recess, that it seemed like you didn't have any friends, and Ellie thought that was the saddest thing ever, so she invited you to play with us."

"And then…?" Adam prompted.

"And then she invited you to sit at our table in class because we had room you sat with people like Gabi Shay, who made fun of people like us."

Adam nodded and Alyssa got it.

"She became your friend when no one else would. She took notice of you when no one else did. She was nice, she was fun, she helped you. I understand now. But then, now...why Jade?"

"It was time to move on."

Alyssa frowned. That didn't answer her question at all. Unless…

"Adam, are you saying you don't really like her, but you chose her because you had to move on?"

"It's not that I don't like her. I did in the beginning. It's just...messier now."

"Adam, why are you here?" Alyssa asked again. "What are avoiding by posing for me?"

Adam sighed. "If I pose for you, then I don't have to hang out with Jade."

"Ouch."

Adam ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah."

"You're such a jerk," Alyssa declared.

"I know."

"And she really likes you."

"I know."

Alyssa sighed and shook her head. "So why don't you break up with her?"

"I liked her before. Maybe I can again. I can't break up with her and backslide. I'll go back to Ellie immediately, and that can't happen, especially not now."

"Now as in…?"

"As in she finally accepted my relationship with Jade and found a new guy to focus on."

"And I'm guessing because of the look on your face, she told you that guy is Chris."

"Yup."

"Well they do work on the project a lot without us. I guess it was bound to happen."

Adam frowned. "Lyssa, you do know they finished the project last Monday, don't you?"

"They did? But they hang out every day!"

"I'm well aware."

Alyssa frowned deeply. Why was Chris continuing to hang around with Ellie if they were done? She wanted them to become friends, and she was kind of excited when Ellie told her she had a crush on Chris. But suddenly she wasn't so thrilled. Chris and Ellie were becoming close. She saw them talking at school all the time and she went home with him every day. She thought it was because of the project, but if they were done…

"Chris might like Ellie too," Alyssa said.

"He'd be an idiot not to."

Alyssa nodded slowly, biting her lip. She was okay with Ellie liking Chris. But for some reason, the thought of Chris liking Ellie didn't sit as well with her.

"Hey, here's an idea," Alyssa said, tired of talking. "How about we finish this project?"

"Sounds good to me," Adam agreed.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that! The next chapter is kind of boring, but bear with it, it's also important!**


	40. The One in Chains

**A/N: And here's the second chapter. As usual, the second half of the shout outs are below. Enjoy guys!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**SilvenArrow: I understand how that is. Actually, I wish I had your restraint instead of reviewing stories at 3 in the morning and sounding like a crazy person! Yeah, I tried to cover a lot on those chapters, moving along certain storylines. And yes, the support and excitement for Gabi and Josh has been great. They're a pretty popular couple. I got the name Rin online, though it reminds me of an anime character. Yup, Chris and Ellie is in a close second place for favorite possible couple. I guess you'll just have to wait and see what happens (though at this point, they are my favorite possible couple too, and Alyssa and James are my favorite established couple). And I know you were waiting for Ellie's secret the most since you guessed it first. I'm glad you picked up on that. Every time a prophecy event happens, I'm going to try to name the chapter after that line. It'll help me too, since I suck at thinking of chapter names, proven by chapters such as "A Day in the Life of Grace", "Friends For-Not-Ever", and "Après Noël." Anyway, I hope you like these two chapters!**

**Shay: You, like so many others, are happy with the Gabi and Josh confession. I figured that would be a popular part of story. Well Catherine is Caty's sister, she can't **_**hate**_** her. And thanks, I got the idea for Rin online and fell in love with it. I always liked the artist theme too, which is why I liked Chris and Alyssa (though I like her with James MUCH more), and why I teased Alyssa and Josh before I decided to make them just best friends, then decided on the siblings thing. And Ellie will tell someone eventually, but she feels she can't right now. And it's not for the reason she gave Chris! Yes, the prophecy is finally starting, but fair warning, after the land without rain chapter (which will be in the next update), I most likely won't have anymore prophecy events for a while.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Saturday morning, Rae, usually one who slept like the dead and wouldn't wake up even if fireworks were going off next to her, was the only one truly awake.

Gabi was yawning every few seconds, causing Caty to follow suit. Ellie was falling asleep on Alyssa's shoulder while the fire guardians kept rubbing her eyes. Cara lay on some of the boxes, using it as a make-shift bed. Sage and Chris kept stumbling because they were so sleepy, and Josh, who was grumpy in the morning-well, grumpier than usual-glared at anyone who tried to talk to him. He practically bit Gabi's head off when she asked him to turn the radio on while she drove them to The Silver Dragon.

"Okay, guys, are you ready?" Hay Lin asked in her usual loud, cheerful voice.

Everyone groaned. For someone so opposed to taking a trip to Sulfuria, she sure seemed up for it now.

"I'll take that as a 'we'll be more alert once battle starts,'" Hay Lin decided. "Okay, so I was thinking we'd start with the Water Nymph, who resides in the Lake of Meridian. Is that alright with everyone?"

All eyes turned to Caty, who nodded.

Rae raised the Heart. "Guardians, unite!" she cried.

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

Eric let a out a yell and transformed into his regent form. Chris woke Cara up and the two of them followed suit, despite being sleepy. Cara also grabbed her bow and strapped on her arrow bag. James, Sage, and Josh secured their weapons. Rae opened a portal and the team went through.

The group flew to the lake with, which Sage teleporting herself, Josh, James, and Hay Lin.

"Okay, so do I have to call out to the nymph or what?" Caty asked.

"My nymph just randomly attacked me when we were trying to to find a puddle to go home," Ellie said.

Hay Lin stepped into the water. "Maybe try it like this."

Caty stepped into the water too.

"Remember, we're doing this together. It'll be easy if we can fight together," Eric said in a low voice.

Ellie went into the water and Chris followed immediately, as if it was a reflex. Alyssa frowned and tried to step into the water too, but was forced back.

"Uh guys? Force field is up," Alyssa declared.

Testing it, the others realized she was right. This battle was Chris, Ellie, and Caty, and Hay Lin was unlucky enough to stand in the battle field.

"Okay, those three should be more than enough to handle the water nymph," Eric said. "We need to keep moving.

"Where?" Cara asked.

"Jumelle next," Eric said. "Rae, the guardian of Quintessence has a special connection with the planet Jumelle. You should be able to get us there."

Rae nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could, though she wasn't sure how to open a portal to a place she'd never been to before. To her surprise, she felt the same surge of power she felt when she transformed. She heard a familiar noise. When she opened her eyes, a portal appeared before her.

"That should be it," Eric said. He called good luck the others, who were high alert, waiting for the Water Nymph to show herself, and they entered into the portal. Rae went in last, closing it behind her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"There it is!" Hay Lin cried a minute later, pointing to a creature that seemed to be made of water. It had the same long eyelashes and mischievous grin Ellie described the Air Nymph to have, and just like the Air Nymph, she had no nose. Caty couldn't tell what color it's eyes were.

"It looks pretty confident to be fighting four of us," Ellie said.

"Well Mom can't actually do anything," Chris pointed out. "But you're right in any case. The AIR Nymph realized she was in trouble as soon as you got into guardian form. This one is facing two guardians in guardian form and a regent and isn't nervous at all."

"You think she's stronger than the Air Nymph?" Caty asked.

"I'd say there's only one way to find out," Chris replied.

Caty nodded and launched a stream of water at the nymph. The nymph laughed as it dove into the lake. In the next a minute, a huge wave headed towards Caty, Ellie, and Chris.

Caty put up her hands to stop it, but all she managed to do was shrink it. It drenched them.

"Caty!" Ellie complained.

"Sorry! I've never controlled that much water at once. Besides, it's just a little water. Suck it up!"

"You've never controlled that much water? Does that mean she's stronger?"

"I don't know!"

"That's not it," Hay Lin said. "When guardians are in their zenith forms, they lose their souls, and their physical body is replaced by the element they control. In that form, she can become one with the lake, and that's how she can control more water than you."

"Great," Caty muttered.

The Water Nymph floated in front of the three fighters, laughing. She stared at the water. Before they knew it, three pillars of water launched up, each one carrying one of them.

All three screamed.

"Caty, do something! My wings!" Ellie cried.

Caty broke apart the pillar carrying her, but Chris and Ellie's wings were caught in the pillar as well, preventing them from flying free, and Caty couldn't break the pillars apart as long as the nymph kept launching water at her.

Caty managed to keep dodging, but she wasn't as good a flyer as Ellie was, and couldn't keep it up as long as she could.

The nymph laughed condescendingly and dove into the lake again. Caty used this moment to focus on her friends. She froze the bottom of the pillars so the water would fall down. It worked. Chris and Ellie fell too, but managed to save themselves with flight.

"Caty, maybe you can make yourself one with the lake too!" Ellie suggested.

Caty dove into the lake, looking around for the nymph. Just as she spotted her, waves came barrelling towards her. The nymph was making the waters rough. One wave knocked the wind out of her and Caty ended up with water in her lungs. She emerged from the lake coughing violently.

"Bad idea! Sorry!" Ellie called.

The nymph emerged as well, sending wave after wave towards them. They were too big and fast for Caty to stop.

Many of them hit Hay Lin too. The nymph blew on Hay Lin, freezing the water she was drenched in.

"No!" Chris cried, launching lasers at her.

To Caty's surprise, the lasers seemed to burn the nymph. She assumed the lasers would just pass through her.

While Chris fought the nymph, dodging her blasts of water and shooting lasers at her, Caty flew over to Hay Lin and broke the ice that had frozen her legs.

"Thanks," Hay Lin said.

"I think I get her plan now. She wants to drench us enough so she can freeze us in a block of ice, killing us."

"She may want to kill the rest of us, but she needs you alive. She needs you to be so weak that she can take over your body and become a guardian again.

Caty shuddered. No one was taking over her body!

"You have to defeat her somehow. Maybe your ability to create ice can help?"

Caty shook her head. "I can easily unfreeze, but freezing water is still hard."

"Well that's why we're doing this in teams. Get Ellie's help."

Caty nodded and flew back to her friends. Ellie was engaging the nymph now. Caty wasn't strong and her element wasn't deadly. She always relied on her mind to get her through hard situations. She needed to do that again.

Then suddenly, it came to her. If the nymph could freeze them and kill them, it should work the other way too.

"Chris, I need you to keep her busy!" Caty cried. "El, I need you next to me."

Chris and Ellie switched places. Chris launched lasers like there was no tomorrow. The nymph brought up more pillars of water and used them as shields.

Caty gathered her strength and seized control of the nymph's pillars. The nymph seemed surprised for a minute. Several of Chris's lasers hit their mark, burning her. While she was weak, Caty trapped her in the pillars.

"Ellie, I need you to freeze the water, and freeze her too!"

Ellie nodded and blew as hard as she could. Caty couldn't become one with the water physically the way the nymph could, but she could do it mentally. She felt the water and she felt the nymph since her body was made of water. As the water froze, Caty could feel the nymph struggling.

"Keep going," Caty urged.

Ellie blew harder, which she didn't know was possible. Just as she was losing breath, Caty felt the nymph's body freeze.

"Okay, stop."

Ellie sighed in relief. Caty made fists with her hand and the ice broke, revealing a frozen nymph. Her frozen body fell, and as it did, it broke apart as well. Like Ellie had described, there was a mess of sparkles, and the nymph was gone.

Caty and Ellie both fell to their knees beside the lake, breathing hard. That battle took a lot out of both of them.

"That was amazing!" Hay Lin cried.

"And the force field's gone," Chris said. He landed in front of the girls and went back to his human form.

"That was exhilarating!" Caty cried. "And El, you did amazing."

"Really?"

"We couldn't have beaten her without you," Chris said, making Ellie low with pride.

Hay Lin made her way over to them. "I guess we should check in with the others."

"How?" Caty asked.

"I need you try to contact Alyssa telepathically," Hay Lin replied. "It's hard to do it between worlds, but it's the only option we have right now."

"What if it doesn't work?" Caty asked.

"We'd have to go back home and get the portal dust and look for the others in the other worlds," Chris said.

"Which we could do," Hay Lin said, "but I'd really like you guys to learn to communicate telepathically between worlds."

Caty nodded, then lay down, still breathing hard. "Okay," she panted. "But let me rest first."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Wow. This is...something," Cara commented.

'Something' was a description everyone had to agree with.

To say Jumelle was dreary would be putting it mildly. Everything, from the sky to the ground, was gray. The plants and trees were dropping. Fog was everywhere, and they had to hold their breath so as not to cough from the smog. In the distance, they saw a castle.

"That would be the Queen's Palace," Eric said. He and Cara, in their regent forms, were not affected by the smog.

"Who's the queen?" Alyssa asked couging, though she had a pretty good idea.

"Last I heard, the Jumellians gave their Heart to Will, the old Keeper. I don't know if she's still the queen. Either way, the palace is the safest place for us to be because the smog won't affect us there.

The others nodded. They all exhaled. They coughed immediately, but let themselves get it out of their system before holding their breath again. Sage grabbed Josh and James' hands and teleported them to the doors of the palace. The others flew after them.

"So, do we knock?" Cara wondered.

"Rae, touch the door. If Will's still Queen, it should open to your touch."

Rae put her hand on the door, and in the next second, it opened up. Everyone walked in and let out their breath. The door closed behind them, and Eric was right: they couldn't feel the effects of the smog anymore.

"So that means Will _is_ still queen. Why'd she let this planet get so bad?" Cara wondered.

Everyone else and shrugged as the group explored the castle.

"Look," Sage said after a few minutes, pausing on front of a door. The top of the door was triangular, but as it went farther down, it rounded out. "There's a door like this at home."

"Home like your palace?" Alyssa asked.

Sage nodded. "It leads to the throne room. So maybe this door lead's to Will's throne room."

Eric tried the knob, but it wouldn't work. Rae touched the door again, and the door swung open. Just like before, when the group entered, the door closed behind them.

The throne room was just as dreary as the rest of the planet. There was no one on the throne, but the group heard shouts from the right of the throne.

"Oh my God!" Alyssa cried.

There were two large glass domes in the rooms. In one dome were three people. One girl was just a kid. She couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen. The other two were older. One girl a few years older than GRACE, and a boy who looked to be around their age. The young girl and the boy both had red hair and almost amber eyes. The oldest girl had black hair and dark eyes.

To their right was the other dome holding a red haired woman and a black haired man, both looking to be about Hay Lin and Eric's age.

Eric gasped, which came out more like a grunt in his deep regent voice. He led the group over to the domes. "Oh God. Will? Matt?"

The couple exchanged looks, probably wondering why someone who looked exactly like Shagon was standing in front of them.

"Who are you?" the woman-Will-demanded.

Eric got back into human form.

"Eric?" Will asked.

"How are you Shagon?" Matt asked.

"I'm not. The form I was just in _was_ my regent form, but his name is not Shagon, it's Lorgan."

"I didn't know he had a regent name," Gabi whispered.

"Neither did I," Sage whispered back.

"So you're a Regent of Earth now?" Matt asked.

"Yes, as is my son and daughter."

Matt's mouth dropped open.

"Hi," Cara said, stepping forward. "I'm the daughter." She stretched out her wings. "Technically my regent name is Angelique, but I just stick with my real name Cara. It's better that way anyway, what with the Angel of Magic running around with pretty much my name."

"If only Caty had heard you say that," Gabi muttered.

Sage giggled and Alyssa hid a smile.

"And you girls," Will broke in, looking at Rae, Alyssa, and Gabi. "Are you guardians?"

"That would be us. GRACE...minus C and E," Gabi said.

"What's going on?" Rae asked. "Why are you in domes."

"We were imprisoned in here by some stupid spirit," the oldest girl from the other dome said. "We've been in here for three months. Can you get us out?"

"How?" Rae asked.

"You have to defeat the spirit that overthrew us," Will said. "The Nymph of Quintessence."

"How did I know she was going to say that?" Alyssa groaned.

"Since the Nymph is here, you must be Thousand Year Guardians. I didn't realize the next group would mark ten thousand years until the Nymph attacked.

"The Nymphs are supposed to be weak. How come they defeated you?" Cara asked.

"We don't have powers anymore," Matt said. "And neither do our kids. We were taken by surprise."

"And no one fought back?" Alyssa asked. "Don't your people want to save their queen?"

"Did you see any people on your way here?" Will asked. "They're all gone. Unlike most living things, both Jumellians and the planet itself, relies on the Heart to survive, and it needs to weilded by their queen. It provides them with life. When the Nymph trapped me and stole the Heart, the Jumellians lost their source of life and the planet lost its prosperity. They're dead, but not permanently. It's almost like they are a cell phone battery. The need to be recharged, but that can only be if either I, or the new Guardian of Quintessence, defeat the Nymph and regain control of the Heart."

"That's our job," Alyssa said.

"We should send a team on to Daradia where the Earth Nymph is," Josh said.

Eric nodded. "Who's staying here?"

"I am," Alyssa said instantly. "This is Rae's fight, and she doesn't enter into battle without her partner in crime."

Rae smiled at Alyssa and the girls linked arms.

"If Alyssa's staying, then so am I," James decided.

"I'll stay too," Cara said. "Once we win, I can get to know Will."

Will looked surprised that someone wanted to know her, but didn't say anything.

Cara made a move to go over to where Alyssa, Rae, and James were standing but couldn't pass through. "Uh oh," she muttered. "Force field."

The others tested it as well. Rae, Alyssa, James, and Josh were stuck on one side, and Eric, Gabi, Cara, and Sage were on the other.

"I guess I'm staying here," Josh said.

Gabi bit her lip to stop herself from groaning. She was really hoping Josh would accompany her and help her during _her_ fight, not New Girl's. But on the other hand, she was glad Josh could watch out for Alyssa because that was a top priority to him, and the protective attitude he bore with his sister, despite the fact that she didn't want or notice it, was one of Gabi's favorite things about him.

"Then the rest of us will go to Daradia," Eric said. "Since that's where the Earth Nymph lives, Gabi has a connection to that world. Rae, you need to work with Gabi to open a portal, quickly before the nymph shows herself. You can pass through the force field since it's put up by your nymph."

Rae passed through.

"Hold hands," Eric urged.

Rae and Gabi both rolled their eyes exaggeratedly but did as they were told. They closed their eyes and concentrated. Rae didn't feel anything this time, but she heard Gabi mutter something about power. They heard the familiar noise of a portal opening.

"Let me go in first and make sure it's leads to the right place."

Everyone nodded and Eric went in. He came back in a few seconds. "We're good," he said.

Gabi, Cara, and Sage followed him in. Rae closed the portal, then stepped back through the force field. A blast of electricity landed by her feet, followed by a giggle.

Rae jumped back. "Looks like our fight is beginning," she said.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Well, this is a refreshing change," Cara declared.

Gabi could only nod, blown away by the beauty of Daradia, more so because they just came from Jumelle.

It was sunny and there were trees and plants everywhere. It was almost like fictional land. The trees were a luscious green, the shrubs were healthy, and the flowers were beautiful.

Sage knelt down by a bush, picked a strawberry, and bit into it. "A lot of stuff here is like Earth. The inhabitants are all animals. None are dangerous though, even though the leader is usually a lion and his family. You'll see all sorts of animals, like jaguars, tigers, monkeys. But there's no need to be scared."

"Do the animals talk?"

"Telepathically," Eric said. "They will speak in your minds if you speak to them first."

"And they can understand us?"

"Perfectly."

Cara picked up a bright red flower. "It's called a fire lily," she said as she pinned it in her hair.

"Pretty," Gabi commented approvingly, at both the flower, and the way it looked in Cara's jet black hair.

Cara smiled proudly.

"We'll have time to explore this land later. First, we must find and defeat and the Earth nymph," Eric warned.

The girls nodded. Sage finished her strawberry and pointed into the distance. "Those are the mountains where the nymph is."

"It's a long trek there. Lucky for us, we all have wings," Cara said.

"Or can teleport," Sage added.

Eric took off, leading the way. Cara and Gabi followed him, and Sage teleported herself to the top of one of the mountains, that, on closer inspection, were purple. There were trees all over the mountains as well, which would only made it easier for Gabi to fight once she found the nymph. Of course, what she didn't realize right away, was that it made it easier for the nymph as well.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The Quintessence Nymph was out for blood because after Rae jumped back, dodging the first attack, the nymph shot another blast of lightning at Rae before she even landed on the ground.

The Quintessence nymph's physical body was made of lightning. It was in a shape of a sphere. She had ice blue eyes and a smirk that made Rae want to punch her.

While her back was turned, Alyssa launched a fireball at the nymph. It seemed to hurt, but not as much as Alyssa had hoped. The nymph turned around glaring, and launched a bolt of electricity at the fire guardian. James grabbed her hand and pulled her down, and lightning missed.

"Thanks," Alyssa said. She got up and threw another fireball. It missed it's mark and the nymph sneered at her-clearly she had bravado to spare- before turning back to Rae.

Rae's best talent was accuracy. She barely ever missed. She threw a ball of lightning at the nymph, ignoring Will's cries of, "No, don't!"

The ball hit the nymph, and to Rae's horror, instead of being hurt, the nymph laughed. It seemed to grow a bit bigger, and when it attacked Rae, the bolt of lightning was bigger and nearly hit.

"Did it just get stronger?" she asked.

"Each of nymphs have special talents. The water and air nymph can't be harmed by their own element unless trapped. The Earth Nymph not only has power over Earth, but also possesses the Earth guardian's second power of telekinesis. And the quintessence and fire nymphs grow stronger when attacked by their own element."

Rae thought back to Ellie's account. She defeated the Air Nymph by trapping her in a tornado. Ellie mentioned none of her other air attacks worked. These nymphs were harder to defeat than they thought.

The nymph laughed and started spinning around. Lightning was thrown in every direction.

"Get down!" Josh yelled.

Rae ducked behind the dome Matt and Will were in. Alyssa dove behind Will's throne. James and Josh put up their shields. When the Quintessence Nymph stopped spinning, the boys charged at her with their swords.

"Don't do that!" Alyssa cried, but her plea fell on deaf ears.

The nymph smirked and shot lightning, not at the boys, but at their swords, frying and breaking the blades.

The boys were so surprised, they stopped, distracted. The nymph shot lightning at both of them, and if Rae hadn't jumped out from behind the dome and used her own powers to dispel it, they would've been toast-literally.

"I told you not to do it," Alyssa said.

"Okay, so we can't use swords because they're useless and Rae's power just makes the nymph stronger. So what can we do?" Josh asked.

"Fire! Lyssa, I know when you attacked, it didn't have a huge effect, but it did hurt her and it's the only offensive attack that worked. Our shields worked well in blocking the electricity, so we block you and you take her down!"

"That only goes so far. I can't keep it up forever and it doesn't hurt her enough to finish her. Besides, _Rae_ needs to be the one to defeat her in the end or else it doesn't count. She'll just come back if Rae isn't the one who beats her."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Josh asked.

Alyssa bit her lip and shrugged weakly, not having any answer for the first time.

"I say we attack her anyway, if only to keep her busy. Rae will think of something. She always does," James said.

Alyssa nodded and launched a few fireballs at the nymph. Half of them hit. The nymph got angry and started shooting lighting at the fire guardian. James and Josh protected her.

Rae paced around nervously; she was surprised at the faith James had in her because she had none in herself. She looked at the three of them fighting the nymph, then suddenly thought of something. She looked at Will, hoping for some guidance. "That thing's body is made out of electricity, which I can control. So do you think I can defeat her by controlling her?"

Will nodded. "That was my idea as well. I couldn't do it because I wasn't hooked up to an auramere by the time she took over, but I think that should work."

Rae flew up in the air and whistled. Everyone, including the nymph looked at her. "Aren't I your target?" Rae called. "Come get me!"

The nymph grinned evilly and shot lightning at Rae. Rae, having quick reflexes, nullified every blast. She knew she had to draw the nymph into attacking her directly. Finally, the nymph did so.

She flew right at Rae, planning to use her entire body to shock Rae to death.

Alyssa immediately conjured up a fireball, ready to aid Rae, but Josh grabbed her shoulder and shook her head. "I think this is part of Rae's plan. Trust her."

Alyssa sighed and dispelled the fireball.

Rae waited, and at the last moment, conjured up all her strength and attempted to control the nymph. It must've worked because the nymph stopped in it's tracks. Concentrating hard, Rae sucked all the energy out of the nymph. The nymph struggled and whimpered, but Rae didn't let up.

When Rae finally stopped, the nymph looked the same, but it was clear it was weak. Rae, on the other hand, had a huge amount of electricity coming out of her hands. She shot ball after ball of lighting until the nymph was too weak to continue and disappeared in a mess of sparkles.

Rae dispelled the lightning and the domes that were entrapping Will and her family disappeared.

"We're out!" the youngest girl-Emma, if Rae remembered correctly-cried in relief.

Will and Matt immediately went to hug their children.

"We owe you guys a huge thank you," Matt said when the family was done.

"We're guardians. It's our duty," Alyssa said.

"You have a strong sense of duty. I like that," Will said. "And you look almost exactly like Taranee...with Nigel's eyes."

Alyssa flinched at that, but gave Will a strained smile.

"You're obviously Caleb's son," Matt added, looking at Josh. "But I don't know you two."

"I'm Rae," Rae said. "I'm not related to anyone you know, but my parents are really good friends with Elyon and Cornelia."

"And I'm James," James added. "I'm...well, I'm human. Like, from Earth. I found out about all this guardian stuff by accident, and decided I wanted to help out because Alyssa was on the team."

"Sounds like someone else I know," Will said smiling. "Matt once followed me through a portal, and that's how he found out."

"We know," Rae said. "I mean...Hay Lin told us."

Will nodded. "Hay was always so thorough," she said.

"Have you been on Jumelle since the people gave you their Heart?" Alyssa asked.

Will nodded. "My children were born here and we have a lot of good friends here."

"So you've never been back to Earth?"

"Once every year to visit my family. My mom, stepdad, and brother know about my guardianship and also visit me here every now and then, but I like to make it to their house too. And my dad and stepmom don't know, and neither does Matt's family, so we go to Earth to see them."

"And that's it?" James asked. "Once a year? You've never been to Earth any other time?"

"Once," Will admitted. "When I realized my powers were waning. I knew that meant new guardians would be chosen soon, so I came to Earth to give Hay Lin the Heart."

"So you only came when it was absolutely necessary?" Rae asked. Without waiting for an answer she said, "What split you and the other guardians up? I know the last time you guys were all together was when Elyon's daughter was born, and that was almost 18 years ago."

Will sighed. "Yes, the last time all of us were together was 18 years ago. We did have a falling out. But our fight doesn't impact your roles as guardians in any way, so I think I'd like to keep the gory details private."

"How gory can they be?" Rae demanded, as blunt as ever. "After what happened between Taranee and Cornelia...well, the falling out you all had couldn't have been worse than that."

"Wait, Taranee and Cornelia? Last we checked, they were still friends," Matt interjected. "What happened between them?"

"My mother has issues. She's a compulsive liar and a psychopath," Alyssa said.

"Lyss, that's not a very nice thing to say about your mother," Josh reprimanded.

Alyssa glared at him. "I'm sorry, but do you mind telling me at what point you decided we were friends again and you could scold me? Because we are not friends and you do not have that right. I liked you a lot more when you avoided my eyes and didn't say anything to me directly. Let's go back to that."

"Lyssa-"

""You can't use my nickname either. You can't even use my name. And by the way, your dad has almost as big a part in all this as my mom, and just because you forgive him doesn't mean I have to forgive her. What she did was worse anyway."

Josh opened his mouth once more, but thought better of it and didn't say anything.

Will and Matt looked both shocked and confused. Rae, deciding they'd overstayed their welcome, said, "Well guys, maybe we should head out now."

"Sulfuria now, right?" James asked.

"Wait," Alyssa said, feeling a familiar tingling feeling in her brain-the feeling she got before someone tried to contact her telepathically.

"_Alyssa, can you hear me_?" Caty asked.

"_Loud and clear. What's up?_"

"_We're done with our battle. You?_"

"_We're done as well. You should've seen Rae! She sucked all the power out of the nymph and delivered an attack of awesome power!_"

"_Ellie was amazing as well. She helped me freeze the Water Nymph so I could kill her, and displayed more power and stamina than ever before._"

"_Rae was right. These battles helped us._"

"_That's why the Heart chose her. Anyway, Hay Lin's thinking all three groups should meet up and go to Sulfuria together since it might be in the prophecy. Have you heard from Gabi?_"

"_I think that's a good idea, but no, I haven't heard from Gabi_."

"_Okay, well why don't you guys come to Meridian to get us, and then we can head to Daradia together? Then we can all go to Sulfuria_."

"_Okay, sounds good. We're on our way_."

Alyssa explained the plan to the others, who all nodded in agreement.

"It was really nice meeting you both," Rae said graciously.

"You as well. Good luck with the rest of your journey as guardians. And feel free to come back if you need any help. We can talk Keeper to Keeper," Will replied. "But if you'll excuse, right now, I need to return Jumelle to it's former glory."

Rae nodded and opened a portal. As usual, Rae went through last and closed it behind her.

Once they were in Meridian, Rae grabbed Josh and Alyssa grabbed James and they flew over to the lake where the others were waiting. Since Rae didn't have access to Gabi's connection to Daradia, it took some time for her to open a portal to the right place. The team discussed their battles in detail while Rae worked. When she finally opened a portal to the correct location, Rae and Alyssa grabbed Josh and James again, and Chris turned into Shagon to carry his mother, and they flew over to the mountains. They felt the force field before they saw Gabi and the others.

She was battling a creature made of green vines. The creature had long eyelashes, deep brown eyes, and, unlike the other nymphs, who wore smirks, this one seemed to have a permanent scowl on it's face. Clearly it wasn't as fearful as Ellie's nymph. And it wouldn't be easy to beat.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi saw the other Team GRACE members out of the corner of her eye, but didn't lose focus. She couldn't afford to. The minute she saw the gleeful look in the Earth Nymph's eye, it was like something snapped in her and she demanded this battle be one on one even though the whole point of going in groups was so none of them would have to face the nymphs alone.

So far, Gabi could tell, though the nymph was weaker than her, she was more experienced thanks to her time as a guardian so long ago, so she knew a lot of tricks Gabi didn't. At least, that's what Gabi thought, or there would be no reason for the nymph to be so confident.

"The battle's just started," Cara said when she saw the others. "We tried to attack together, but Gabi asked us not to. It seems like a battle between just the two of them. It's obvious that it would be personal for the nymph, but Gabi's taking it personally as well. They're evenly matched."

"More evenly matched than you think," Alyssa muttered. Leaving Cara to ponder what that meant, Alyssa spoke in Gabi's head.

"_Watch out Gabs. Unlike the other nymphs, this one has your second power of telekinesis._"

"_Seriously? Thanks for the warning. Any tips on how to defeat it?_"

"_Rae and Caty managed to gain control of the nymphs' physical forms, since their bodies are made of their element. You can try that._"

"_I tried that. I tried to control the vines its body is made of as my first attack. It didn't work_."

"_Try trapping it first, the controlling it. That's what Caty did_."

"_Alright, thanks_."

Gabi summoned all the power she could, and large vines rose up from the ground. Josh noticed the beads of sweat on Gabi's forehead right away. Clearly this was taking a lot out of her. None of the guardians had seen her summon that many vines that thick before. It looked like she could win this battle quickly.

Gabi had the vines build a cylindrical cage around the nymph with a small opening. Gabi used her telekinesis to shoot fruits from the surrounding trees at it. It didn't work. The nymph used her own telekinesis to send the fruits back and managed to take control of the vines, using them to enlarge her own body.

"Now you want to our help?" Cara asked.

"I don't really see what you can do," Gabi replied, not having the faintest clue as to how to defeat this thing.

The nymph began to use the vines as whips, trying to hit Gabi. She dodged, but she couldn't keep it up for long. Just as she was sure one vine whip would hit, it stopped and got thrown back, hitting the nymph's body instead,

Gabi was shocked and saw Sage wearing the closest thing to a smirk a girl as sweet as her could muster. "The nymph's not the only one who can produce force fields."

The nymph, angry, used her telekinesis to pull a tree out of the ground and shoot it at Gabi. Gabi and the other guardians screamed, never having seen something like that before. Cara sped over to Gabi and grabbed hold of her. The tree passed right through Gabi's body.

"And that's what I can do," Cara said, playfully smug.

"Sorry," Gabi grimaced, realizing her earlier comment was unfair.

"No sweat," Cara replied, winking. "So anyone have any ideas on how to take her down for good?"

"I do," Eric said. "Gabi, you need to control those vines in order to defeat her. You'll be able to do this while I distract her with my lasers, something she can't send back with her telekinesis."

Gabi nodded. Eric shot lasers at the nymph. At first, she was able to protect herself by putting up vines as a shield and having them grow back. However, the nymph was getting tired. During Eric's ninth set of lasers, Gabi was able to seize control of the vines. While the nymph writhed in the pain caused by the lasers, Gabi detached the vines from the nymph's body, then enveloped her in them and squeezed as hard as she could. She felt the nymph weakening until she felt nothing at all. Letting the vines drop, she saw the nymph disappearing in a mess of sparkles.

"Is that it?" Gabi panted.

"That's it. You did it," Alyssa confirmed.

"Not without help," Gabi said, giving Sage, Cara, and Eric grateful smiles.

"So what now?" Ellie asked.

"Sulfuria I guess," Alyssa shrugged.

"You all look tired," Eric said. "Why don't we go home and regroup quickly?"

Everyone nodded. Rae opened a portal and they went through. Rae changed the girls back so they could go upstairs and grab a drink. Alyssa checked her phone and frowned.

"I have 27 missed calls," she said.

"From who?" Rae asked curiously as the team sat down at the bar and Hay Lin and Eric helped out behind the counter until they had to leave again.

"My dad and John," Alyssa said, tapping on her father's contact to call him back.

"Hey Dad, what's up. You called me like fifteen times."

There was a pause and she said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm at The Silver Dragon with the team."

Rae frowned at that. Why was Nigel worried.

"No, I haven't," Alyssa said into the phone, her tone signalling that something was going on.

"What? Are you serious?"

Now everyone looked up at Alyssa.

"Well if you don't know for sure-okay, I understand. Stay there, I'm coming."

"What's going on?" James asked.

"I-I don't know," Alyssa stammered, looking faint. "I think...my mom might be missing."

"What?!" everyone cried together.

Several of the guests at the restaurant looked up.

"I have to go home," Alyssa said.

Everyone else immediately got up, ready to go with her.

"Not all of you," Hay Lin cautioned. "Some of you should stay here."

"Who?" Cara asked.

"I'm definitely going," Rae said. "James, Ellie, why don't you come with us?"

The two nodded.

"I'll come along too," Hay Lin said. "Eric, I need you stay here. And Rae...you guys need to change and leave through the basement."

Everyone ran down stairs.

"Guardians, unite!" Rae commanded.

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

Hay Lin borrowed life force from Ellie, and teletransported the group to Alyssa's house. Nigel was pacing around the kitchen.

"Dad!" Alyssa cried, running over to him.

Nigel hugged Alyssa. He looked up to see who she brought. His eyes widened at the sight of the former air guardian.

"Hay Lin!" he cried. "It's been a while."

Hay Lin squealed and gave him a hug. Nigel seemed surprised but returned it.

"It's good to see you," Hay Lin said. "But I wish it was under better circumstances. What's this about Taranee?"

"Taranee was here this morning, according to John, but she left sometime between then and now, without saying a word. If she's leaving and the kids are out or still sleeping, she'll call or leave a note or something. When John couldn't find her, he got worried."

"Where's John now?" Alyssa asked.

"I sent him to a friend's house. He's going to sleepover. I told him everything was fine."

"How do you know she's missing? Maybe she just forgot to leave a note," Hay Lin suggested. "I usually forget to leave a note because I always write on my hands."

"_Probably because she can't use paper_," Ellie sang, making even Alyssa, who was growing more and more concerned, giggle quietly.

"_Why can't she use paper_?" James asked, confused.

"_Because she's cursed,"_ Alyssa explained.

"_Wow, that's a great curse!"_ James exclaimed, making all the girls smile. "_But who cursed her?_"

"_Well, it's not a _real_ curse,_" Alyssa said.

James looked really confused now.

"No offense Hay, but this is Taranee we're talking about. She _never_ forgets to leave a note. You of all people should know that."

Hay Lin nodded, realizing Nigel was right.

"So what do you think happened?" Hay Lin asked.

"I hate to say this," Josh started, "and I _really_ hate to _be_ the one to say this, but knowing who we are and who Taranee was, we have to consider the fact that she could've been taken...like kidnapped. Except, you know, adultnapped.

"That's still called kidnapping," James said.

"But it has the word 'kid' in it," Ellie pointed out.

"Fine, then she could've been abducted," James conceded.

"That's insinuates aliens are involved," Ellie said. "What does insinuate mean anyway?"

"What are aliens?" Josh asked.

"Guys! Really not the time," Hay Lin interjected. "But, Josh, you do bring up a good point. Taranee could've been taken hostage."

Alyssa chewed on her lip, looking really worried. Immediately, Rae went into leader mode.

"James, go check the cabinet where Taranee kept her magical items. Alyssa, start a fire in the fireplace and try to see something in there. Ellie, call Eric and tell him to tell Caty and Gabi they need to try to see visions as well."

Ellie nodded and grabbed the phone. Alyssa rushed over to the fireplace. James checked the cabinet.

"Rae, almost everything in here is gone," he reported.

"That's what I figured," Rae said. "If Taranee was really abducted, it would be for the items she posses. And whoever took her took all the magical objects as well."

Hay Lin gasped at that. "You're right!"

"So who took her?" Nigel asked.

"Kasson I bet," James said.

Rae nodded. "We can't rule out any possibilities, but my money's on Kasson too."

"Caty and Gabi say they'll call as back if they see anything," Ellie said.

For a few minutes, everyone was quiet. Then Alyssa gasped.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"Remember how you guys said your money was on Kasson being my mom's, uh, kidnapper?"

"Yeah," Rae said slowly.

"Well, mine's not. I just saw a vision in the flames."

"What did you see?" Rae asked urgently.

"My mom. It looks like she's okay, but she's tied up...in chains."

Rae gasped as well.

"What? Why?" Nigel asked, panicked.

"Isn't there a line about chains in the prophecy?" James asked.

"Yeah...five shall go to save the one in chains," Rae agreed.

Ellie looked around. "There are five of us," she said.

"There are seven of us," Josh corrected.

"I mean five that _matter_," Ellie replied.

"Ellie!" Rae cried.

"I didn't mean it in a _bad_ way. I just mean, only five of us can fight."

"With our swords fried, only three of us can fight," James said.

"Speak for yourself," Josh said, rolling his eyes. "I'll just use Alyssa's sword."

James gave Rae a helpless look, as if she had the answer. Then she realized, she did.

Rae closed her eyes and concentrated. She managed to teletransport herself into her room. She grabbed the bow and arrows she received from Eric when Cara started training her in archery. James turned out to be phenomenal archer.

Rae took a deep breath and managed to teletransport herself back, startling everyone.

"Here," she said, handing her weapons over. "A full sized bow and thirty arrows. Too big and heavy for me, but it was all Eric had. Now you can have them."

"Thanks Rae," James grinned.

"Okay, so where's your mom?" Ellie asked.

"Oh I...I don't know," Alyssa said.

"It's okay," Hay Lin said. "Do you still have the image of what you saw in the fire in your head?"

Alyssa nodded.

"Okay, then Rae can create a portal there."

"I'm coming too," Nigel said decisively.

Hay Lin touched his arm. "Nigel, no. We can't. The prophecy says five. We have to follow that."

"But-"

"Dad, leave it to us. I'll bring Mom home, I promise," Alyssa said earnestly.

Nigel sighed. "Take care of yourself," he said finally.

Alyssa nodded and joined hands with Rae, who concentrated, and, after a few minutes, opened a portal.

Without a word, the give stepped through, with Rae going last as usual. She closed the portal quickly, in case Nigel changed his mind again and tried to come through.

"Is this right?" she asked Alyssa.

"Yeah, this is what I saw."

"It's...hot," Ellie said.

"Not just hot. It's _sweltering_," James said.

"Really? Cuz I feel great," Alyssa said.

"Well of course you do, you're the _fire_ guardian," Rae reminded. "So where are we anyway?"

Josh chuckled despite the situation. "Believe it or not, we're in the most convenient place we could be. Guys...welcome to Sulfuria."

**A/N: Okay, finally done! I know those two took a long time and weren't even that interesting, but these chapters, especially this one, needed to be written. Next chapter will be Sulfuria, and it might be another double update if I write too much like I often do. Review please guys!**


	41. The Land Without Rain

**A/N: Oh God guys, I'm **_**so**_** sorry for the long wait! I've had a crazy couple of months, with assignments, midterms, quizzes, and newspaper articles due left and right. And I have one crazy professor for my hardest class this semester. He's really insane. He took off fifty points on one of my assignments because two of the folders in the zip file I turned in were named 'Styles' and 'Images' with the capital letters when he asked for them to be named 'styles' and 'images' with lowercase letters. He's completely unreasonable, and I've been really busy trying to make everything perfect for his class while also working on everything for graduation, and I have an amazing but crazy busy internship for my local newspaper. I tried to write every minute I could, and these are the chapters I came up with. A lot happens in these chapters, so I hope you enjoy.**

**Somehow, even though I've had such a long absence, I gained a couple new reviewers, as well as followers and favorites, which I'm very happy about. I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Kriss1989,for favoriting this story, minnatarek and MiauMiauMiss for following this story, and an EVEN HUGER THANK YOU to tookie0330, vat1, and waterweilder25 for both following and favoriting this story. **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Guest: Thank you so much, I'm so glad you liked it. I'm a senior in college and this is my last (and therefore most important and hardest) semester, and I've got a couple of crazy professors who like to overwork us, so I try to write in my spare time and get chapters out as fast as possible, but sometimes, it does take a while. I used to bust out two chapters a week back in the summer, but I'm busier now. I do apologize for making everyone wait so long, but I try to make up for it by publishing two chapters at every update. I hope you like these next chapters and I hope to hear from you again!**

**Emily: Okay, I know you reviewed the same morning because I was there, but your review date was days after I published, and it came through twice for some reason. And why on Earth would it be spear? When I was reading, I noticed other mistakes. Thanks for being so thorough when you BETA! You need to calm down. You've been screaming about Chris and Ellie forever, I **_**give**_** you Chris and Ellie, and you're still griping! You should be afraid. I'm still planning on Brian finding out about Caty, Misha, and Lili's evil plan. I don't know what's going to happen at the end (okay, so that's a lie, but as much as I **_**do**_** tell you, you have too much interest invested in the couples for me to ruin it for you). Hope this was fast enough for you (you know, considering everything we've had to go through lately).**

**Misa: If I put Josh and Gabi together, it'd just be too easy. But I know exactly where I'm going with them. And I'm glad you like it, I love the name Rin too. Chris does do something actually, as you will see. You are the biggest supporter of the Rae/Alyssa friendship. They'll get back there (I think). I like Chris and Ellie together a lot more than I thought I would. I'm not sure what I'm doing with Alyssa and Adam, but I have a lot of plans for Caty and Brian. I hope you like these chapters!**

**WaterAmulet: Then it must've been hard to wait for these updates. I'm really sorry about that! Overall, it will always be James and Alyssa for me. There are more developments for Chris and Ellie in these chapters, and Ellie and Adam to be honest. I hope you like what I came up with in the land of rain.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"How long have we been walking in this ungodly, inhumane, boiling point temperature world?" Ellie complained.

"Five minutes," Rae answered dully. "But let me soften that blow with a compliment. Your vocabulary's improved a lot since I first met you."

"Not a good enough compliment at this point," Ellie answered flatly.

Alyssa just laughed, despite the fact that her mother was tied up in chains. She flew above them, revelling the heat.

"Stop showing off. Nobody likes you!" Rae called.

"I know one person who still likes me," Alyssa called back, sticking her tongue out at Rae.

Everyone looked at James, who nodded, grinning.

"This is too much. I've trained for twelve years to be in the rebel army, but I can't walk anymore," Josh cried.

"None of us are doing any better, but we have to keep moving for Taranee's sake," James said. "Although I wish we thought to bring along some water bottles."

"Or water jugs," Rae added.

"Or Caty," Ellie piped up.

"Who can produce water from thin air," James sighed.

"At this point, Caty would say water is technically in the air, and the production of her water isn't from thin air, it's from magic," Rae said, taking on Caty's infamous "know-it-all" tone.

Everyone groaned, then laughed. Rae could always keep everybody's spirits up with her sense of humor.

"Okay, so where exactly will we find your mom Lyssa?" Ellie asked.

"I'm not sure really. I just saw her in chains in this world, that's it."

"What does the prophecy say again?" Josh asked.

"Five shall go to save the one in chains/one will..._perish_ in the land without rain," Rae quoted.

"So one of us will die?" Ellie asked.

"One of _us_," James corrected, motioning to himself and Josh. "We don't know what's going to happen to you guys in the end, but we _do_ know that the guardians are all going to be present for the final battle. None of you will die before that."

"No one's dying on my watch," Rae said firmly.

"Rae, it's a prophecy. You can't prevent it," Alyssa said grimly, landing and falling into step with the Keeper.

"We'll see about that," Rae replied. "Besides, just because it said one will perish, it doesn't mean one of us. This is Sulfuria, and I don't know if your mother being in chains has to do with the Fire Nymph or not, but either way, you'll still have to fight her and win. Maybe it's her that's going to perish."

"But why would the Fire Nymph's death be in the prophecy but not the deaths of the other nymphs?" Alyssa asked.

"What about the lines after?" Josh asked. "Do they have anything to do with this mission?"

"The bane of Meridian shows the trail/Only combined may the Chosen Ones prevail," Rae recited. "I doubt it has anything to do with this place. I think it refers to something else."

"The trail to what though?" Josh wondered.

"Why does that even matter now?" Alyssa asked, as snippy as ever. Just looking at Josh made her angry and uncomfortable.

"I guess it doesn't," Josh muttered.

James and Rae exchanged frowns.

"I'm tired," Ellie complained.

Everyone looked up and saw Ellie had taken Alyssa's place in the air.

"Stop flying," Rae said. "That's only going to exhaust you more."

"Fine Mom," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. She joined everyone on the ground.

"This is getting us nowhere," Alyssa cried five minutes later, frustrated. "Meanwhile, who knows what's happening to my mom!"

"We'll save her, I promise," James said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "But you need to stay calm."

"But this is taking us forever. How do we know where to look?" Alyssa asked.

"Can you find her telepathically?" Ellie asked.

"She's not a guardian. It's really hard for me to track someone telepathically if they're not a guardian. I can barely do it with the non-guardian members of the team."

"Flying doesn't tire you out, right?" Rae asked suddenly.

"No."

"Then I think you should go overhead. Go really high and try to get an aerial view of the place. You can probably pinpoint her exact location that way."

Alyssa's eyes widened. "Rae, how high?"

"See those mountains in the distance? Probably 100 or so feet above them."

"I _can't_! I never go as high as the rest of you when we fly. I'm still deathly afraid of heights. It goes away when I'm flying fast, but when I'm slow or still in the air, I get mini heart attacks. Why can't Ellie do it? She's a better flyer!"

"It's too hard for us to fly here. It's too hot. You're the one comfortable in this heat. We need everyone else to conserve their energy as much as possible so if-or more likely _when_\- we need to fight, we can."

"I'm right here," Ellie said, soothingly, gently. "I'll use my powers to catch you if you fall. I won't let anything happen to you, promise."

Alyssa sighed, but nodded, knowing she was the only one who could do this. Besides, she did have Ellie as back up.

She took a deep breath, then tore into the sky, letting the speed take away her fears. When she was high enough, she slowed. Her fears were catching up to her, but she had to concentrate. She hovered above the mountains for a few minutes and saw exactly what she needed. She flew back down.

"There are some monsters in the center of the mountains. We've never seen them before. They're grey with hunchbacks and their heads droop and they have clubs, but they look like normal, wooden clubs, not the kind that could diffuse our attacks. They're wearing brown rags and no shoes. There are only four of them, and a fire, and my mom, in chains."

"You should've started with that," James said. "Let's go."

The girls and Josh nodded. Alyssa lifted James, and Ellie, despite being tired, lifted Josh, and the five made their way to Taranee.

"Okay, it'll be really easy if we can sneak up on them," Josh said. "El, Lyss, let us down here, on this ledge. Hide behind it, and make sure to whisper."

Ellie and Alyssa put James and Josh down on a mountain ledge. The girls then joined them.

"So what's the plan?" Alyssa asked Rae.

Rae looked at Josh. "Okay Mr. Rebel Leader, tell us what to do. Sneak attacks are your thing."

"First of all, I'm second-in-command, not the leader. Just putting that out there in case I…"

"Fail?" James finished making everyone snicker.

Josh glared at the group and said, "It's got to be the guardians that attack, since they can fly. Ellie, you're really quiet when you fly, which will help. Try and trap at least a couple of them in tornados. Cut off their air and kill them. Rae, you take care of the other two. After that, bring us down. There's no way those four are the only ones there, and you'll need us to fight off the rest. Alyssa, cut your mother free. Only join the fight once she's okay."

Everyone nodded and sprung into action. Ellie started with the two tornadoes, killing the monsters trapped faster than ever before. The other two, and Taranee, looked up in surprise. Rae shot lightning at both of them. One singed the shoulder of one of the monsters. The other one missed, but Rae accomplished what she wanted to do. The monsters were distracted, making it easy for Alyssa to fly down to where her mother was from the other side.

Rae charged down, grabbing onto the monster that remained unhurt and released a large amount of electricity, killing him. Ellie brought James down at this point. The injured monster charged at Rae, but James shot three arrows at him, killing him as well. He pulled the arrows out of the monster, cleaning them off, and putting them back in his quiver. Ellie brought Josh down.

"Alyssa!" Taranee cried in surprise when her daughter appeared in front of her.

"Mom!" Alyssa cried in relief, giving her mother a hug, the first one in months. Taranee's hands were shackled, but Alyssa knew she wanted to hug back.

"What are you doing here?" Taranee asked when Alyssa pulled away.

Alyssa pulled a 'duh!' face. "We're here to save you! Don't worry Mom, we got this!"

"Alyssa, listen. Those four monsters aren't the only ones you have to worry about."

"We didn't think they were," Alyssa assured her. "So these chains...is there a key or something?"

"I don't think so. They were put on magically."

"So I can't even use fire to break them?"

"I'm afraid not. The only way to undo the magic is to get someone else with powerful magic to undo them or kill the one who chained me up."

"Kill them? We can do that! Who chained you up?"

Taranee smiled weakly. "His name was Kasson."

"Oh," Alyssa said. "Yeah, we actually can't do that."

The rest of the group made their way towards Alyssa.

"Lyss, what's taking so long?" Rae asked. "We have a real chance to get out of here before we encounter more monsters."

"The chains were put on magically by Kasson. We need magic to get them off."

"You were chained up by Kasson? Why?" Ellie asked.

"He wanted my magical objects. He took them all, chained me up, took all the scrolls the Oracle gave me with him when he went through a portal, back to Meridian I'm assuming, and stashed the rest in that cave over there."

"What were on the scrolls?" Josh asked.

Taranee shrugged. "They're all blank. The text can only be shown by the Oracle or someone whose magical ability rivals that of the Oracle. I don't know of anyone that powerful. Not even Cassandra or any of her children have magic like that."

"So then how can Kasson read them?" Rae asked.

"Maybe he found a way."

Rae sighed. "Alright, Josh, Alyssa, see if the swords or fire can work anyway. If not, we'll have to go back to Earth and get Sage. El, come with me into the cave to get the rest of the magical objects back."

Ellie nodded. As Rae predicted, there were monsters in the cave, sitting around a fire and guarding a satchel. They were the same gray monsters they fought before, but there were ten of them now. They didn't seem to notice the guardians yet.

Rae used the same trick she used when she and Alyssa battled in the bookstore. "Spord larsta," she said.

Copies of Rae and Ellie emerged.

"How's that going to help?" Ellie whisper-asked. Astral drops didn't have powers.

Rae said 'spord larsta' a few more times, until there were ten Raes and ten Ellies with them.

"Whoa," Ellie breathed. She didn't realize Rae could make multiple astral drops.

"Charge!" Rae yelled.

The gray monsters turned towards them, and were frozen for a minute, shocked at seeing almost two dozen winged girls attacking. It took them a few minutes to realize the copies couldn't do anything, and by that time, Ellie and Rae had already killed four of them. They continued to battle.

Meanwhile, Josh was hitting the chains over and over with his sword.

"Stop being a meathead!" Alyssa cried as she used her fire to redden and hopefully weaken the chain. "If you hit it in the same spot over and over again, you're more likely to break it."

"That's what I'm doing! Don't complain about my work when you're not even looking at what I'm doing."

"Well genius, maybe the spot you should be working on is the link attached to the shackle on my mom's wrist!"

"And risk hacking her arm off?"

"That wouldn't be a problem if you were _good_ with a sword."

The air grew awkward as Josh stopped working and gaped at his sister. "Did...did you just insult my swordsmanship?"

"I guess so," Alyssa said, but instead of sounding haughty as she intended, her voice came out small and shy. Josh took his sword work very seriously and even she had to admit she felt bad about saying that.

Josh stared at her for another moment, hurt. Alyssa knew how much he prided himself on being a good swordsman and he couldn't believe she'd said that. Alyssa, still working, refused to look at him.

James nudged Josh and motioned for him to start working again. Josh did.

"Okay, I'm done," Alyssa announced a few moments later. The chain was red and practically glowing. She stepped back.

Josh took her place, raised his sword, and swung, attempting to break the chain. Nothing happened.

"I told you, it's spelled," Taranee said.

Alyssa bit her lip. This was not good.

Rae and Ellie headed back to the group, with an army of astral drops following them, and collapsed on the ground once they got there, breathing hard. Unable to say anything, Rae held out the bag.

Alyssa took and it looked inside. Recognizing the Amulet of Aurameres and ziploc bag of Memory Flower powder, she figured the bag had all the magical items Kasson left behind.

"Rae, we need Sage to break these chains. We need a portal back to Earth. And...one of you needs to stay behind when Sage comes here. According to the Prophecy, there's only supposed to be five of us."

"I'll stay," Ellie volunteered. "I'm too tired to be of any use anyway. The heat's too much."

"Maybe we should all stay except Alyssa and Rae," James said. "Switch out the groups. The heat's getting to all of us."

"We're going to need to hold off on that," Rae sighed. "I'm _way_ too tired to open up a portal."

"But we need Sage!" Alyssa cried, panic creeping into her voice.

"I'm sorry Alyssa, but there's no way."

"What if you borrow life force from me?"

"She doesn't need your life force. She's hooked up to an auramere too," Josh said. "What she needs is a nap."

"We don't have time for her to take a _nap_ Josh!" Alyssa snapped.

"I'm not saying we do! But she needs to rest if you want her to do anything."

James sighed, looking at his girlfriend's mother, tied up in chains. Nigel had been suspicious of James at her first since he was Alyssa's first boyfriend, but Taranee had accepted him immediately and had always been kind to him. He hated seeing her like this.

"This is such utter crap!" he cried out angrily, grabbing the chains. Immediately, they disintegrated into dust.

Everyone gaped at James as he stared at his hand in shock.

"What the-?" Rae breathed, not sure how to finish.

"James, that was amazing!" Alyssa cried.

"_I_ didn't do that! Did I?"

"You touched the chains. They're dust. Seems like it was you to me," Ellie shrugged.

"But...how?"

At that, everyone looked at Taranee, who, now free, had gotten up and began walking around.

"There's one explanation I can think of," Taranee said.

"How did I know you'd know what was going on?" Ellie said with a smile.

"Well I'm not sure I'm right," Taranee said. "But it could be that Kasson's spell required either another sorcerer or a human to undo it. Kasson doesn't know who is on your team, meaning he doesn't know about James being a human. Some magic requires the touch of a human to undo it, and perhaps that was the kind of spell Kasson used to bind me in the chains."

"But if that's true," Alyssa said, "that means Kasson _will_ know there's a human on the team now. Which means James is in danger."

"Are you forgetting? I'm human too," Josh said. "Maybe I should've tried touching the chains. But anyway, he knows you guys, but out of the rest of us, he doesn't know which ones of us are regents and which ones of us are humans."

"Then all of you are in danger," Ellie said.

"But all of _us_ are in danger too. None of us are really safe," Rae pointed out.

James, breaking out of his reverie, said, "Guys, maybe we should continue this conversation back on Earth."

"I still don't have enough power for that," Rae said.

"I don't think we're going anywhere for a while anyway," Josh said. "A force field is up."

"It's the nymph," Alyssa said.

"What? Do you mean the restless spirits of KARMA?" Taranee asked.

Alyssa nodded. "We've going around fighting the nymphs all day. They're all defeated except mine."

"Okay, she'll show herself soon," Rae said. "Remember what Will said. The Fire Nymph is just like mine. All fire attacks will only strengthen her unless you trap her."

Alyssa nodded. "I know. I'm ready."

Rae looked at Ellie. "El, make sure you concentrate when you use her powers. _Notice_ what's it doing. On the one hand, your powers could essentially blow away the flames that inevitably make up her body. On the other hand, your powers could also strengthen the flames. Don't keep attacking if it's not working."

Ellie nodded. "Okay."

Rae now turned to face the boys, Josh who looked ready to charge at the first thing he saw move, and James, who still seemed shocked by what happened with the chains, and said, "You two...hide."

James fully broke out of his reverie to join Josh in giving Rae an incredulous look. "What?!" they cried angrily.

"I know you want to help-"

"Damn straight!" Josh broke in. "I know she doesn't like hearing it, but Alyssa is my sister, and I'm _going_ to fight."

Alyssa rolled her eyes, and Taranee flinched.

"And Alyssa's my _girlfriend_," James added. "How can you ask me to stay out of this? I want to protect her."

"I get that," Rae said, growing impatient, "but what exactly do you two think you can do, huh? What do you think your sword and arrows will do against a being _made_ of fire besides burn? Honestly, if you two fight, you'll be in more danger than if you hide, which will _hinder_ our ability."

"Rae!" Alyssa cried, slightly surprised at Rae's anger.

"I'm right about this!" Rae snapped. "You guys are great fighters, but in this specific battle, you'll only get in the way. You _will_ stay out of this fight, and you _will_ hide."

Josh and James, who never saw Rae this angry before, took a few steps back and nodded. Even Ellie and Alyssa seemed a little nervous at seeing Rae this mad.

Rae took a few calming breaths, turned back to the girls, and said, "Looks like she's here."

Ellie and Alyssa turned, and sure enough, a female like figure with a body made of flames was smirking at them.

The Fire Nymph opened her mouth, and fire shot out. Everyone jumped out of the way.

"She can use the breath of fire. And she's better at it then I am!" Alyssa cried.

"She's in her zenith form," Taranee said. "For the fire guardian, her breath of fire becomes her most powerful power when she's in that state."

"Any ideas on what to do?" Rae asked.

"Any ideas why it's so much hotter now?" Ellie huffed back.

"That's also the Fire Nymph's doing. She can manipulate the temperature," Taranee said. "My old attachment to an auramere somewhat protected me from the heat of Sulfuria, but now I'm feeling it."

Rae and Ellie sank to the ground, sweat pouring down their faces.

"Guys!" Alyssa cried, her voice panic ridden.

"Sorry Alyssa," Rae said, her voice barely audible. "It's too hot. I...can't."

"Honey, the heat's taking too much of a toll on them," Taranee said urgently. "They can't help you. You need to do this yourself."

Alyssa nodded. In the end, she had to be the one to defeat the Fire Nymph. But how could she defeat a creature that thrived on Alyssa's attacks?

The Fire Nymph giggled gleefully at the lack of energy on Alyssa's team. She shot a few fire blasts at the African American girl. Alyssa managed to dodge.

'So now what?' Alyssa asked herself. She didn't know how to handle this. If only she had Caty, who could douse the Fire Nymph and weaken her for a minute. Or Chris and Sage, who could distract her. That was the whole reason everyone travelled in teams. So that they could help each other take down the nymphs.

But then Alyssa remembered Ellie defeated her nymph all by herself. She was strong enough to take her down in guardian form. It was clear Ellie was the best at controlling her powers, and at developing new ways to use them. That's how she could win. But Alyssa was no pushover either. Before she was guardian, she was deathly afraid of fire and and heights, but she got over her fear of fire and was doing better with heights. She summoned her Breath of Fire even when her power of fire was taken away. She even managed to use her psychic abilities to help the others in the battle at Ellie's house.

Alyssa's eyes lit up. That's it. Because the nymphs were so weak, none of them, save for the Earth Nymph, had any other powers besides their original, elemental ones. But _Alyssa_ still had her psychic powers. She could use that to her advantage.

Alyssa taunted the Fire Nymph out loud for a while, biding her time. She couldn't attack directly without strengthening the nymph...unless…

Alyssa quickly linked herself to her mother and asked her a question.

Taranee looked surprised at the idea, but then smiled and nodded, signalling to Alyssa that her plan would most likely work.

Alyssa shot a few fire blasts at the nymph. The nymph giggled, absorbing them. Alyssa quickly linked herself to the nymph, and as the nymph grew in size and power, Alyssa did as well. She felt more energized and by the awe on Rae's face and the "whoa" she heard Ellie utter, she knew she grew in size as well.

The nymph looked shocked and confused for a minute. She snapped out of it quickly, and began to attack. Alyssa enveloped herself in fire, using it as a shield. The nymph glared at Alyssa, as if to say, "Why are you making this so difficult for me?" She looked like such a child!

Alyssa pulled the flames enveloping her in more, tightening them. She noticed the nymph looking around her, suddenly afraid. Flames shot up around her, enveloping her in a ball, and Alyssa realized her plan worked. The flames around Alyssa acted as a shield, and thanks to the physical link, the same thing happened with the nymph, but instead of acting as a shield, the flames around the myph trapped her.

Alyssa tightened the flame ball, causing it to absorb the flames the Fire Nymph's body was made of. She felt her energy drain, but she could also feel the Fire Nymph's energy drain. When she felt the Fire Nymph disappear, Alyssa let up. The fireball disappeared and the Fire Nymph disappeared in a mess of sparkles. Alyssa returned to her normal size. She breathed a sigh of relief and sank down on the ground next to Ellie and Rae. James and Josh joined them.

"Awesome Lyss," Ellie complimented.

Alyssa gave her a weak smile, breathing hard. However, while Sulfuria's heat weakened everyone else, she could feel it re-energizing her.

"I'm sorry we couldn't help," Rae said.

"Don't worry, I understand," Alyssa panted.

"Honey, I'm so proud of you!" Taranee cried, giving Alyssa a huge hug that Alyssa easily returned.

The others exchanged smiles. It looked like Alyssa and Taranee were rebuilding their relationship.

"Rae, you should probably get rid of these…" Alyssa motioned to the astral drops.

"Oh right! Astral drop."

All the astral drops disappeared. All except one anyway. One of the astral drops of Rae remained.

"Uh…" Alyssa said.

"That's weird," Rae frowned. "Why didn't you get absorbed?"

"How should I know?" The astral drop responded, shocking everyone. That sounded rather smart for astral drop. But astral drops didn't have brains. "All I know is, this heat is really getting to me. I could really use some water."

"But you're an astral drop. You don't need food or water. And you're not supposed to _feel_ the weather," Rae said.

"Well I do!" The astral drop snapped.

"And you have a real emotion. What's going on?" Rae wondered.

"Who cares? Just absorb her!" Josh cried.

"I _can't_," Rae said, raising the Heart.

"Nor should you," Taranee said, but once she was done speaking, the astral drop began fading. "No!" Taranee cried in panic, but the astral drop had disappeared.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

Taranee closed her eyes in distress and sighed. "That was not an astral drop. It was an altermere."

"An alter what?" Ellie asked.

"An altermere. The guardian of quintessence has the ability to give things life, including astral drops. If you use your powers on an astral drop, which it seems you did, although by accident, you bring the astral drop to life, so it can only be absorbed back into the Heart if you _really_ want it, not by uttering the words 'astral drop.'"

Rae paled. "S-so you mean that astral drop was...real?"

"As real as you and me," Taranee nodded. "She had emotions, feelings, thoughts, memories, even powers. Granted all her memories and powers were yours."

"So she was...alive?"

"Yes."

Rae's eyes filled with tears. Alyssa sat down next to her.

"Rae, what's wrong?"

"She was alive," Rae whispered, her voice cracking. "But I put her into the Heart. I...I ki-_killed_ her."

Rae began to cry in earnest.

"You didn't kill her!" Alyssa cried, desperate to make her friend feel better. "I mean, you didn't know."

"It's not your fault," Taranee agreed.

"But you tried to stop me," Rae sobbed.

Taranee knelt down in front of Rae and spoke to her softly. "Rae, I'm very sorry that you had this happen to you. But you're not the only guardian that accidentally created and absorbed an altermere. You need to move past this. You need to calm down so you can get us back home. You're still Keeper and leader, and that will never change. You will have time to be upset and cry, but for now, you need to pull yourself together."

Rae nodded and took a few deep breaths, trying to regain composure.

As she did, Alyssa broke the group's original link and created a new one with just Josh, James, and Ellie. "_I don't want to bring this up to Rae yet guys, but I think I just figured out what 'One will perish in the land without rain' was referring to._"

The others nodded, uncomfortable.

After a few minutes, Rae had calmed down, and had gotten back enough strength to open a portal. She opened one leading to Alyssa's house to Nigel could reunite with his wife.

Nigel and Taranee hugged immediately, then, in the heat of moment, kissed.

"Yeah, that's what I want to see," Alyssa said sarcastically.

James chucked, and Alyssa looked at him with a smile. "But when talking about what I want to _do_…"

"Ew! Alyssa, stop," Ellie beged.

Alyssa and James laughed as Taranee and Nigel broke apart and looked at each other awkwardly. Clearly they hadn't fully resolved the cheating issue.

The air remained awkward as Taranee realized Hay Lin was there. It was the first time Hay Lin had stepped foot in that house in over 25 years.

"Hi Taranee," she greeted with a smile, trying to hold in her excitement as seeing her old friend again.

Taranee clearly did not share the same level of enthusiasm, but still seemed happy as she gave the woman a smile and replied, "Hi Hay."

"I'm glad to see you're alright. Guess the girls got you out of those chains?"

"Yeah, about the chains," Rae spoke up. "We need to talk."

James rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Actually we need to talk about a lot of things," Rae said, her voice shaking.

Alyssa put a comforting hand on Rae's shoulder. Rae barely seemed to notice.

"You should probably tell everyone else too," Taranee advised. "All at once."

Alyssa nodded. She gave Nigel the CliffsNotes version of what happened in Sulfuria, avoiding everything about the altermere. After Nigel hugged his daughter and told her he was proud, he called John and told him to come home.

Hay Lin said goodbye to her old friends and assured them that Alyssa would be back home soon. She then borrowed life force from the fire guardian and teletransported herself, Alyssa, Rae, Josh, and James to The Silver Dragon basement where the rest of the team plus Eric were waiting to hear the full story.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"There's two weeks til the Sadie Hawkins dance. Are you gonna ask Chris?" Jade asked the following Monday.

She and Ellie were standing at Adam's locker, waiting for Adam himself, as well Milly and possibly Sage. Since the Meridian princess was part of their drama group as well as a cheerleader, she needed to split her time between the groups, and she never knew which group she'd spend time with in the morning. Sometimes she chose neither and met up with Alyssa, Rae, James, and Jake, who were often joined by Caty, Misha, Nina, and sometimes Brian. Ellie called them the Team GRACE plus Four group.

"No," Ellie said as she re-did her ponytail.

"But why not?"

"Cuz he could say no."

"But-!" Clearly Jade wasn't sure what to say after that.

"Hey guys!" Milly greeted happily as she and Sage joined them.

"Milly, God! Stop being so cheery! It's Monday morning!" Ellie cried.

Milly was always such a ball of sunshine. When she joined forces with Sage, who was also Little Miss Cheerful, it was too much for Ellie and the others to take.

Milly rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but it's getting warmer and brighter and-"

"Please stop, I'm begging you," Jade interjected. "Anyway, we have more important things to discuss."

"Like what?" Adam asked, joining them. He gave Jade a kiss (on the cheek, which was weird because he usually gave her a kiss on the lips, and Jade clearly noticed because she seemed miffed), then began to open his locker.

"Ellie says she won't ask Chris to the Sadie Hawkins dance."

"But I thought you liked him," Milly said.

"I do. But I'm nervous."

Adam didn't like this conversation one bit, but felt the need to weigh in anyway, if only to help Ellie.

"You asked Carter Hall to the Sadie Hawkins two years ago. And you asked Nick Madison to the Eighth Grade Ball, and that wasn't even a girls ask guys dance," he pointed out.

"Girls ask guys?" Sage asked.

"That's what a Sadie Hawkins dance is," Ellie explained. "It's the one dance where technically, the girls have to ask the guys to go since it's usually the other way around. And anyway Adam, those times were different. I knew Nick and Carter liked me, so there was no chance of them saying no. I have no idea how Chris feels."

"Here's what you _do_ have an idea about," Jade said in her 'I'm gonna give you a stern speech that will make you ask him' voice. "Chris is a popular, sought after guy. He already got asked to the Sadie Hawkins by eleven girls, including Traci Davis, _the_ most popular girl in school, and a _senior_. Older girls are after him. He specifically told Stacy Lee that he's waiting for a specific girl to ask him. That could be you. After all, the only other girl he would like is Alyssa, who would be going with James if she was going at all, but you told me she's going to sit this one out, so it can't be her. I also know that Lana Oller is gearing up to ask him, and she can get anyone to do anything, so if you don't ask him soon, he'll wind up going to the Sadie Hawkins with her."

Ellie chewed on her lip nervously. She didn't want to lose out to Lana Oller, and Chris knew Alyssa was with James, so he wasn't holding out for her. So maybe Chris _did_ want Ellie to ask him.

"You look like a knockout," Milly said. "You're having a great hair day, your makeup is excellent, and that dress is super cute. He is not going to be _able_ to say no."

"Aww, thanks Milly!" Ellie said, glowing.

"I agree," Adam said, with a little too much enthusiasm for a platonic friend.

Jade gave him a suspicious look and said, "Adam, I know I probably don't have to ask, but will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?"

"Yeah, sure," Adam said.

Jade frowned, clearly hoping for Adam to say 'yes' in a different way. Ellie frowned too, partly because she still wasn't thrilled with Jade and Adam's relationship and it annoyed her that Jade asked Adam, and partly because she knew Adam better than anyone else and could see through his acting. He didn't want to go to the dance with Jade.

"I guess I'll ask Chris today when I go over to his place," Ellie decided.

Jade, Milly, and Sage looked thrilled. Adam just rolled his eyes and shut his locker. Ellie didn't care. She had convinced herself. If she wanted Chris to like her, she needed to make a move.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What do mean he's losing interest?" Ellie asked at the end of the day.

"Not losing interest. _Lost_. As in past tense. As in already happened," Alyssa corrected.

"I don't get it," Ellie declared.

"What's not to get?"

"They're still together."

"That's because Adam is a jerk," Alyssa replied.

Ellie wasn't sure what to make of Adam's new attitude. All day he'd been uncomfortable and stoic around Jade. He avoided kissing her when he could. He didn't hold her hand or put his arm around her like he usually did. He began sitting next to Ellie is their shared classes again, instead of Jade. He spent lunch in the library (which was normal), and practically _begged_ Jade to go to the cafeteria during lunch when she said she'd join him (which wasn't), and even though he denied it, Ellie knew Adam didn't want to go to the dance with Jade.

She wasn't really sure she wanted to bring this up to Milly in case she told Jade, which would stir up trouble, which would be bad, especially if it turned out to be nothing, but she needed to talk to _someone_, so she chose Alyssa. She didn't realize Alyssa had an answer to why Adam was acting weird.

"He wouldn't _do_ that. He wouldn't stay with Jade if he didn't like her."

"He _is_. He told me," Alyssa insisted. "When we were working on the project last week, he said the reason he wanted us to work together instead of letting me work off a picture is so that he won't have to spend as much time with Jade. He says he liked her for real in the beginning, but he doesn't anymore, but he won't break up with her because he wants to like her again."

"But why? If it isn't working out, it isn't working out."

"He thinks if he breaks up with Jade, he's start to like you again, and he doesn't want to backslide, especially now, when you're working on getting Chris to like you. It wouldn't be healthy for him. I guess he doesn't realize his current relationship isn't healthy either."

Ellie didn't want to admit it, but she felt a little thrill when Alyssa told her Adam lost interest in his relationship with Jade, and she felt another thrill just now, when Alyssa told her Adam knew he'd like Ellie again if he broke up with Jade. She wasn't sure if the thrill was because she missed being the center of attention with Adam and didn't like his relationship with Jade or if she actually liked Adam and was jealous of Jade.

Ellie shook her head. She liked _Chris. _She knew that. Just thinking about him made her heart speed up and his smile made her heart stop. It skipped a beat every time he looked at her and she got the good kind of shivers every time he touched her while he trained her, even if it was just to correct her stance. She had butterflies every time she was near him, hoping she looked good and he'd notice. And her legs turned to jelly and her knees nearly gave out every time he laughed at something she said.

Ellie didn't realize she had a huge, goofy smile on her face, but Alyssa noticed because she smirked and said, "Thinking about Chris again?"

"Isn't he just so amazing? And he's so hot too! And he's so smart!"

Alyssa rolled her eyes playfully. "Yup, he's all of that."

"And yet you never liked him?"

"For all that he is, there's one thing that he isn't."

"And that thing is?"

"James."

"Aww!" Ellie cooed. "You really do like James, don't you?"

Alyssa grew serious suddenly. "Can you keep a secret?"

"With my life," Ellie said, then realized, with the secret she was already keeping, that was a poor choice of words.

"That's not funny."

"It wasn't supposed to be."

Alyssa looked like she wanted to switch topics to Ellie's secret, but decided against it and said, "Okay. So...James is going to turn eighteen soon. His birthday is coming up. First week of April. And even though I wanted to throw him a party, he said all he wants is to go out to dinner with me, Jake, and Rae...and Caty and Brian if they can make it. He doesn't really know Brian, but on the team, he's closest with Caty after me. Anyway, I told him that was fine, and we decided we'd all come back to my house for presents and I was wondering what to get him and Jake suggested…"

"Jake suggested?" Ellie prompted leaning forward.

"In addition to a physical object, he suggested I give him...or _tell_ him…"

"Tell him?" Ellie was almost screaming now.

"Shh! Tell him...something...three words, eight letters!"

"I'm not good at spelling! Or guessing!"

"I love you!" Alyssa cried.

"I love you too," Ellie said, confused. "What does this have to do with James?"

Alyssa groaned. "No Ellie! Jake suggested I tell James I love him, because I do. And Jake thinks it would be amazing for him to hear it on his birthday."

Ellie's eyes sparkled. "Oh it would!"

"But what if he doesn't feel the same way? That could _ruin _his birthday, not to mention our relationship. _And _it would absolutely _destroy_ me."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Alyssa, you're crazy if you think James doesn't love you. You're supposed to be the smart one, remember?"

"Smart has nothing to do with this."

"Well, aren't you supposed to have intuition about this? He's your boyfriend, right?"

"Intuition isn't enough. It's not like I can read his mind!"

"We-ell…"

"Don't say it. I realized after I said it I actually _can_ read his mind. But I'm not going to. That would be cheating, not to mention it's an invasion of privacy, plus James can always feel it when I'm in his mind."

"What do you mean?"

"If you have a deep enough connection with someone, then they'll be able to feel it when you're searching through their mind or when you linked them to yourself to speak to them telepathically. Rae can feel it too."

"Can I?"

"I don't know. Can you feel it now?"

"Is that weird tingly sensation my brain just got?"

"Yeah! What about now?"

"No." Ellie frowned. "Alyssa, you're not even in my mind now, are you?"

"No, I'm not," Alyssa grinned. "Congratulations, you can feel it when I read your mind."

"Can Caty and Gabi feel it?"

"No...at least, not yet. Caty, Gabi, and I have been getting a lot closer. I'm sure soon, they'll be able to feel it too. I've tested it on almost everyone else, and no one else can feel it so far."

"Almost everyone? Meaning, you skipped Josh?"

"Yes, I skipped Josh."

"When are you gonna forgive him?"

"Never seems like a good idea."

Ellie rolled her eyes, but moved on. "Do you have any idea how James managed to disintegrate those chains?"

"Not a clue. We think Mom must've been right about it being a spell that only a human could break."

"And how are you and your mom doing?"

Alyssa gave the air guardian a half smile. "Better I guess. The initial relief wore off and I remembered how angry I am at her. I'm not fighting with her or ignoring her, but I'm still a little stiff with her."

"It's better than before. I'm sure your mom is happy about that."

"Yeah, I think she is. Dad's happy at any rate."

"So are your parents officially back together or what?"

"Not yet. That kiss was just a heat of the moment thing," Alyssa replied. "But I think they're going to fix things. And now that I'm not blinded by rage, I _want_ them to work things out. What she did to me was terrible, but she didn't cheat on purpose, so I can see why she hid it from Dad. I don't think she _should_ have, but I understand it."

Ellie smiled. It sounded like Alyssa was calming down.

"So do we have guardian practice today?" Ellie asked.

"I didn't hear differently," Alyssa replied.

Since they battled the nymphs on Saturday, Hay Lin didn't hold practice, and even let the team have the day off on Sunday. But now, it looked like it was back to business as usual.

Realizing they never finished their original conversation, Ellie said, "I know you're nervous, but I'm sure James loves you. How could he not? You guys are a really great couple. You should tell him."

Alyssa just shrugged, still unsure.

"Hey guys," Chris said as he reached the two.

Alyssa's face broke into a huge smile. "Hi Chris, gotta go, bye!" she cried, her words tumbling out fast. She gave Ellie an encouraging smile and ran off.

Of course. Alyssa had already said she agreed with Jade completely. She wanted Ellie to ask Chris to the Sadie Hawkins dance.

"Well that was weird," Chris commented. Then he shrugged. "So, ready?"

Ellie nodded. They talked about their days as they headed to The Silver Dragon. When they got to the basement, Ellie opened the doors to the cabinets where the practice dummies were. She reached up to grab one and involuntarily let out a sharp hiss of pain. Chris, as always, noticed.

"El?"

"It's fine," she said dismissively.

"Let me see," Chris insisted.

Ellie sighed but took off her sweater to reveal her swollen right shoulder.

"What did she _do_?" Chris asked, his eyes tightening in anger.

"Chris, I don't want you worrying about this."

"But I _am_ worried about it. That's why I'm training you."

"Yeah but-"

"But _nothing_ El! Why can't you see what this is doing to you? I _hate_ seeing you hurt. There's always some fresh bruise or gash, every day. You need to _tell someone_."

"I _can't_!"

"Yes you can. And if you do, the whole Gavin problem will go away. If you have enough people backing you up, like say, all of Team GRACE, or at least the other guardians and I, an investigation will be launched."

"I can't do that Chris," Ellie whispered desperately.

"You can. You're scared, and I get that, but you need to do this. You don't think you're strong enough to, but you are."

He was wrong. Ellie wasn't strong enough to tell. But she was going to learn to be stronger, and she was going to start with the dance. Not only would she possibly have a date, but it would be an effective distraction.

"Chris, will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?"

To Ellie's confusion, Chris didn't seem at all surprised that she asked him. He just smiled a huge smile and said, "I would love to."

Ellie resisted the urge to say, 'Really?' He had actually said _yes_! Meaning he liked her...or at least he could like her...at the very least, he didn't seem to like Alyssa anymore.

"But I promised Max whoever my date was and I would go with him and his date. Is that alright?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, sure. Jade and Adam want to come with my date anyway, so we'll be a big group. Who's Max going with?"

"Della Crane."

"Didn't Della Crane like you at the beginning of the year?" Ellie asked, frowning. She remembered finding it funny how uncomfortable Chris got when Della flirted with him (not that he realized she was flirting since he was always so focused on Alyssa), but now she just felt jealous.

"Did she?"

Ellie giggled. "God, you're so clueless!"

Chris just grinned. "It doesn't matter. I don't date cheerleaders."

"You don't?"

"It's a personal rule of mine."

"Good rule," Ellie commented. "Um, do you want to get the dummy down for me?"

Chris looked thoughtful, then closed the cabinet. "I have a better idea," he said. "Forget the dummy. Today, you're going spar against me."

"I'm not ready for that."

"What did I just say about your strength? You need to stop doubting yourself."

Ellie blushed, hearing the compliment in there, and nodded. "Okay. But go easy on me."

Chris didn't say anything, but Ellie knew he was going easy on her when she managed to knock him to the ground with a sweeping kick. Still, she felt good. Her guardian powers helped her stay light on her feet, and she was learning a lot. During practice last Friday, Chris suggested Ellie and Rae spar with just their combat skills.

Rae kept up with her combat training, practicing during guardian practice with Josh, and sometimes even after guardian practice with James and Alyssa. But she didn't hold back when she fought Ellie, and Ellie still managed to beat her. She felt strong almost all the time now. Her mother could still make her feel weak, but she knew it was only a matter of time before even her mom couldn't scare her anymore. She could finally face her biggest fear, and that was all thanks to Chris.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That Friday, Gavin came home for Spring Break. It was always early in the year, especially compared to Sheffield's Spring Break, which started on Good Friday every year. But that was probably because summer vacation for Gavin started in mid-May.

Gavin was the only one home when Ellie walked in at 1am Saturday morning. He was sitting at the wooden table they had behind the couch, and he had a plate of cookies in front of him.

"Oh yum!" Ellie cried, taking one.

"Hey! Those are _mine_!" Gavin cried.

"God, you're so possessive," Ellie teased, biting into the cookie. "Hmm, good, but not nearly as good as the ones Rae's mom makes."

"Rae?"

"A new friend."

"Ah, okay. Well, if you ever meet Sophie, you should probably act like hers are better."

"Sophie made these? But I thought she couldn't bake to save her life."

"She learned because she knows about my cookie obsession."

"You have such a good girlfriend," Ellie commented.

"And what about you? Any boyfriends I should know about?"

Ellie blushed. "No _boyfriends_ but...a potential one I guess."

"Does he know he needs to go through a screening process from your overprotective older brothers before he gets to date you?"

"No he doesn't, because that's not a thing," Ellie replied. "And you're only a minute older than me Gavin, it hardly makes a difference."

"Enough that I can call you little sis," Gavin replied.

Ellie just rolled her eyes.

"So what are you doing home so late?"

"Applebee's is open til 1am every day...2 on Saturdays. I was lucky actually. I had to host today, but I didn't have the closing shift like I normally do when I host or else I'd still be there."

"Wow. Tough job."

"Not that you would know considering you never had a job," Ellie teased.

"I had to spend all my time studying," Gavin protested. He bit into another cookie. When he swallowed he said, "So Mom's really bartending, huh?"

"Yeah. That's why she comes home so late. And Uncle Tim is a waiter at the same restaurant."

"And you're okay with this job for her?"

"She makes a good amount of money."

"That's not what I meant. She's a drunk working at a bar."

Ellie was about to reply, probably with some biting remark she would've later regretted, like, "What does it matter to you if she's drunk? She doesn't hit _you_ under the influence" when the door opened and Jason entered, wearing his Walmart uniform.

"Hi Jason," Ellie greeted.

Jason gave her a smile, then looked at Gavin. Gavin squirmed under Jason's gaze, then, as an attempt at a better hello than the nod of acknowledgment he gave Jason yesterday, Gavin said, "Hey Jase."

Jason threw Gavin a look of disgust and walked out of the room.

Ellie looked at Gavin, wondering how he was feeling. Gavin gave his twin a weak grin.

"He didn't try to punch me even though Mom isn't around to protect me. I call that a win."

Ellie smiled too, because she knew that's what Gavin wanted, but couldn't help but give him a sympathetic look. Even when they were young, Gavin and Jason didn't get along, but their relationship got worse when Ellie's mother started hurting them.

Ellie and Gavin sat at the table, nibbling at the cookies and making light conversation, because Ellie knew that's what Gavin needed. Ellie was not the most empathetic person in the world, except when it came to Gavin. Maybe it was because they were twins, but the two of them were extremely close, despite the fact that Gavin always lived away from home for school. They could read each other's minds and know what the other was thinking, feeling, and needing at any given moment.

Jason came back out half an hour later, dressed in jeans and t-shirt.

"Jase, it's 1:30 in the morning. Are you going somewhere?" Ellie asked.

"I got called in for a morning shift last minute so I couldn't go grocery shopping," Jason replied. "So I'll go now. There are a few 24 hour places I can hit."

"Are you sure? We can just go tomorrow morning...or I guess later today," Ellie suggested.

"No, if we don't go now…" Jason trailed off, but Ellie didn't need him to finish. If they didn't go now, their mother and uncle would have a few things so say.

"Stay safe Jase," Ellie said.

"Take care of yourself baby sis."

"Not a baby," Ellie said with a smile.

Jason grinned and left. Ellie turned back to Gavin, who wouldn't look her in the eye. She knew why. He always felt so guilty that he got to live away from home and his siblings had to deal with this. Just not guilty enough to do anything about it.

Ellie wasn't sure why she was feeling so annoyed at Gavin all of a sudden. That day, before guardian training, she and Chris had a conversation about Gavin. She told him all about Gavin, what he was like, how they had that 'twin telepathy' everyone teased twins about, and how even though he lived away from home and couldn't get along with Jason, even before they had the abuse problem, she and Gavin were really close. Chris forced her to dig deeper though, and Ellie began to realize that, although she loved her brother, she also resented him to a point.

"So El," Gavin said, tearing Ellie away from her thoughts. "Who is this potential boyfriend of yours?"

Ellie, who was starting to get mad at Gavin, felt her anger melt away as she thought about Chris. She turned to Gavin with a goofy smile on her face. "His name's Chris Lyndon and he's amazing," she sighed.

"Chris Lyndon...don't I know him?"

"Do you?" Ellie asked surprised. "Because he remembers you from when we used to be friends, but I didn't think you'd remember him. The only time he saw you was when he came over here with Alyssa and Adam and that was only twice."

"Yeah, but I remember him. Black hair, blue eyes, dimples?"

"Yeah, that's him!"

"What do you mean 'used to be friends?'"

"Oh, well...in elementary school, Chris was a friend of mine. He was closer to Alyssa than he was to me and Adam-"

"Adam and I," Gavin corrected.

Ellie rolled her eyes. People always seemed to be correcting her about that!

"He was closer to Alyssa than he was to _Adam and I_," Ellie said, "but since Alyssa was always with us, Chris became our friend too. But in middle school, we stopped being friends."

"Why?"

"Remember how me and...I mean _Adam and I_ stopped being friends with Alyssa?"

Gavin nodded. Not only did he know about Ellie's lost friendship with Alyssa, but he also knew the real reason they stopped being friends. Jason didn't know the real reason until the night he found out about Ellie being a guardian.

Gavin always felt bad about Ellie losing Alyssa. He felt bad about a lot of things, and he knew the whole fight with Alyssa was partly because of him too. He was always a little creeped out by Alyssa since she had a big crush on him (although she'd mellowed out and matured now-he'd seen her during Christmas break and not only did she act normal around him, probably because she had a boyfriend now, but they actually had some really interesting conversations and he enjoyed her company for the first time), but he knew how much she meant to Ellie.

"Well, Chris got mad at _Adam and I _ and kind of yelled at us for abandoning Alyssa."

"But you didn't abandon-"

"He didn't know that then. But he does now."

"So you like a guy who previously yelled at you? I don't like him."

"Gavin! He only yelled at me because I let a fight get between me and one of his best friends. Yes, we used to hate each other. But now he knows exactly what happened."

"Exactly?"

"Yeah. I told him," Ellie said nervously. "I told him...everything."

"Everything? Ellie!" Gavin cried. "He could undermine all our hard work and blow the lid on all of this. He could tell anyone!"

"He won't," Ellie said. "He won't tell anyone. He promised. And I trust him."

"You also like him even though he apparently used to hate you," Gavin bit back.

"We hated _each other_," Ellie stressed. "Anyway, I swear I wouldn't have told him if I didn't believe he'd keep the secret."

That wasn't exactly true since she'd technically told Chris before getting him to promise not to say anything. But Gavin didn't need to know that.

"And I know he won't tell."

She didn't mention that he did want _her_ to tell. That was another thing Gavin didn't need to know.

Gavin opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, the door opened again and someone entered. Ellie's eyes widened in fear. She crossed her fingers, hoping Jason just forgot his wallet or something. No such luck. A woman who looked a lot like Ellie appeared.

"Hi Mom," Gavin greeted, his eyes tight. He had no reason to be afraid of his mom, but he _was_ afraid for Ellie. Besides, how could his mom not scare him? She may not hit him, but it was terrifying seeing the woman who acted so loving around him, cruelly beat his twin.

"Gavin, sweetie, you sure are up late," Betty Kramer said in a tone Ellie rarely heard.

"I usually don't go to sleep til 3 at school. My body can't get to sleep earlier," Gavin said with a nervous laugh.

"You should really think about regulating your sleep and eating schedule," Betty said.

"I have class through lunch and dinner time. _This_ is a regulated schedule for me," Gavin said.

Betty just smiled fondly at her son. Then she turned to Ellie, who immediately stiffened.

"And you? What are _you_ doing up?" She leaned close to Ellie as she spoke and Ellie could smell the alcohol on her breath.

"I had work," Ellie said in a small voice.

Ellie's mother shook her head in disgust.

"Mom, where's Uncle Tim?" Gavin asked in an effort to distract Betty.

"Oh, his shift runs later. Remember, I work at a 24 hour restaurant."

"Yeah I know. I just find it strange. Usually only diners are open 24 hours. But Limestone is an actual sit-down place."

"And pays as well as sit-down place," Betty said with a smile. She opened the fridge and Ellie cringed, realizing there would be nothing in there.

Betty turned to Ellie, a glare on her face. "Why isn't there any food?"

"We ran out, but Jason is out shopping right now," Ellie said, her words coming out quickly.

"At least tell me we still have some vodka?"

"Um...no. I think you and Uncle Tim drank it all last night," Ellie replied, then realized she shouldn't have phrased her answer that way.

"Are you _blaming_ me? Are you saying I drink too much?" Betty asked dangerously.

"No, I swear!"

Betty glared at her daugher. "If you knew Tim and I drank all the vodka, why didn't you buy us more?"

"I can't. I'm underage. It's illegal for me to buy alcohol, even if I'm not going to drink it. You _know_ that!" Ellie cried.

"Isn't that what Tim got you an ID for?"

"I don't want to use it. If I get caught, I'll be in big trouble."

"You _ungrateful little bitch_! What use are you if you won't do a simple errand?" Betty yelled angrily.

Ellie felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. This was usually when Betty sent Gavin to his room (unless she was so drunk she forgot he was even there), and began to hit Ellie.

As predicted, Betty, sober enough to remember her son's presence, sent Gavin to his room and and advanced on Ellie.

Gavin usually left without protest, but this time, he stayed.

"Mom, stop. She didn't do anything wrong," Gavin begged.

Ellie wondered why Gavin was choosing this moment to try and be a hero.

Betty ignored Gavin, and when he put himself in front of Ellie, she just lunged forward, grabbed Ellie's arm, and pulled her out into the open again. She raised her arm to slap Ellie leaving her quite exposed.

Ellie twisted her arm out of her mother's grip, and caught her right arm as it came towards Ellie. Betty was surprised, and Ellie used that moment to kick her mother's side. Betty fell to the ground, crying out.

"Ellie!" Gavin cried, shocked.

Ellie's hands flew to her mouth. She couldn't believe what she'd just done. Yes, Chris was teaching her how to fight, but she wasn't supposed to _hurt_ her mother. It was only supposed to make her stronger so that Betty's blows wouldn't hurt anymore.

Betty got up slowly, disoriented. She looked at Ellie, but instead of glaring at her and advancing on her like Ellie expected, she just staggered upstairs.

Ellie was still shocked at herself, but couldn't help feeling relieved. At least for tonight, she avoided the beating. And even though Gavin was looking at his sister like he had no idea who she was, Ellie still counted this a win.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Josh dodged Ellie's kick, then twisted himself to get behind her, surprising her so much that she tripped over her own feet and fell.

Josh bit his lip to keep from laughing and helped her up. "You okay?"

"No! How come I'm not any better?"

"You're doing really well for your skill level," Josh said in the kindest tone Ellie had ever heard him use. "I just know more, and Chris taught you to fight the way he does. I'm familiar enough with Chris's style to know what to expect from you."

"There's an insult in there somewhere, isn't there?" Chris asked from his spot by the window.

"What would make you say that?" Josh asked, overly innocent.

"Definitely an insult. Just not an apparent one," Gabi, who was leaning against a tall stack of boxes, declared.

"Oh, what do you know?" Josh snapped lightly.

"How to deliver a proper insult," Alyssa, who was sitting near another pile of boxes, piped up, making everyone laugh.

The five of them were hanging out in The Silver Dragon basement, waiting for the rest of the team to join them. It had been three days since Ellie kicked her mother, and she told Chris that even though she felt bad about it, she also felt kind of good about it, and her mother not only left her alone, but avoided her, since then.

Gavin didn't know what to make of his sister, but fortunately, didn't treat her any differently. Neither mentioned the incident to Jason.

Chris decided Ellie needed less combat training and more stamina and blocking training, and asked Josh to take over for the last half an hour of Ellie's training every day. Josh agreed and would arrive at guardian training half an hour early to do so.

The others found out about Ellie's combat training, and not even Gabi, Caty, and Alyssa realized it had anything to do with her mother. They are believed Ellie's lie, which was, "After telling Adam about self-defense training, I realized it might actually be helpful. I _do_ live in a neighborhood where's that useful."

"Anyway, I think it's working," Josh said, turning his attention back to Ellie. "It takes more for me to knock you down now, and that's what you wanted, right?"

Ellie nodded. "I guess you're right."

"_Josh is being uncharacteristically nice,_" Alyssa said inside Ellie and Gabi's heads.

"_Yeah, I noticed. Why is that?_" Ellie asked.

"_He told me a couple days ago he wants to try to be nicer_," Gabi said. "_So I told him to start by using a kinder tone and being more patient, the way he normally is with Rae, and was with you Alyssa._"

"_Oh, so you actually _know_ how to be nice_," Alyssa teased.

Gabi rolled her eyes, but gave Alyssa a playful smile.

"Hey, no telepathic conversations while everyone else is still around," Josh teased lightly, standing next to Gabi, leaning against the boxes like she was.

"Yeah, way to make us feel left out," Chris added, sitting next to Alyssa.

"I'm not trying to make _you_ feel left out," Alyssa told Chris.

Chris squirmed under her gaze as Ellie and Gabi looked at Josh.

"I'm gonna get a drink," he muttered, going upstairs.

"Real nice Lyssa," Chris said disapprovingly when they could no longer hear his footsteps.

"I'm just being honest. We didn't say these things out loud because we were talking about him," Alyssa defended. "About how he's being nicer."

"But you were hurtful on purpose," Chris said.

"He told what you said about his swordsmanship. That was so out of line," Gabi said.

Alyssa cringed. She did kind of feel bad about that and she really hoped Gabi wouldn't find out. She was extremely protective of the people she cared about, and that included Josh.

"I don't have a filter when I'm angry. I know that's a problem. What did he say?"

"He's hurt Lyssa. He doesn't understand how this got so out of hand."

"If he doesn't understand, then he deserves it!" Alyssa cried.

"Did he actually tell you he was hurt?" Chris interjected. "Because that doesn't sound like Josh."

"It doesn't, does it? But he did tell me," Gabi said.

"He must really like you," Chris said.

Gabi's entire face lit up.

"Did you ask him to Sadie Hawkins?" Ellie asked.

Gabi shook her head. "I wanted to, but Luc has his last stripe test before he gets his black belt that night and I always go. Josh is going too. Luc really wants him there. I love how he's so sweet to Luc."

"You're blushing. You've never liked someone as much as you like Josh, have you?" Alyssa asked.

Gabi shook her head, grinning. "I could fall in love with him."

That reminded Ellie of something. "Lyss, did you figure what you're going to do about James?"

Alyssa groaned, startling Gabi and Chris, who had no idea what Ellie was talking about.

"I'll take that as a no," the air guardian giggled.

"I need a Shirley Temple," Alyssa whined.

"I'll make it for you," Gabi volunteered. "And you can tell me about James."

Alyssa nodded, figuring Gabi's advice could really help, and the two girls headed upstairs.

"Oooh, one for me too," Ellie called, making a move to follow them.

Chris grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Wait. Can we talk?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Ellie said, shivering at Chris's touch. She turned around and frowned at the serious look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I did some research last night."

"On what?"

"On your...situation."

Ellie didn't like where this conversation was heading. "Chris-" she started, but was interrupted.

"El, let me get this out. I did some research and even talked a college student studying to be in social services in California, and found out, if Jason _did _complain about your mother, even if Gavin didn't corroborate your story, an investigation would still be launched. _You _don't even have to corroborate. Jason just has to complain."

Ellie's face went red and she looked at the ground.

"And judging by that reaction, I'm guessing you knew that. Jason probably does too. So what's really going on? Why won't you tell?"

Ellie felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes. No one, not even Alyssa, had come this close to the truth before, and Gavin's words echoed in her mind.

_He could undermine all our hard work and blow the lid on all of this. _

"She'll come back one day Chris. She _will_," Ellie whispered. "She'll be my mom again. And when she does, she'll be able to take care of herself. Until then...she needs me."

"You're taking care of her?"

"Not currently. But a few months ago, when she lost her job, yeah. I always take care of her when she loses her job."

"So how did you expect to leave for college?"

"I didn't."

"So you lied to me?"

"Yes...but I'm not now."

Chris sighed. "Why isn't Jason telling anyone anyway?"

"For me. I still believe she could come back."

"And who told you that?"

"No one had to tell me-"

"Ellie!"

"Gavin," she sighed. "I mean, it's not like just because he says it, I believe him. But I _want_ to believe him. He makes some good arguments."

Chris sighed deeply, and ran his hand through his hair.

Ellie wore a small smile on her face. He was so cute!

When he spoke, his voice was quiet. "I can't believe this Ellie. You can end your suffering any time you _want_."

"I _can't_."

"But-"

"I need to believe in this Chris. I need to believe in _her_! She's my mom, Chris. I know you understand how important family is. So please tell me you understand this."

"Not completely," Chris said. "But to some extent...yes. I get it."

Ellie sighed in pure relief, and smiled slightly. "So...you'll let it be?"

Chris sighed. He didn't look happy, but nodded. "Yeah."

Ellie as surprised, but took it. She needed to not argue about this. So she just gave him another smile.

"So how about that Shirley Temple?" Chris asked, returning her smile.

Ellie nodded as the two headed upstairs. "But...only if you make it."

"Of course."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that, and there's still one more chapter left. Thanks for bearing with me and the wait!**


	42. The Hart Bloodline

**A/N: GUESS WHAT GUYS?! THIS STORY IS OFFICIALLY OVER A YEAR OLD! I actually wanted to put this in the previous author's note, but it was getting too long. But it's really exciting. I've never been **_**this **_**dedicated to a story before. I don't think I've ever even spent over a year on a story before. It's official birthday was exactly one year and one month ago to the day, though it'll be different by the time this chapter goes up because it's almost midnight now. **

**Anyway, I just wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to anyone who's read this story, especially those who came in late, had a lot of chapters to read, and still read it anyway. I also want to give an EVEN HUGER THANK YOU to SilvenArrow, WaterAmulet, and Misa, who have been with me since the start, reviewing every chapter ever since the first one. And I wanted to give THE HUGEST THANK YOU to Emily, my best friend, confidante, and writing partner, for not just being with me since this story was just an idea, but also for encouraging me, showing interest, and being my beta. I couldn't ask for a better editor, roommate, or friend. **

**Lastly, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**SilvenArrow: You always seem to see the bigger picture and think deeply. I'm glad. I'm like that too. I'm glad you could appreciate these chapters. You'll see more about Ellie and Chris and Caty and Brian in these chapters, but I'm still unsure what I'm going to do with Adam and Alyssa. You'll see what happens with Taranee and Alyssa. Hope you like it!**

**Shay: I'm glad you were able to appreciate those last two chapters. I have so many ideas for powers that the old guardians didn't have and training for the powers they did have but didn't get to explore in the TV series, like glamour. There are new developments with both Chris and Ellie and Caty and Brian in these chapters. I love Alyssa and James, and although I can't promise Alyssa and James fans they will be together forever, I can tell you that, unfortunately, Alyssa and Adam will never be a couple. I'm not even sure at this point if I'm going to rekindle their friendship or not. I hope you like these installments.**

**Taylor: It's weird you weren't able to review. You're not the first person this happened to on this story. Hopefully you'll be able to for these chapters. I want to thank you for taking the time to log in and send me a PM! I'm glad you liked them, and I hope you like everything I wrote about the couples in these new chapters. Enjoy!**

**caramelcookie: Wow, 38 chapters in four sittings? Impressive, especially considering how long my chapters are. The chapters probably average 25 pages on word, though that does include my usually long author's notes and even longer shout-out list. You're right, WITCH's break up situation will be revealed in due time. When the time comes, I hope you like my idea. I see some of myself in Caty too, but it makes sense you're mostly emotionally invested in Ellie. There are new developments with her abuse in these chapters, as well as new developments with the Ellie/Chris relationship. As you can see, I put Alyssa with James. But how did you see a possible Chris/Caty relationship? They barely interact alone. My original plan was to put Chris in the Rae/Jake love triangle, but when I created the character of Josh, he seemed to fit in there better. Thank you for the compliment. Gabi's my absolute favorite to write about and develop. This is the first story where I'm trying to make some of the characters dynamic, because in most my stories, all my characters are static, which I hate. I'm glad I seemed to execute it well. Rae is my favorite character, but Gabi is a close second. I don't know if I'm going to make Gabi and Rae friends, or if they will just remain in this sort-of-friends thing that they have. I really don't see them becoming friends in any reality. Dean's purpose and real identity will be revealed, but it'll take a while, and this morning I actually had a new thought about Dean, making the reveal more complicated, but less of a blow for readers, and myself. I don't mind if you ramble haha. I love long reviews. I'm so glad you like this story and I look forward to hearing more from you. And I hope the wait for these chapters were at least half way worth it.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So I had an idea about tonight, but I'm not sure you're gonna like it," Brian told Caty Friday morning.

Caty laughed at his greeting, then gave him a kiss. "Good morning," she said pointedly.

"Oh right," Brian said, going slightly red. He took her hand. "Good morning Caty. I had an idea about tonight, but I'm not sure you're gonna like it."

Caty laughed again. Everything about Brian seemed to make her happy lately. "Let's hear this idea then."

"Well, you said you didn't want to go to Sadie Hawkins, but we should go out. I was thinking, what if we stayed in instead? My parents want to meet you."

"Oh?" Caty squeaked.

"Yeah. And my brother and his wife will be there. So do you want to?"

"Do I want to meet your family?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know. What if they hate me?"

Brian gave her a small smile. "I knew you'd get paranoid and nervous. That's why I thought you wouldn't like the idea. But Caty, I promise they won't hate you. My mom loves that I'm dating you. She always liked you from when I used to complain about you."

Caty giggled at that.

"I couldn't care less about my brother's opinion. My sister-in-law is really excited to meet a girlfriend of mine. I think _she _likes me more than my brother sometimes. My dad thinks anyone's better than Katherine. And Brianna likes everyone."

Caty bristled at the mention of Katherine, Brian's old girlfriend, but smiled at what he said about his sister.

"Okay. But only because I can't say no to you when you look so hopeful."

Brian grinned. "I'll remember that the next time I want something."

"Jerk," Caty muttered playfully.

Brian just laughed and gave Caty another kiss before they both went to join their friends.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That same morning, Jade and Adam were arguing.

"What do you want me to say Jade?" Adam cried, throwing his hands in the air as Ellie joined the two of them, and Milly, who looked extremely nervous.

"I want you tell me you're actually _want_ to go with me tonight," Jade replied.

"I _have_. Why is it my fault if you don't believe me?" Adam yelled.

Ellie and Milly cringed, knowing that was wrong thing to say.

"Maybe because you haven't given me a _reason_ to believe you," Jade replied, her voice rising. "Lately, you've been acting like you'd rather be with anyone else than me."

"I've been busy and I couldn't spend much time with you. You're reading too much into this. Stop being so clingy!"

Ellie and Milly cringed again.

"Then stop being such an aloof bastard," Jade growled.

"God Jade, you've been so neurotic lately. You promised me when we got together that you wouldn't cause drama."

"_Me?!" _Jade shrieked. "I'm not causing anything here Adam. _You're_ the one who doesn't seem to want to be in this relationship. And news flash, every relationship has _some_ drama. Deal with it."

Adam shook his head, irritated. "I really don't need this now. I have a pre-calc test to take." He walked off in the direction of his math classroom.

"Um…" Ellie said, not sure how to proceed.

Jade sighed, looking ready to cry. Ellie was surprised. She knew how much Jade cared about Adam, but Jade was the strong one. Nothing could break her.

"Okay, what was that about?" Milly asked.

Jade took a deep breath. "You guys have noticed how he practically flinches at my touch and doesn't seem too excited about the Sadie Hawkins dance, right?"

Both girls nodded.

"Well, I finally confronted him about today after he avoided a kiss from me yet _again_. And it led to a fight."

"You guys will make up," Milly assured.

"I don't know. I think we might be on the verge of breaking up," Jade said. "And I don't want that. I'm _so_ into him. But it looks like he doesn't like me anymore."

"That's not true," Milly protested.

"Yeah, I'm sure he's crazy about you," Ellie added, then realized she was pushing it a little.

"No, he was crazy about _you_," Jade said flatly. "I thought he'd get there with me, but he's been getting less and less invested."

"Well, you know Adam," Ellie said. "He's not very good at expressing himself. Don't push him. Give him a chance to tell you how he really feels."

As Ellie said this, she frowned internally. She thought that was good advice and realized too late, she didn't _want_ to help Jade fix the relationship. She _wanted_ Jade and Adam to break up. She felt horrible for thinking that, because she did truly care about Jade, but also didn't want her to have Adam.

Why was she feeling like this? Ellie thought she'd get over her negative feelings about their relationship once she and Chris took a real stride in their own relationship, and since he was going to the dance with her that night, they had, but Ellie didn't feel any better about Adam and Jade being together. Instead, she wanted Adam to like her again.

Adam was supposed to be jealous of Ellie's date and supposed to try to ask her to dance over and over again, not getting deterred no matter how many times Ellie said no, and finally convince her to actually slow dance with him. He was supposed to tell Ellie how pretty she looked. Ellie was supposed to feel good because slow dancing with Adam always made her feel so good and she was supposed to lay her head on his chest and realize how well they fit together, and feel like a princess because that was the way Adam treated her, and notice how cute he looked in his tux…

Whoa! Where did that come from. Sure Adam was cute, but Ellie wasn't attracted to him, was she? Her face felt hot, and she barely heard Jade thanking Ellie for the advice. She looked around and locked eyes with Chris. Her heart began to beat out of her chest at his smile, but she was unable to smile back, still thinking about Adam.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Gabi, I can't do this. Do it for me," Caty begged that night, struggling with the liquid eyeliner.

"You're not even trying Caty," Gabi said rolling her eyes as she curled Ellie's hair.

GRACE, and James, was gathered in Alyssa's room. Gabi was helping Caty get ready for dinner at Brian's house and Ellie get ready for the dance.

James and Alyssa were laughing together about some private joke that only they thought was funny, and Rae was texting Jake and trying to do her English homework at the same time. They were supposed to finish reading and annotating the book _The Awakening_ by Kate Chopin by Monday.

"Alyssa, did Edna just kill herself?" Rae asked as she got to the last page.

"Yup. She was done with living the life she led. She was upset at being rejected by Robert, scared she was going to become like Madame Ratignolle, and, seeing no way to live like Mademoiselle Reisz, she decides death is her only option."

"Well that's not depressing at all," Ellie said sarcastically. Since she was not in honors English like the rest of the girls, her class was not reading the same book.

"Of course it's depressing," Caty said. "That's the point. This woman, Edna, spends her life being told to be completely devoted to her husband and children, but not understanding _why_. And while on vacation, she meets Robert, a man who could give her the kind of relationship she wants, the kind she doesn't have with her husband."

"And she meets Mademoiselle Reisz," Gabi continued. "Who has grown old all on her own and independent and living a life Edna envies. But then Edna's family goes back home, and she needs to be the woman she once was, and she's unhappy and sees no other way out. It's the perfect Romanticism book."

"How is killing yourself romantic?" Ellie asked.

"_Romanticism_ is a literary movement," Caty said. "It has nothing to do with romance."

"_The Awakening_ is about finding yourself and the life you want to leave. I know Edna kills herself at the end, but she finds herself first, and she finds Robert, a man who will let her live the way she wants while still loving her unconditionally. What could be more romantic than that?" James asked.

"Aww," Alyssa cooed, nearly melting.

"When did you read this book?" Rae asked.

"We read it for honors lit last year at my old school," James said. "I didn't really _like _it, but I understood it."

"Ow!" Caty cried suddenly. She started running back and forth across the room.

"Caty, what are you _doing_?" Ellie asked.

"I poked myself in the eye!" The water guardian complained.

Everyone began to laugh, except for Rae. She was so different lately. Ever since she absorbed the altermere, she hadn't laughed at all, she barely smiled, and she seemed distant and hollow most of the time. She still concentrated in guardian training, and made sure not to fall behind in class again (she wasn't about to be assigned a tutor _again_), but she didn't seem to want to be happy. Not even Alyssa or Jake could break her out of her reverie, and Jake was worried sick since no one could tell him what brought about the change in his girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, laugh at my pain. You guys are great friends!" Caty snapped. She blinked furiously, and when she began to feel better, she thrust the eyeliner at Gabi. "Will you do it now?"

"Sit down," Gabi sighed.

Caty had gotten quite good at putting on most make up, but she still had trouble with eyeliner. Gabi put a semi-thick streak of bright blue on top of both of Caty's eyelids.

"Put on some mascara and a little lip gloss...um, that light rose one should work. And then you'll be done."

Caty nodded. With Gabi's guidance, she managed to put on foundation that made her skin tone completely even. From Bree's clothes, she found some really cute white, strappy sandals, she nice pair of dark wash jeans and a pretty, white, lacy top that made her casual jeans look fancy. She wore the charm bracelet Brian got her, and replaced his birthday necklace with the one he got her for Valentine's Day. She also wore the white gold hoops she'd received for her birthday. Gabi made Caty's hair wavy, with two shorter, completely curly strands framing her face. She looked great, like she was put together, but not trying too hard.

Ellie looked amazing as well. Her usually straight hair fell in wide curls. She wore a dress she borrowed from Gabi. It was forest green with patches of brown, going perfectly with the natural brown colors of the eyeshadow and eyeliner Gabi told Ellie to use. Her cheeks were pink and rosy, but less from makeup and more from smiling too hard. She kept squealing every few minutes, excited for Chris to pick her up.

When Caty and Ellie were both done, Gabi quickly re-did her makeup so she looked fresh faced for Luc's stripe test. The group headed downstairs. Taranee had taken John to the grocery store (he always accompanied her to make sure she didn't buy the wrong type of candy, cereal, fruit snacks, etc), so no one was home.

"Okay, so Chris is coming here, right?" Alyssa asked.

Ellie nodded.

"So is Jake," Rae reminded. Alyssa, James, Rae, and Jake were doubling to dinner, even though Rae didn't feel much like going out.

"And Brian's picking me up here," Caty added.

"Alright, so if Jake arrives before Brian and Chris, we'll wait for them," Alyssa decided.

"Caty, stop doing that!" Gabi cried, glaring at the red head.

Caty blushed as she stopped pulling on the loose curls framing her face. It was such a little kid thing to do, but she never had curls like that before.

"Sorry, I'm just super nervous. Meeting the family. Pressure and all that."

"It doesn't have to be. When Jake and I met each other's families, everything went great. I'm sure Brian's family will love you," Rae said.

"Hopefully. Brian said his father would be happy with anyone as long as she wasn't Katherine."

"Who?" Rae asked.

"Katherine Ketchum. She was Brian's last girlfriend," Alyssa said, rolling her eyes in distaste. "She's part of Sheila's sub-group, and honestly, I never understood what he saw in her. I mean, okay, she's beautiful, but she's basically a clone of Sheila. She always insists people call her 'Katherine' because it's more sophisticated that any nickname. She's such a pretentious snob!"

"Agreed," Caty said fervently.

"So is it just Brian's parents?" Ellie asked.

"Nope. He has a sister, and his brother and his sister-in-law are also coming."

"I'm glad I don't have that problem," Ellie said.

"What do you mean?" Rae asked.

"Well, if Chris becomes my boyfriend, I don't have to do a whole 'Meet the Family' thing cuz I already know his family. Hay Lin and I spend one-on-one time together to work on lucid dreaming, Eric is always nice to me, and Cara and I are friends."

"I don't know El," James spoke up. "Even though you know Chris's family, it'll be different if you go from his friend to his girlfriend."

"That's right. Hay Lin doesn't care how well you do in school or where you want to go to college or what you want to do now, but she will if you're Chris's girlfriend," Alyssa agreed. "I mean, you're great, she has to love you, but what if Chris was dating like, a girl who wants to drop out of school and work in a strip club? If a girl like that started out as Chris's friend, but then became his girlfriend, Hay Lin's opinion of her would change."

Ellie paled. "What if I do become Chris's girlfriend and Hay Lin and Eric ask me what I think Chris should do in the future?"

"Why would they ask you _that_?" Gabi asked.

Ellie shrugged.

"Why would that be a problem?" Caty wondered.

"Well, Chris wants to be an artist, but his parents want him to take over the restaurant."

"Right, I remember him telling me that. Cara actually wants the restaurant. Why don't they just let Chris go to art school?" Rae asked.

"They don't think 'artist' is a suitable career," Alyssa said.

"But it _is_, for someone as talented as him," Ellie protested.

"He should just double major," Rae said.

Before anyone could comment on that, the doorbell rang.

Alyssa looked through the peephole. "It's Chris. Do you want me to open it El, or do you want to open it?"

"You," Gabi answered for her. "Ellie, go back upstairs. I'll call you down and you can do a slow walk down the stairs."

"Like in one of those stupid movies?" Alyssa asked dryly as Ellie nodded and went back upstairs.

"They're not stupid!" Gabi cried.

Alyssa rolled her eyes and opened the door.

"Hey Lyssa," Chris said.

"Hey Chris. You look very dapper," Alyssa replied, making room for Chris to enter.

"Dapper? Only you would use a word like that Classless-a," Gabi giggled.

"Hey, what's with the nickname?" Alyssa asked, glaring playfully.

"Okay, do you know how weird it is for you two to be such good friends?" Rae burst out, putting some emotion in her voice for the first time in a long time.

"Opposites attract?" Alyssa and Gabi said in unison in questioning tones. They looked at each other in surprise and laughed.

"Where's Ellie?" Chris broke in.

"Oh right!" Gabi exclaimed. "El, come down!"

Ellie did the slow descent down the stairs like Gabi wanted. Alyssa smiled when she heard Chris suck in a breath beside her. She was glad he seemed to like Ellie as much as Ellie liked him.

"Wow Ellie you look...wow," he breathed.

Alyssa hid a frown. The only time he'd been so impressed by someone's looks was when he took Alyssa to the dinner dance in eighth grade, and she didn't like that he was so taken by Ellie, even though Ellie was Alyssa's best friend. Why did it bother her?

"Wow? What a compliment," Caty teased.

Chris shook his head. "Sorry, just..._wow_. I mean...you look amazing."

Ellie grinned widely, blushing. "Thank you. So do you. You always look amazing though."

Chris blushed too, and it just got deeper as the other girls agreed with Ellie's comment.

James cleared his throat when he noticed Alyssa was nodding.

"But you look better though. Always," Alyssa assured him, giving him a kiss.

"Because I look like your celeberity crush?" James teased.

"Grant," Alyssa sighed dreamily.

"Hey!" James protested.

"But you're better! Because you're all mine."

"And don't you ever forget it," James replied, grinning.

Suddenly, Rae gasped.

"What's wrong?" Caty asked.

"A portal's gonna open," Rae said. "I can feel it."

Just as she finished the sentence, the others saw the Heart vibrate. A second later, the familiar sound of a portal was heard. Chris shut the door. As the blue light appeared, Rae sprung into action.

"Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

Chris let out a yell and turned into Shagon. James grabbed Alyssa's sword, which she kept in the golf bag that held the umbrellas.

The monsters charged as soon as they entered, preventing Rae from closing the portal, giving more and more monsters the opportunity to enter the Ashcroft's living room.

"Whoa," Ellie cried, trapping a few in a tornado. "There are so many!"

"Who are these guys? I've never seen them!" Caty added as she used water from one of Alyssa's plants to make an ice sword. She slashed three monsters in half.

The monsters were familiar to Alyssa and James however. They had green skin, carried a sword and shield, and wore ripped blue shorts. They had short red hair and…

"Ew, they're _drooling_," Gabi said distastefully, using her telekinesis to make one attack itself with it's sword.

Alyssa burned two of them alive, then linked everyone together. "_Those look just like the monster that attacked James and I at Lange's_."

"_Great,_" Caty sighed, continuing to use her ice sword. "_You said that monster wanted to capture you, so these probably want to capture us._"

"_We can beat them_," Rae said, frying two of them.

"_Maybe if there were less_," Caty said. "_But they won't give us a break, so we don't have enough time for you to close the portal._"

Caty aimed the ice sword at another monster, but before it could hit, it broke.

"What happened?" Ellie asked.

"I can't keep the ice going for that long," Caty explained. She took more water from the plant and re-made her ice sword.

Even though there were a lot of monsters, the guardians and Chris seemed to be holding their own. James was having more trouble. These monsters were better at fighting than most of the other ones Team GRACE had faced, and James was having trouble pushing them all back.

One monster tried to cut off Chris's wings, but Chris was too quick. Another tried to thrust his sword into James gut, but drew back instantly when Alyssa placed herself in front of him.

"_Right_," Caty said in their heads. "_They didn't want to kill us, just capture us. To them, James and Chris are expendable, but we're not_."

"_Gee, thanks,_" Chris said sarcastically.

"_Okay New Girl, game plan_?" Gabi asked.

"_Working on it_," Rae replied. "_First thing we need to do is distract them so I can close the portal_."

The others nodded, and continued fighting. Alyssa stayed close to James because the monsters were less violent when they had the fear of harming her as well as the human boy they didn't need to keep alive.

At one point, Rae used her "touch a monster and electrocute him" trick on the line of seven monsters blocking the portal, but when she killed them, more monsters came at her, stopping her from closing it. The trick, as usual, took a lot of out of Rae, and she was too tired to make a move.

Three monsters closed in on her, their swords ready. Alyssa noticed this, motioned for Chris to help James, then rushed to Rae's aid. She managed to burn the three monsters alive from a distance. When she got to Rae's side, more monsters were coming. Alyssa stepped in front of the tired and out of breath keeper to fight. The monsters drew back.

Rae gasped.

"What?" Alyssa asked.

"I have a theory, but I need to test it."

"Okay. What can I do?

"See those three monsters trying to slice off Ellie's wings?"

"Yeah. I thought they weren't supposed to harm us?"

"We might've been wrong about that. Go help Ellie."

"But Rae, you're too tired."

"I'll be fine,"

"At least create yourself an army."

"No."

"Rae, you're not going to create an altermere again. Not now that you know you can. Please."

Rae sighed. She needed to test her theory and Alyssa wasn't going to leave unless she did this. "Spord lartsa," she whispered, her voice shaking. An astral drop of Rae appeared. Rae repeated the words until she created 14 more astral drops.

"Now go."

Alyssa did. Rae watched as her astral drops charged at the monsters. Alyssa started behind Ellie. The monsters still seemed intent on slicing off the air guardian's wings. They could probably tell flying was Ellie's biggest asset. Once Alyssa put herself between Ellie and the monster whose sword was closest, he drew back.

"I was right," Rae muttered to herself. Her astral drops had fallen now, but she felt a bit better. She shot a few lightning bolts at the monsters. They weren't powerful enough to kill them, but they slowed them down.

While the monsters were hurt, Rae moved back to the couch. Alyssa and Ellie had managed to kill the group of monsters trying to cut off Ellie's wings. Just as Ellie trapped another monster in a tornado, Rae said, "_Alyssa, join me_."

Alyssa flew over to Rae. Rae grabbed Alyssa by the arm, and held on tightly.

"Ow! Rae, you're hurting me," Alyssa hissed.

"Good. Now act like you're scared."

"What?"

"Just do it," Rae said, conjuring up the biggest lightning ball she could.

"Um...oh no?" Alyssa said questioningly.

"That was terrible!"

"Well I'm not an actress! Get Ellie to do this!"

"I _can't_. It needs to be you. Scream."

"I can't scream on cue."

Rae sighed. "_James, I need you here_."

Chris put himself in front of James. "_Go, I'll cover you_."

James joined his girlfriend and the Keeper.

"Give me your sword."

"Maybe first you want to tell me why you're holding my girlfriend in a death grip and there's a huge ball of electricity above your other hand?"

"No."

"It's fine James. Rae has a plan, I just don't know what it is."

James sighed and handed Rae his sword. Rae let go of Alyssa to take it. When she had a good grip on it, she used to give Alyssa a shallow but long cut on her midriff. Alyssa screamed in pain. James rushed toward her, but stopped when it looked like Rae was going to use the ball of electricity on him.

Everyone, guardians, Chris, and the monsters, looked over to where the screams were coming from. Team GRACE looked shocked and confused. The monsters looked nervous.

"I get it now," Rae announced. "You don't want us. Just her."

Everyone looked at Alyssa now.

"So I'm going to kill her."

Now everyone gasped.

"Unless you leave."

The monsters looked around at each other, unsure of what to do. One stepped forward.

"You no kill friend," he growled, sounding smug.

"Oh no? Look at the cut I just gave her," Rae replied.

The monster looked at the cut that was bleeding.

"Need more proof?"

Rae used the sword of give Alyssa another cut. This one didn't hurt nearly as much, but now that Alyssa knew what Rae was doing, she screamed again. It sounded completely fake to all her friends, but the monsters seemed to buy it.

"We no believe you," the monster who spoke before said.

"_Put the sword inside the first cut you gave me. That'll help sell it_."

Rae looked at Alyssa, trying to show her how much she didn't want to do that without showing the monsters.

"_It's okay_," Alyssa promised.

Rae sighed inaudibly and did so.

Alyssa screamed again. This sounded so real that not only James, but everyone else, moved towards Alyssa.

"Freeze!" Rae cried. The ball of electricity above her hands was now the size of an exercise ball you'd find at the gym. "Any of you move, I kill you too."

Rae's voice sounded so cold and scary that they all stopped, even though Chris and James seemed to have a harder time listening.

Now even the monster who'd spoken seemed unsure of what to do. Rae took advantage of that moment.

"You leave or I kill her."

Alyssa added a whimpering noise. Rae kicked her making her hiss in pain. James moved toward her again, but Rae threatened him by moving the electricity ball closer to him,

"_Uh, _ow _Rae_!" Alyssa snapped, using her newest power, creating more than one link. She linked herself to just Rae.

"_Well what was that stupid noise you were making? You sounded like you were about to start singing_!"

"_I was _whimpering!"

"_Could've fooled me,"_ Rae snorted. "_Just be quiet."_

Alyssa rolled her eyes but obliged. The leader of the monsters sighed and said, "We go."

One by one, the monster turned around and left. When Rae was sure no more would come through, she made the electricity ball dissipate and closed the portal. She and Alyssa both sighed and sank down on the ground. The others just looked shocked. Chris was the first to move.

He landed, turned back into his human form, and ran over to the fire guardian.

"Alyssa, are you okay?" He asked.

James sat next to him and gave him a glare, as if to say, 'Dude, that's _my _job.'

Chris didn't look happy, but moved out of the way.

"The cuts aren't deep," James said. "We can take care of this."

He went to the kitchen to grab the first aid kid.

Everyone else slowly made their way over to Alyssa and Rae.

"Rae, what the hell was that?" Chris asked angrily.

"I'm sorry, I know that was a bit extreme," Rae said, sounding like her old self again. "And I _really_ didn't want to hurt Alyssa. But I started realizing those monsters weren't after _us_. They were after her. _Just_ her. So I needed to make it seem like I don't mind hurting her so they'd believe I'd kill her and leave. They don't care about the rest of us, but they need Alyssa alive and well."

"Well why couldn't you just _tell _us?" Ellie asked.

"Because you're the only one who can act," James said as he began to clean up the cuts. He didn't like Rae's plan, but he understood it.

"If she told us, the rest of us wouldn't have been able to pull off worried, shocked, or angry, which we needed to act like we were with Rae for threatening to kill one of our friends. We needed to make the monsters believe that Rae _would _kill Alyssa, and what better way than to actually believe she would? I mean, I don't know about you, but I thought she'd been brainwashed or something. I don't like that she had to hurt Alyssa, but it was a good plan."

Everyone else nodded, realizing this was true.

"Why'd you have to hurt her so bad though?" Chris asked.

"Also for believability. I can't act to save my life and I'm too shy to pull off a good scream. She needed to hurt me for it to work, and the second time I screamed for real was because I asked her to make me do that. She only _really _hurt me that once," Alyssa said.

James put gauze over the long cut and covered the smaller one with a large bandaid. When he was done, Rae changed the girls back into their human forms. Caty and Ellie both looked tired, but their dresses, hair, and makeup looked as good as it did before the battle.

"So why only Alyssa?" Caty finally asked.

"She's special," Ellie joked.

"I believe that," James said.

Alyssa smiled and gave him a kiss.

Rae groaned. "Stop that! We need to figure this out. What makes you of more interest to them than the rest of us?"

"And we _will_," Alyssa assured her. "But maybe for tonight, we can just leave it be?"

"Yeah, the dance is tonight," Ellie said.

"And I have dinner at Brian's," Caty added.

"I have Luc's stripe test," Gabi piped up.

"And we have dates," Alyssa finished. "You don't have to be the leader all the time. Take a break."

Rae looked like she wanted to protest, but sighed and finally gave in. "Alright."

Everyone else mock cheered, just to make fun of Rae.

"Guys, can you help me clean up?" Alyssa asked. "It looks like I had a party in here."

Ellie and Caty made a move to pick up the fallen coffee table.

"Freeze!" Gabi cried, making both of them stop. "We will clean up. You two sit on the couch and don't move. Because our outfits, hair, and makeup changes when we transform, you two still look perfect. Keep it that way."

Caty and Ellie nodded. Chris, James, and Rae picked up the fallen couch and put the couch cushions and throw pillows back on. Caty and Ellie sat down as everyone else got to work on the rest of the room.

Alyssa used her powers to turn the bodies of the dead monsters into ash that the others swept up and threw away.

Caty checked her phone and saw Brian texted her, saying he was going to be late because he was picking up his brother at the airport. Originally, he thought his dad was doing that so Brian's sole responsibility would be to pick up Caty. Caty replied that was fine, and that she was running late anyway.

Jade texted Ellie, saying she and Adam had a fight when Adam picked her up. They were still going to the dance together, but they would be a little late in picking them up, especially since they had to pick up Chris's friend Max, and his date Della, first. Ellie replied to Jade the same way Caty did, saying she was running a bit late anyway.

Daniel had texted Gabi saying he, Sienna, Eva, and Luc had gone to Luc's stripe test. Luc had to be there an hour and a half early, meaning there was still time for Gabi to get there. He said Josh was still at home, wanting to accompany Gabi, and when Gabi got home, she could either drive them, or get Walter to.

Rae texted Jake telling him she and Alyssa were running behind schedule and he should plan to arrive half an hour later than he intended.

Taranee arrived home with John ten minutes after the group was done cleaning up. The coffee table was missing a leg, the loveseat's cushions were open, with stuffing tumbling out, and the book shelf was broken, with pointy edges sticking out everywhere. Chris and James dismantled the whole thing and put the pieces in a pile and off to a corner so no one would get hurt. Picture frames were shattered, the pieces in the trash, and many of the little knick knacks the Ashcrofts had in the living room, like figurines, were destroyed.

"Whoa," John breathed when and Taranee stepped inside. "Lissie, what did you _do_?"

Alyssa laughed nervously.

"Hi John!" Ellie cried, hoping to distract the 11-year-old. It worked.

"Hi Ellie! You look super pretty."

"Thanks," Ellie replied, giggling at how adorable John was.

"Hey, she's my date," Chris said playfully.

"You're going out with Ellie? But I thought you liked my sister!" John cried.

The air grew awkward. Gabi laughed.

"Smart kid," she said.

"John, go upstairs for a little while, okay?" Taranee said.

John nodded, waved good-bye to everyone he knew (Rae, James, Chris, and Ellie), and ran upstairs.

"You were attacked," Taranee said as Chris and James, being gentlemen, carried her grocery bags into the kitchen.

Alyssa nodded.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Banged up a little, but fine," Alyssa asurred her.

"And the rest of you?"

Everyone told her they were fine.

"Okay, so what happened?" Taranee asked.

Rae told the story, until she got to the part about hurting Alyssa. She stopped, not wanting to tell Taranee that. Alyssa explained the rest.

Taranee seemed uneasy and distraught, but didn't comment on Rae hurting Alyssa. Instead, after pacing around for a while, which Alyssa telepathically explained was something Taranee did when she was thinking and they shouldn't interrupt her, she asked, "Where's Josh?"

"Still at home," Gabi said. "I mean, my house."

"Why?" Alyssa asked.

Taranee sighed. "I wondered what the difference was between you and the other guardians, and I can only come up with one thing."

"Which is…?"

"You come from the Hart bloodline."

"Hart...like Caleb? Is that...special somehow?" Alyssa asked.

"Yes. Caleb's father Julian is human. But his mother was the Mage."

"The what?" Ellie asked.

"Mage is short for magician," Caty said.

"So Caleb's mother was a magician?" Ellie asked.

"Not just any magician. The Mage of Meridian is one of the most powerful beings in the world. She is the only known being who has magic that rivals that of the Oracle."

"No wait," Gabi said. "Josh told me this story. Julian thought Caleb's mother was the Mage, but really, the Mage was dead. Caleb's mother was Nerissa, who, for 17 years, used her shapeshifting abilities to pose as the Mage."

"It wasn't shapeshifting. It's called glamour," Taranee corrected. "And yes, Nerissa posed as the Mage for several years, but she was lying about being Caleb's mother and about the Mage's death. Nerissa was the one in CHYKN to get the magical items. One of those items was the Mage's ring. It's one of the most powerful magical items in the world, rivaled only by the Oracle's ring, and the Heart of Kandrakar. The Mage's ring got tampered with several times, so she gave it to the Oracle during CHYKN's time for safe keeping. When Nerissa and the others turned 18, the Oracle gave Nerissa the ring along with all the other magical items. Nerissa, through her power hungriness, absorbed the ring, so when she visited the Oracle next, managed to use the ring's power to temporarily take some of his magic, and use it to trap the Mage within her own ring. When we trapped Nerissa within her own Seal, all other magical items were rejected, including the ring. The ring fell out of the Seal, the Mage was released, and she took her ring back. She revealed to us she had already given birth to Caleb when Nerissa trapped her, and made it seem like she died, so we found out Julian's original thought, that the Mage was Caleb's mother, was right."

"So...then Josh and I are the grandchildren of one of the most powerful beings in the world?" Alyssa asked.

Taranee nodded. "That's my best theory, which also leads me to believe that, had Josh been here, the monsters would've also tried to capture him."

"But who are these monsters? And what would they do once they got Alyssa and Josh?" Rae asked.

Taranee shrugged helplessly. She put her hand on her daughter's shoulder, protectively. Alyssa gave her mother a reassuring smile, but it didn't do much to appease Taranee.

"Well we should figure it out," Rae said insistently. "Maybe we should go to Kandrakar tomorrow and if that doesn't pan out-"

"_Rae_!" Alyssa cried. "You need to stop. Tonight you're not Rae Dylan, the Keeper. You're just Rae Dylan, regular teenage girl who's going to have a date night with her boyfriend."

"It's always good to take a night off from the guardian life," Taranee said.

"And on that note," Gabi said, "I'm going home so I can get to Luc's stripe test on time."

"Brian's outside," Caty added.

"So is Adam," Ellie piped up.

The girls grabbed their stuff and headed outside, Chris following Ellie out.

"Jake will be here soon. Will you just relax? And tell him to use the back door so he doesn't see my living room."

Rae sighed but nodded. She knew she should be excited to go out with Jake...she really did like him, and it had been a while. But she already wished she could just shut herself up in her room ever since she killed the altermere. And it was hard for her to get out of leader mode, especially when it was her best friend in danger. How was she supposed to just let this go?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty fidgeted nervously as Brian stopped at a red light and looked at Caty with what she assumed was a look of curiosity (she couldn't tell in the dark). The song Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez was playing, and they'd never played their game with that song, but Caty had barely reacted to his comments, and hadn't put in any of her own.

Caty had plenty to say about the song, but she felt awkward playing their game with Brian's brother and sister-in-law in the backseat. His sister-in-law Suzy seemed nice enough, but Brian's brother Logan seemed unfriendly. He'd barely nodded at Caty when she said hi, and that was only after Suzy's look of insistence.

She didn't much care about impressing him. Brian and Logan didn't get along, so she didn't need him to like her. But the permanent glare on his face kind of scared her.

"You okay?" Brian asked, turning the volume down a little.

"Yeah. Just a little nervous, but I'll be fine."

Brian nodded. He wanted to reassure Caty, but he couldn't really do that in front of Logan and Suzy. He just turned the volume back up and changed the station, hoping to find a song Caty liked and didn't make fun of to help calm her down. 7 Years by Lukas Graham was playing, and that was Caty's current favorite song. He smiled as he saw Caty relax. The song ended just as they pulled up at Brian's house.

Caty had been to Brian's house before. Often, the people in Caty's sub-group and Brian's sub-group formed one big study group to study together for finals, and Brian hosted several of the study sessions the previous year. However, no one else had been home then. Just knowing Brian's entire family was waiting behind that door made the house seem more daunting.

Brian took her hand and squeezed it comfortingly. Caty gave him a grateful smile. Logan and Suzy led the way to the door. The door was unlocked already, so the group walked in.

Brian's parents were in full view, both of them smiling. They both gave Logan and Suzy hugs, welcoming them. Suzy was sweet and polite, but Logan's glare stayed in place, and he was very noncommittal with his answers. He didn't scare Caty anymore. Now she was just irritated by his attitude.

Brian's parents focused their attention on Caty next. To her surprise, Brian's mother gave her a bright smile.

"And you must be Caty! You're just as pretty as Brian described. I'm so happy to meet you!" She cried, giving Caty a hug.

"Let the girl breathe Sharon," Brian's father laughed gently.

Sharon let go. "I'm just being welcoming David."

David just smiled at his wife, then looked at Caty. "Brian's told me how smart you are. I'm glad he found someone who inspires him so much," he said, shaking Caty's hand.

Caty blushed.

"Where's Bri?" Brian asked.

"Brianna!" Sharon called. "Come on, your brothers are back!"

Brianna was clearly running from wherever she was because Caty heard thunderous footsteps. Then, a short blond girl appeared.

"Logan!" She cried, greeting her oldest brother first.

To Caty's surprise, Logan's glare melted off of his face, replaced with a huge smile and genuinely happy look in his eyes.

"Bri! There's my favorite girl!" He cried, lifting his sister into the air.

She giggled in delight. When he put her down, he looked at Suzy and said, "Well, _one_ of my favorite girls.

Suzy rolled her eyes playfully and gave Bri a hug.

"Do I get a hug?" Brian asked.

"Why? I just saw you two hours ago," Brianna said.

"Thanks Bri. I see how much you care," Brian joked dryly.

"I still love you though!" Brianna said. Then she looked at Caty and smiled. "You're Brian's girlfriend, right?"

"That's right. And you're his sister Brianna. He didn't tell me how pretty you were."

Brianna smiled wider. "She's so much nicer than Katie!" She told Brian.

Brian went red at the mention of his ex. "Thanks for that Bri," he said.

Caty just laughed to show she didn't mind, even though she did feel a bit annoyance when she realized Brianna got to call Katherine by a nickname. Brian and Katherine dated for almost two years. Was she really close to his family? She knew Brian's dad didn't like Katherine, but what if everyone else did? Did she have to show Katherine up in order to impress?

"That girl was something else," David mumbled.

Brian laughed. "Dad _really_ hated Katherine," he whispered to Caty. "So did Mom, though she'd never say it out loud."

Caty smiled, feeling a bit better.

"Anyway, you all must be hungry. Dinner's on the table," Sharon said. "Caty, you don't have any allergies or anything do you?"

"Nope."

"Are you vegetarian? Suzanne is, so we always have a vegetarian alternative. I made eggplant lasagna."

Suzy's eyes lit up.

"Well that sounds great, but no, I'm not vegetarian."

"In that case, you'll be able to join in on our barbeques!" David exclaimed. "We have family barbeques every Sunday, and the last Sunday of the month, everyone's allowed to invite a friend."

"I usually invite Travis, but you'll be much more fun to have around," Brian said, making Caty blush and giggle.

"Oh you two are just so cute together!" Sharon exclaimed.

Brian and Caty both went red.

"Sharon, don't embarrass them," David complained jokingly.

Caty smiled to herself. She loved the way Brian's parents interacted, so gentle and kind with each other, and that persisted throughout dinner. Caty thought every couple should strive to be like them.

Caty learned a lot about Brian's family as well. Brian's father was a huge sports fan, and had a list Top Five Favorite and Least Favorite teams for hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. Caty and David had a long conversation about soccer. Sharon had the same love of dessert Caty did, and Caty helped Sharon finish baking the black forest cake she was making for everyone.

Suzy was working as an assistant to the current mayor of Annsville, the small town she and Logan lived in. She wanted to work in politics like Caty. She told Caty that if she decided on politics over law, she should call her up. Suzy already had a bunch of political connections and could get Caty a job, or at least an internship.

Brianna was eight, but mature for her age, using big words and showing Caty her knowledge of relationships, which was impressive for her age. She remembered Brian telling her that Brianna was the one who came up with the idea of Brian's Valentine's Day gift. That was also impressive for eight. Brianna actually made Caty feel okay about Rin for the first time since Iris announced she was calling the baby Rin.

Logan was the only one Caty couldn't get a clear read on. His glare was replaced by a slight smile whenever he looked at Suzy, and he looked genuinely happy when he talked to Brianna, but he was really rude to Brian, and not much nicer to his parents.

After dessert, Logan and Suzy went to the room they were staying in, and Brian led Caty to his room. Sharon reminded him to leave his door open.

"Where are Logan and Suzy staying?" Caty asked as she took a seat on his bed.

"In the attic. It was Logan's bedroom when he lived at home. I was supposed to move in when he left, but I'd gotten so used to this room, I stayed."

"So they can't hear us?"

"No, I guess not."

"Okay, so _what_ is the deal with your brother?" Caty asked. "He's so rude!"

"He's always been like that," Brian said. "That's part of the reason we don't get along. The only people I've ever seen him be nice to are Brianna and Suzy. He wasn't even that nice with his friends, but his friends were all jerks."

"There has to be a reason he acts that way."

"It's a mystery to me," Brian replied. "I don't really care though. We were never close, even when he was living at home, and he hasn't lived here in 11 years. I guess we'll just be the kind of siblings that see each other on special occasions with a few sporadic visits in between. I'm alright with that because at least I have a sweet little sister."

"My mom has three siblings including Lili's mother, and she's so close to all of them, Lili's mom most of all. I could never imagine having a sibling I only see during special occasions because my mom never let that happen with her siblings. Although, with Rin and I being 17 years apart, we may end up like that."

"Maybe not. If you're mother is really that close with her siblings, you may take after her."

"Maybe. I think I'll see Lili a lot more, and that's okay because Lili's like my sister. We were really close when we were young, and we kind of lost touch over the past few years, but now we've become close again."

"She used to be really annoying at first, but she seemed to have calmed down," Brian commented.

"She's not as annoying when she's not trying to be a bitch," Caty replied, and they both laughed.

After an hour, the entire group reconvened in the living room for some tea. Ellie texted Caty saying she had the most amazing night at the dance and had to tell Caty about it.

**I'll be home in an hour. Want to sleep over? **Caty texted.

**Sounds great. ** Ellie replied.

Caty, figuring Ellie would want to tell Alyssa about her night as well, invited Alyssa to sleepover as well.

**Sounds like a plan. I'll be there. **Alyssa texted.

Caty spent most of the time during the tea session talking to Brianna. The girl had a lot of questions for Caty, like when her mother gave her permission to wear makeup, and where she got her clothes, and if Brian was really as smart as her, because weren't girls supposed to be smarter than boys? She was really adorable. Caty wondered if she'd like Rin this much when she turned eight. If she was anything like Brianna, Caty would probably love her.

At the end of the night, Brian asked Caty to come out onto the deck with him.

"So, that wasn't as bad as you thought, was it?" He asked.

"Not at all," Caty laughed. "It was great. I love your parents Brian, and your sister makes me more optimistic about Rin. Like maybe I won't hate her. Like maybe I'll actually adore her."

"You will," Brian said, taking her hand in his. "I'm really glad you liked everyone."

"Well, not everyone. Suzy's awesome, but Logan…"

"I wasn't counting him in everyone," Brian assured her, chuckling.

Caty laughed too. "Next is my parents," she said. "Rin's calming down. She's actually pretty well behaved for her age. She's not really that fussy, crying rarely, and for someone so young, she sleeps pretty well through the night. My mom doesn't have as much work as she thought she would, so she'd be happy to host anytime."

"Well, I hear your mother is great cook. And I believe it from all the lunches she packed you that you let me try. I can't wait," Brian said.

"I'm glad we did this. I feel good that I know your family, and I like them and they seem to like me."

"I knew they would. And I'm really glad we did this too, because...well, it solidifies our relationship, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Caty agreed, though she wasn't completely sure.

"I'm glad you feel that way. I know we haven't been dating that long-"

"Four months next week," Caty interrupted. "Not a terribly long time, but a good amount of time."

Brian smiled that smile that always made Caty's heart pound.

"I'm _really_ glad you feel that way," he said earnestly, his voice so gentle, it nearly made Caty swoon. "Because the last thing I want to do is scare you off."

"Why would you scare me off?" Caty asked curiously.

"Caty, we've known each other forever, and I'm grateful to have found you. I've had girlfriends before, but none like you. I...I love you."

For a minute, Caty just stood there, nodding her head, like an idiot. Then she realized what Brian said. "Wait, what?!" she cried.

Then she cringed. What kind of response was _that_? But Brian didn't seem upset. He just smiled.

"It's okay if you're not ready to say it, or if you don't feel the same way yet," Brian said. "I just had to let you know."

Caty wasn't sure what to do. She knew how she felt. She had stronger feelings for Brian than she ever had for anyone else. Over the past few months, she and Brian had spent hours and hours talking about everything and letting each other know them inside and out. She loved him. But what if she said it? What if the minute she uttered the words, some random monster, like Snake Dude, came out of the sky and _ate_ him?

She knew it was stupid, but she was getting more and more paranoid lately, suspicious of every boy she was friends with, wondering if they could be the spy or traitor, wondering if the danger her bio parents were in was guardian related, wondering if there was something Iris and Jeremy weren't telling her that would reveal why, of all people, Rin was the Child of Magic. And tonight's attack didn't help any. She was on the verge of losing her mind.

"I _want_ to say it," Caty said, hearing her voice crack. "But...I-"

"It's okay," Brian assured her, his voice taking on that swoon-worthy gentle tone. "I get it. I love you, and I want you to know, and I'll wait for you to get there. I don't want you saying it when you don't feel it."

I _do_ feel it, Caty wanted to scream, but kept quiet. She felt her face crumple.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Brian asked, noticing immediately. "Please don't feel bad. I wouldn't have said anything if I knew-"

Caty shook her head, cutting him off. "No, it was sweet, and you have no idea how amazing you made me feel. I just feel bad that I can't say it back."

"Don't," Brian said, smiling. "As long as I know youwill get there-"

"And I _will_," Caty assured him, her tone insistent.

"-then I will be fine."

Caty nodded, letting out a breath.

Brian took her hand and led her back into the living room. Caty said good bye to everyone, getting another hug from Sharon, and a hug from Brianna. Logan didn't say or do anything. Caty just rolled her eyes at his glare and let Brian drive her home.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Caty, are you and Brian coming with us to dinner for James' birthday?" Alyssa asked later that night.

She, Ellie, and Caty were all in Caty's room, in PJs. Iris, who prided herself in hosting great sleepovers for her daughter, filled bowls with snacks, provided Caty with a whole new stack of DVDs she had recently bought, and ordered pizza before Caty even got home. Now Ellie was starting on her third slice and Alyssa was hogging the bowl of M&amp;Ms.

"Yeah, we'll be there," Caty said, grabbing the bowl of popcorn. "Brian's a little nervous. He doesn't really know James, but I insisted. James is a good friend of mine."

"James is so sweet! How can Brian possibly be nervous?" Alyssa asked.

"Well, usually people like James, who are hot and part of the jock clique, make fun of Brian. Every time James says something to him, Brian's not sure if he's being made fun of or not, even though I assure him James isn't like that."

"He isn't! James is the best, sweetest, best person!" Alyssa cried.

"You said best twice," Ellie giggled.

"Because he's the best!"

Ellie laughed harder.

"So El, what happened tonight that made it 'the best night ever'?" Caty asked, quoting Ellie's text.

Ellie's mouth broke out into a such a huge grin, Caty was surprised it didn't overtake her face. Did it hurt to smile like that? Caty wasn't sure she'd ever been that happy...except for tonight, when Brian told her he loved her.

Ellie took a deep breathe and proceeded to give two of her best friends the play-by-play of one of the greatest nights of her life.

"_El, sit in the front with me," Adam said as soon as Chris and Ellie got to Adam's Explorer._

_Chris and Ellie exchanged looks. They were thinking they'd sit together. But when Ellie saw Jade in the back, she realized the two of them might not have resolved their fight._

"_Um, okay," Ellie said._

_From Alyssa's house, the ride to school should've only been seven minutes, but with the unusual amount of traffic, it took 20. Chris and Max spoke in low tones, but no one else said a word the whole way there. _

_When the group arrived, Max, Della, Chris, and Ellie rushed to the dance floor before they could get dragged into the fight Jade and Adam were definitely going to have. Sure enough, by leaning forward with glare on her face, Jade started a fight. Adam looked very annoyed. Half an hour later, Chris and Ellie, tired, decided to grab some food. Adam and Jade were _still_ arguing._

"_I know he and I aren't friends anymore," Chris said as he and Ellie filled glasses with punch, "but Adam doesn't seem like he'd get annoyed that easily."_

"_He doesn't, normally. He and Jade have been fighting all day, and I heard that he's not really that into her anymore."_

"_You heard?"_

"_Adam told Alyssa."_

"_Are they friends again?"_

"_No. They're...I don't know what they are. There are some people you know you're meant to be lifelong friends with. I feel that way with Alyssa and I know Rae feels that way about her too. Gabi thinks she and Bree will be friends all their lives. I feel like maybe Adam and Alyssa weren't meant to be friends forever."_

"_Why do you say that?"_

"_It seems like Adam stopped being friends with Alyssa because of the nicknames Gabi gave her, but Adam's not that superficial. I told him to stop being friends with her, and he agreed without a moment's hesitation. Every day since our fight I wanted to see if I could rebuild my relationship with Alyssa. But once Adam cut off ties, he never spoke of her again. Alyssa would smile or wave at me every now and then, if she thought I would respond in a good way, but she never even looked at Adam. I know they were both upset to lose each other, but it didn't affect them as much as it should've."_

"_Not everyone can be friends," Chris said. "Isn't that what Alyssa always says when she's talking about Gabi and Rae?"_

_Ellie nodded. "Too bad though. Gabi's pretty cool. It's good to have her as a friend."_

"_You are the last person I'd expect to say that," Chris said with a smile. "You never liked Gabi before."_

"_I didn't_ know_ her before," Ellie said. "Now I do. Same with Caty. I didn't like her much either, but now I know her and she's one of my closest friends."_

"_Are you happy you're a guardian?" Chris asked randomly._

"_I guess so. I mean, it's cool to have all these powers, and I like being a part of something so special."_

"_When I was young, I wanted to be a guardian," Chris said._

"_But you're a boy!" Ellie cried._

_Chris gave her an amused smile. "True, but that doesn't mean anything. One of the sets of Thousand Year Guardians, WRLOQ, were a set of five guys. Warren, Roman, Logan, Otto, and Quentin. And those are just Thousand Year Guardians. There were other sets of guardians made up of boys."_

"_Really? But they must've looked pretty silly with guardian wings."_

"_They're wings were much bigger than the fairy wings the female guardians get. They looked more like Shagon's wings. They all get taller and buffer, like I do when I transform . Their hair stays the same and instead of tights and skirts, they get navy blue pants, a white t-shirt, and a navy blue cape."_

"_Cape? Like superhero capes?"_

"_Like creepy figure in the distance capes."_

"_Cool," Ellie breathed. "I think you would've made a great guardian."_

_Chris laughed. "Thanks. But I think I like being Shagon better. I don't have the same limitations as a guardian."_

"_Limitations? Like what?"_

"_Like that you're stronger together or that, until recently, you needed the Heart, and by extension, Rae, in order to transform."_

"_Rae and Gabi are the only ones who've mastered that anyway," Ellie said. "Even I haven't been able to transform without the Heart since that day in Meridian. But are those limitations really _that_ bad?"_

"_If you can't transform, you're not as strong. I can transform whenever I want. And I'm fine fighting with my dad, but I don't want to need Cara to be stronger. I don't like that she's a regent. Not needing her makes it easier for me to protect her."_

"_But with powers, she can protect herself."_

"_She shouldn't have to," Chris said. "And I will never fail to protect her again."_

_Ellie knew right away Chris was thinking of his grandfather and smiled to herself. He was so sweet!_

"_Want to dance again?"_

_Chris nodded. "Look, Adam and Jade are dancing too."_

_Ellie saw he was right, though the pair were standing a bit too far from each other. Jade looked mad and Adam looked as if he'd rather be anywhere else._

_Chris led Ellie back out onto the dance floor. Every time a slow song played, they moved closer together, but, since they were venturing into unknown territory, didn't move too close, and talked through the songs._

_At one point, Ellie asked, "Chris, why did you say yes to the dance when I asked you?"_

"_Because I wanted to come with you," Chris replied, confused as to why Ellie would ask him that._

"_But why?"_

"_I thought it would be fun because we're friends now and because I…"_

"_You what?" Ellie asked._

"_Because I like you."_

"_As, like, a friend?"_

"_As the way I liked Alyssa."_

_Both Ellie and Chris went red immediately after he said this._

"_Oh...well, I like you too. As the way I liked Jake."_

"_You liked Jake?"_

"_Yeah, but now anymore. Not after you."_

_Chris grinned a heart melting grin. Another slow song came on, but before either could say anything more, someone tapped Chris on the shoulder._

"_May I cut in?" Adam asked._

_Chris looked like he was unsure, so Ellie answered for him._

"_No, you may not," Ellie replied, even though one dance with Adam was tradition and she really did want to._

"_Later then?" Adam asked._

"_No! Adam, you are here with your girlfriend who you are fighting with. Do you really think dancing with another girl, _any_ other girl, is going to fix it?"_

_Adam looked surprised. "You won't dance with me because of Jade?"_

"_You mean the girl that is not only your girlfriend, but one of my best friends? Yeah!"_

_Adam sighed. "El, there's something I have to tell you about Jade."_

"_Is it that you're losing interest in her and you're basically stringing her along?" Ellie asked._

_Adam paled._

_Chris bit back a laugh. Seeing a guy he didn't particularly get thrashed by his best friend was quite entertaining._

"_You need to go back to your girlfriend," Ellie said coldly._

_Adam sighed and nodded. He headed back over to Jade, who was talking to Jenna Gilbert, one of their drama friends (and Madame Thenardier in Les Mis)._

_For the next hour or so, everything was quiet. Chris and Ellie, now more comfortable, moved closer, Ellie leaning on Chris for all the slow songs. However, during the last 20 minutes or so, Ellie, Chris, and everyone around them heard a female voice yell, "Oh well that's just _perfect_ isn't it?"_

_Ellie didn't even have to look to know it was Jade. _

"_I'm tired of you blaming me for things that aren't even my fault," Adam growled out._

"_You're a jerk!"_

"_For stating the truth?"_

"_For _being_ a jerk!"_

_Ellie bit back a laugh. That wasn't the best comeback in the world, but this wasn't funny. It sounded really bad._

_Adam sighed. "What do you want me to do Jade?"_

"_You know what Adam? Nothing. I don't want you to do anything, because I'm so done with this. We're through."_

_Ellie stared, open mouthed, as Jade stalked off._

"_Um, I...I'm really sorry, but I…" Ellie stammered._

"_Go," Chris said, understanding immediately._

_Ellie gave him a grateful smile, and ran out of the gym, trying to catch up with her friend. She knew Jade wasn't the 'lock yourself in the Girl's Bathroom and cry' kind of person. She was more the 'kick something until you feel better' sort of girl. Ellie didn't know what Jade would want to kick though, so she headed to the one place that always made her feel better, and would probably have the same effect on Jade: the drama room._

_Ellie was relieved to see she was right. Jade was slumped down in one of the chairs in the drama room. She had tears streaming down her face, and the look on her face broke Ellie's heart._

"_Hey," she said softly, taking a seat beside her raven haired friend._

_Jade looked at her and gave her a wry smile. "Hey," she replied._

"_You okay?"_

"_No."_

"_What happened?"_

"_He told me he didn't feel the same way about me as he used to," Jade said, her voice cracking._

_Ellie nodded slowly. So he chose the truth. At least he tried to redeem himself in the end._

"_Then he told me that he wanted to try to _like_ me again, as if that's possible. If he doesn't like me, then he doesn't like me. I don't understand how he can't see that. I couldn't take that. So I ended it."_

"_Well, maybe it's better you broke up now. At least you guys didn't get super serious," Ellie ventured, hoping that sounded helpful._

"_I know you're right," Jade sobbed. "But that doesn't change the fact that _he _was the one losing interest, not me. He may not like me anymore, but I still like _him_. I _was _serious about him. I _am_ serious about him. I was falling in love with him."_

_Ellie was surprised. She knew Adam was a great guy, but she didn't expect Jade to fall in _love_ with him. She felt really bad for Jade, but she was actually glad that Adam wasn't on the same page as her, and even a little bit excited that since Jade and Adam were broken up, Adam might start to like her again. But why did she want that? Chris just told her he liked her. So why did she need Adam to like her as well? Was she really that self-centered?_

_Ellie shook the thoughts out of her mind and tried her best to console Jade. Ellie was usually good at making people feel better, but she wasn't sure if she could do it time. Jade always acted so tough, so seeing her in tears was unnerving._

_Fifteen minutes later, Jade thanked Ellie and told her she should go back to the gym. There was still time for one last dance, and Ellie should dance with Chris. Ellie was hesitant to leave Jade, but couldn't deny she wanted to be back with Chris, so she left._

_When she got back to the gym, she saw Chris was talking to Max and Della. Della seemed to be hanging on to every word Max said. Ellie was happy to see she seemed to be over Chris. Ellie made her way over to them, her face souring when she saw Lana Oller, who had come to the Sadie Hawkins with Gabe Preston, had the same idea. She quickened her pace, grabbed Chris's arm, and dragged him to the dance floor without saying anything._

"_If you wanted to dance, you just had to ask," Chris joked._

"_Sorry. I wanted to save you from the devil," Ellie said, nodding over to Lana, who was standing with Max and Della, looking put out. _

_Della said something to Lana, shrugged, then pulled Max onto the dance floor as well. The DJ announced that it was time for the last dance, and started to play one of Ellie's favorite songs, Kiss Me. To further Ellie's delight, the version that was playing was sung by Avril Lavigne, who was one of Ellie's favorite artists._

_Ellie and Chris danced until the song was about to end. Ellie sang along to the last chorus. "So kiss me," she finished softly at the end._

_And that's just what Chris did._

Caty and Alyssa was staring at Ellie in shock.

"That's so cute!" Alyssa cried finally.

"I can't believe he kissed you El! But that's great!" Caty put in.

"I'm glad Adam finally broke up with Jade. He was being so unfair to her," Alyssa added.

Ellie nodded, but barely heard her. Her head was still spinning from the kiss.

"So what does this mean for you two?" Caty asked. "Are you guys official or what?"

"I don't know! Chris kissed me and when he pulled back, I kissed him-"

"A little cliche El, don't you think?" Alyssa interrupted.

"-but when I pulled back and was going to ask him what that meant, we realized everyone was leaving," Ellie went on, ignoring the fire guardian. "So we caught up with Adam, who had to drive us all home. We got dropped off separately, obviously, so we didn't get to talk about it. But it's not a big deal. We'll talk about it tomorrow at guardian practice."

"Adam had to drive you home...Jade went with you guys?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah. I saw in the back with her. Adam took her home first."

"I hope she's okay," Alyssa said.

"You don't even know her," Caty pointed out.

"No, but it still sucks being dumped, especially with someone you're in love with," Alyssa said.

"Have you made a decision about whether or not to tell James?" Ellie asked.

"I'm going to tell him," Alyssa said. "I don't think I can hold it in any longer. But I'm still nervous about it."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Caty asked.

"Alyssa's going to tell James she loves him on his birthday," Ellie informed.

Caty looked surprised, then her expression became sour. "You're lucky your boyfriend is on the team, and you can tell him that. I can't tell Brian I love him."

"_Do_ you?" Ellie asked.

Caty nodded.

"Wow. And to think you used to be so focused on Tony," Alyssa commented.

Caty sighed. "I hadn't realized I'd fallen in love with Brian until he told me he loves me," she admitted.

"When did he tell you that?" Ellie asked, leaning forward.

"Tonight." Caty told the fire and air guardians the entire story, including why she didn't say it back. "But I really wanted to. I mean, Brian used to be so shy and nervous around me, but he's so confident now. He told me he loves me, and he barely blushed. I love that. And I used to regret that we didn't forge a friendship before...like, I hated that we missed out on so many years we could've had together. But I realize we know each other just as well as we would've even if we'd been friends from the beginning. Of course there are experiences we can't have together, but there are so many more we _can_. But that's only if we survive this final battle."

"I know it's scary," Alyssa said. "We're all terrified. But we're also getting much better with our powers. Look how well we did tonight. We've all almost mastered out element, we can use our second powers in battle, we're learning how to teletransport and see visions, and Hay Lin says we have even more powers that she's going to train us in. When the time comes to save all the known worlds, we'll be ready."

Caty smiled. She wasn't sure if they would be, but Alyssa was so convincing, Caty almost had no choice but to believe her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Chris took what was probably his hundredth deep breath as he continued to pace in front of Ellie's door, as he had been doing for the past half hour. He knew he should be at guardian practice. He should be helping the guardians with their powers. He should be sparring with Josh, Sage, and his sister. He should be talking to Ellie about their kisses last night and what it all meant. But he was here, and he couldn't just turn back.

This could be a stupid idea. Maybe the stupidest idea he'd ever had. He didn't do his research. What if Ellie's mother answered the door? Or her uncle? What if her brother wasn't even home? Ellie said he was at Heatherfield for spring break, but maybe he went back to school early. Maybe he had some work to finish up. Maybe his school was far away. Chris had no idea what college he even went to. But he had to try.

Just as Chris worked up the courage to knock on the door, it opened. Out walked a tall guy with the same dark brown hair and forest green eyes as the air guardian, dressed in a Wal-Mart uniform. Jason!

"Uh...hi," Jason said slowly when he saw Chris.

"Hey," Chris replied.

Jason narrowed his eyes and looked as if he were thinking. "I know you. Chris Lyndon, right? I sort of recognize you from when you came to this house, back when Ellie and Alyssa were still friends."

"You remember that? That was over six years ago!"

"I'm good with faces," Jason shrugged. Then his voice took on a protective edge. "I know you and my sister were at odds with each other for a long time, so I'm technically supposed to hate you. But I also know you took her to the Sadie Hawkins last night and she had a great time and she really seems to like you, so I'm gonna give you a pass."

"Thanks," Chris said weakly.

"You okay? You look like you're sick."

'Just nervous,' Chris thought. "I'm fine," he assured the Kramer man.

"Okay," Jason said dubiously. "Well, if you're looking for Ellie, she's not home. Actually, she's at The Silver Dragon, so you probably just missed her on your way over here."

"I know she's there," Chris said. "I actually wasn't looking for Ellie. I was looking for Gavin."

Jason looked surprised. "I didn't know you knew my brother."

"I don't. And he probably doesn't know me either. But I still need to talk to him."

Jason looked really surprised now, but shrugged. "Normally I'd ask why, but I'm gonna be late to work, so I'm just going to let you go inside because I know Ellie trusts you. Gavin's in his bedroom. It's the one right next door to Ellie's, if you remember where that is?"

Chris nodded.

"Okay. No one else is home, so you two will have the whole house to yourselves for your...talk."

Chris nodded again, and smiled. Jason left and Chris went inside, closing the door behind him. Ellie's apartment was a duplex, and the bedrooms were all upstairs. Gavin's room door was open, and Gavin seemed to hear Chris coming because he came out of his room, asking, "Did you forget something?" When he saw Chris, he paused.

"Oh. Sorry, I thought you were Jason. But you're not."

"No, I'm not." Chris didn't exactly want to be short with him, but just seeing the boy made him angry, which washed away his nervousness.

"Who are you exactly?"

"Chris Lyndon."

"Oh, right. You're sort of dating my sister," Gavin said, his voice taking on the same protective edge Jason's had.

"Yeah."

"Well, Ellie's not home. She's at-"

"My family's restaurant, I know. I came to talk to you."

"Oh." From the look on Gavin's face, it was clear he had a pretty good idea of what Chris wanted to talk about. He ran a hand through his brown hair. It was lighter than Ellie's and Jason's, but he had the same green eyes as both his siblings.

"Ellie told me about what happens to her at home, and from the look on your face and the tone of your voice, I'm guessing she told you I know."

"She mentioned it, yeah," Gavin said, trying to sound nonchalant, his expression blank. "Can she trust you?"

"To not tell the police or the authorities? Only if she can trust you _to _tell them."

Gavin's blank expression didn't change.

"She told me what you've been doing. She tried to lie to me about it first, to protect you. She told me that the reason she and Jason haven't said anything is because you won't corroborate their story, because that lie, as horrible as it is, still paints you in a better light than the truth."

"And what exactly do you think is the truth?" Gavin challenged, getting angry.

"She said she believes your mother will return to her normal self. But I can tell from the way she tells the story, she only believes that because you manipulated her into thinking that."

"I did not such-"

"Maybe she believed it at first," Chris interrupted. "But she's suffering now, more than ever. Your mom and uncle are hurting her, and it's just pain now, but it could get worse."

Gavin paled, and Chris knew Gavin realized what he meant.

"You need to let her tell."

"You have no right to butt into _our_ family business," Gavin declared angrily. "She's _my_ mom and you don't know how she was before."

"I do know," Chris said. "Back when I was friends with Ellie and I came over, I remember her. I'll admit, I only came over a couple of times. We mostly hung out at Alyssa's. Her house was big, she had a fully stocked fridge, she was had all the supplies and resources we would need for our art projects and homework, and all of Alyssa's friends had an open invitation to dinner. But I still remember your mother. She was sweet. She always wore colorful dresses and doted upon Ellie and baked cookies and brownies all the time. She liked to sing while she was in the kitchen and she always had a smile on her face. I know that's the woman you know. She still shows that side to you, doesn't she?"

Gavin nodded, silent.

"That's not the side she shows your brother and sister though. And your uncle being here only makes it worse. Ellie told me he doesn't even like you, and right now, because you're usually away at school, your mother can keep him from hurting you, but how long do you think that's going to last? Ellie wants her mother back too, and she needs to get help to be that woman again."

"If we tell, they will take her away. She will be put in jail, and we might never see her again."

"But how are you okay with what she's doing to Ellie? I know what's it's like to have a sibling. I have a little sister. Cara. She's 14, and when we were younger, our grandfather used to babysit for us, and when he did, he abused us. My immediate instinct was always to protect her. I made sure my grandfather focused on me so Cara would be safe, until we got older and realized we had to tell our parents what was happening. And it's not different now. Just because we're not getting abused doesn't mean I don't want to make sure she's okay. So how can you not want to protect your sister just as badly as I want to protect mine?"

"Of course I want to protect Ellie!" Gavin roared, making Chris flinch. "Don't you _dare_ question how much I love my sister."

"How can I not?" Chris asked, refusing to back down. "You just _let_ her get smacked around. What kind of brother does that? Jason wants to protect her, and he won't complain because _she_ won't let him, and she won't let him for _you_."

"It's not just because of me. She knows our mom will come to her senses."

"When? This has been going on for _years_. When are you going to get your head out of your ass and see the truth?"

"The truth is, you know nothing of our lives."

"Maybe not, but here's what I do know. I know that ._scum_," Chris said venomously. "And I know Ellie deserves far better than you."

Gavin's expression softened, and his eyes showed sadness. "Yeah," he said quietly. "She does."

"Then please, just let her complain and get out of this environment," Chris begged imploringly.

Gavin shook his head, looking pained. "I _can't_."

Chris let out a breath so he wouldn't blow up. "I see," he said quietly. He turned around and left. He didn't think he could handle guardian training today, so he called some of his friends on the basketball team. They played a pickup game so Chris could get his mind off of his disastrous attempt to help Ellie. He wanted to try to get Ellie or her brother to tell, but since that didn't seem to be working out, he knew he only had one other option.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie got to The Silver Dragon early the next day for practice. Gabi was behind the bar and Chris was wiping the tables. The restaurant was pretty much dead.

Gabi gave Ellie a quick wave before heading downstairs. Chris noticed the movement and looked up to see Ellie.

"Hey," he said, walking over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders, making her shiver, and he looked worried, and almost guilty, for some reason.

"Hi," Ellie said, happy to see him. "I heard from Jason you were at my house yesterday. I was here."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry I didn't come to practice."

"That's okay, but I really think we should talk," Ellie said.

"Me too," Chris agreed. "I think we should all talk."

"All?" Ellie asked, confused. Then she saw Gabi come back upstairs. With her was Rae, Alyssa, and Caty. "Wow, we're all here early today!"

"That's because I asked them to come early," Chris said. "We need to talk to you."

"About what?" Ellie asked, not liking the 'Poor Baby' expressions on everyone's faces.

Chris sighed, the guilty look more prevalent now. "I told them."

"Told them what...oh," Ellie said, realizing what he meant. "Of course you did. I was an idiot to think you wouldn't."

"Please don't be mad," Chris begged. "I just wanted to help."

"And technically, I knew, and Caty knew, and she told Gabi, so Gabi knew," Alyssa piped up. "So really, he only told Rae, who pretty much figured it out anyway."

Rae nodded to confirm this.

"I have no idea _how _you hid it this long," Gabi said.

Ellie didn't say anything. It was a lot easier to hide it when it was just her mom, and not her uncle as well.

"We can help you know," Rae said.

"Why does everyone automatically assume I need help?" Ellie asked.

Gabi gave her an incredulous look. "Are you serious? Is this one of your jokes? Because it's not funny. _None_ of this is funny."

"You need to get out of that house. It's a harmful environment for you," Caty said. "You don't _have_ to tell the police. We all think you should, but you don't have to. You do need to tell someone though, someone who can tell the police for you. Hay Lin maybe. And you have to leave. Do you know the percentage of abuse victims who end up dead before they turn 18? It's-"

"Caty, don't turn me into a statistic!" Ellie snapped. "Besides, I can't leave."

"Yes you can," Alyssa insisted.

"No, I can't, and I don't need to. I'm not some three legged dog or deaf cat in one of those ASAP commercials."

Everyone looked confused for a moment before Rae realized what she meant. "It's ASPCA," she corrected.

Ellie huffed and rolled her eyes. "The point is, I'm fi-"

"El, you're _not_ fine," Gabi interrupted. "You need to stop justifying this. Stop being such a damn victim and stick up for yourself! You always stood up to me and Lana. What's so different about this?"

"We can tell someone together," Caty said.

"And you can stay with me until then," Rae offered.

"Or me," Gabi said.

"Or me," Alyssa added.

"We all just want to help you El. Please let us," Chris begged.

Ellie sighed and massaged her temples. "I don't need help," she said, looking the other guardians. Then she turned to Chris and her eyes were filled with hurt and anger. "Least of all from you."

With that, Ellie turned and left, deciding to skip guardian practice, and head home.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae sighed as she closed Alyssa's locker and sat down in front of it. It was Monday morning and she was _bored_. As usual, she went to school with Alyssa and Sage. But Alyssa had a meeting with her group for a math project, Sage had early cheerleading practice, and it would be almost an hour before anyone else got here, so Rae was stuck at her locker, alone. Well, almost alone. Josh was with her, which wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't looking at her as if he were waiting for her to have a mental break.

Rae glared at him, and he flinched. The Rebel Army second-in-command actually _flinched_ when a 5'2", 90 pound girl glared at him.

"_What?_" She spat.

Josh flinched _again_ before saying, "You look like Death."

Rae let a small smile grace her lips, her first one since they went to defeat the nymphs. "Alyssa once told me that too...the day we were all suffering those hangovers. You guys really are brother and sister."

"Even while she chooses to ignore it," Josh grinned. "But I actually meant like Death from the stories. You know, like Death who decides to time for someone to die. Because of your black clothes and black makeup."

"I might as well be," Rae muttered.

"This is about the altermere, right?" Josh asked, sitting down next to her.

Rae sighed. "Yeah. I just...I didn't know she was alive. But she was and I absorbed her, meaning I killed her."

"You didn't know what you were doing," Josh said.

"But I should've! I created her, I gave her life. How could I not know she was alive?"

"Rae…" but Josh didn't know what to say to make her feel better.

Rae sighed again, then felt her eyes well up. She let the tears fall freely, since it was only Josh watching.

"I killed her," she choked out. "I killed a living human being."

"Altermere's aren't exactly human," Josh said.

Rae glared at him through her tears and he backtracked.

"Sorry. I just mean...nevermind. The point is, you didn't do anything wrong. I mean, you didn't kill her on purpose. You didn't know what you were doing."

"But I _should _have!" Rae cried. "Josh, I can't even _live_ with myself. I took away someone's _life_. How am I supposed to get over that?"

Again, Josh was at a loss for words. He wanted to help Rae, but he had no idea what he could say. She was always so strong, but right now, she was a mess, and he didn't know what to do to make her feel better.

Rae began to sob, trying to say something, but not being able to. Josh turned to face her, grabbed her hands, and said, "Rae, you are a good person. You just need to believe that again."

Rae shook her head, as if to say, 'I'm not.'

Josh gripped her hands tighter, making Rae look at him. The Meridianite realized how close he actually was to Rae. If he just leaned in, a little bit, he'd be kissing her. So that's just what he did.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That night, Ellie tried her hardest to try and transform without the Heart. Angry at Chris and feeling weird around the guardians, Ellie skipped practice again today, and started to feel bad about it. If she could change, she could fly to the clearing and practice by herself for a little while. Yes it was dangerous for a 16-year-old girl to be all by herself at night, in the dark, in Heatherfield's 'middle of nowhere,' but she was no ordinary 16-year-old girl. She was a Guardian of the Veil.

But try as she might, Ellie couldn't change. Trying just made her feel tired and sick and weak, the same things Alyssa and Caty felt when they tried. Ellie couldn't understand how she was the first one to do it, but couldn't do it anymore while Rae and Gabi, arguably the most powerful of the five of them, could basically change whenever they wanted.

Ellie gave up around 10 o'clock, after trying to change for almost 45 minutes. Gavin was sitting on one of the stools on the kitchen's peninsula, his laptop in front of him. Since Gavin didn't have class until Tuesday night, he decided not to drive back til Tuesday morning. It was his last night here, and as much as Ellie was starting to resent him, and as much as she would be glad to be rid of all the tension in the air every time Jason and Gavin were in the same room, she would still miss him terribly. He was her twin after all, and the resentment was outweighed by how much she loved him.

"Hey baby sis," Gavin said jokingly.

"Not a baby and not your nickname," Ellie replied, giving him a smile.

"Jason doesn't _own_ the term 'baby sis.'"

"I think he'd have to disagree," Ellie replied. "Where is everyone. I thought Mom and Uncle Tim weren't working tonight? Not that I'm not relieved that they're gone."

"Uncle Tim is at a friend's, Mom called, she's on her way home, and Jason's still at work."

Ellie bit her lip. If her mother was on her way, Ellie's best move was to head upstairs and pretend to be asleep. Betty was rarely in such a bad mood that she'd wake Ellie up to hit her and get her anger out. Usually, she'd just wait for Jason, and she'd chew him out. She used to hit Jason as well, but as Jason got older, stronger, and taller, she stopped the physical torment and focused on the verbal abuse. Jason was happy to take it if it meant Ellie would have one less bruise the next day.

But before Ellie could bid Gavin good night, the door opened, and in walked Betty Kramer. To Ellie's delight, Jason was behind her. Jason never let Betty hit Ellie when he was around.

Betty glared at her daughter. "Great. I had a terrible day and now I have to come home and look at you."

Ellie didn't say anything. Silence was often the correct response. But it was never the option Jason took.

"Mother, apologize to Ellie!" He demanded.

"Jase, it's okay," Ellie said.

"Jase, it's okay," Betty mocked.

"Mom, stop," Jason said, his voice hard.

Betty glared at him and slapped him across the face. When she was especially mad, that was the one physical thing she'd still do.

Jason growled but said nothing.

"You are a terrible son," Betty said. "Speaking to me as if you are my equal. Who do you think you are?"

Jason chose silence this time, to Ellie's relief.

The door opened again, and Ellie's breath hitched. Unless her father was making an appearance at the apartment (which he hadn't done in nine months), that was her Uncle Tim.

Yup. Tim walked into the house, immediately filling the house with the scent of marijuana. He grinned that sadistic way he grinned when he wanted to push Ellie around. Of course Jason wouldn't let that happen, which meant this wouldn't end well.

Before Tim could walk over to Ellie however, Betty sank her claws in.

"And _you_," she said. "My _daughter_. You're even worse than him. With your snotty little attitude and your snivelling pleas to stop when I hit you. You're pathetic."

Ellie wished she could just punch her mother. It took Betty four days to recover from the kick Ellie delivered a week ago. But with Tim around, Ellie wouldn't dare risk it.

"But I do love to hear you scream," Betty said, smiling evilly. She grabbed Ellie's arm, making the air guardian wince in pain. Then she threw her against the coffee table.

"No!" Jason cried, making a move to go toward her. Tim held him back.

"Scream you pitiful girl!" Betty shrieked as she pulled Ellie up by her wrist.

Well Ellie was up, moaning in pain all the way, Betty let her go, then raised her arm to hit her. Ellie tried to block the blow and ended up pushing her mother back four feet. Betty shrieked and fell. Ellie was shocked. She hadn't touched her mother. But it did feel like she let loose an air blast.

The first thing Ellie did was check to make sure she hadn't transformed. Nope. She was still in her pyjamas, not guardian clothes, and her hair was still down, not in the two pony tails it went into when she transformed. But that was a more powerful air blast than she usually let loose in human form.

"What the hell was that?" Betty shrieked.

"Uh...n-nothing," Ellie stammered, exchanging panicked looks with Jason. Tim looked shocked and she could feel Gavin's eyes on her as well.

Ellie felt her fear rise, and as her emotions picked up, so did her powers. Wind started blowing everywhere and Ellie had to concentrate to stop it.

"She's a demon child!" Betty screeched.

"We'll lock her up," Tim declared.

"No!" Jason cried. "Ellie, do _something_! Protect yourself!"

Gabi's words came back to her.

_Stop being such a damn victim and stick up for yourself!_

Ellie couldn't avoid this anymore. She couldn't be in this environment anymore. The minute Ellie left, Jason could. This could all be over.

Jason wrenched himself out of Tim's grip. Summoning all her strength, Ellie used her powers to shoot air blasts at both of them. They both cried out in pain as they were slammed against walls. They were both knocked out. Gavin cried out in shock.

Ellie turned to her twin and her heart nearly broke as she saw her brother was frightened of her.

"W-wh-what are you?" He stammered out.

"I...I…"

"Ellie, forget him. You don't have much time," Jason said.

Ellie knew what he meant. She ran upstairs and threw some essentials in a duffel bag, hardly believing this was actually happening. She opened one of the drawers in her nightstand and took out the bag of Memory Flower powder. Rae had given some to each guardian. She put the bag in the pocket of her plaid pants, stuffed anything she would need inside the duffel, grabbed her backpack and purse and went back downstairs.

"Jason, what now?"

"We're getting out of here. When they wake up, we don't know what they'll do."

"I do," Ellie said. "They'll forget."

"What?"

"Remember when you found out, I wanted to make you forget? Well, that wasn't just a random comment. I can do it."

"How?"

Ellie took out the bag of the memory powder. "This is powder from a plant in Meridian called the Memory Flower. If I put a little of this in a drink and make someone drink it, I can erase their memory."

"But Mom and Uncle Tim are knocked out, and if we wait for them to wake up, they might pose more of a threat."

"It's okay. If the person is conscious, then you have to tell them to forget a specific memory, but if they're unconscious, like if they're sleeping, or if they're like Mom and Uncle Tim, then as long as we can get them to swallow the powder, they'll forget the last 24 hours. They'll forget everything that happened today, which could be bad, but at least they won't remember what I did."

Jason nodded. "Okay, but hurry. Before they wake up."

Ellie nodded. She grabbed two glasses, filled them with water, and put in some memory powder, and made her mother and uncle swallow it. She couldn't be sure it worked, but she had to hope for the best.

"Alright, now let's get out of here. We can stay at Markus's."

"You go. I'll stay with one of my friends," Ellie said. Markus didn't have a big apartment. He shouldn't be forced to share it with both of them.

Jason nodded and looked at Gavin. "Grab your stuff. You're coming with me."

"Are you...like her?" Gavin asked, his voice shaking.

Jason's eyes narrowed. Anger radiated off of him in waves. How dare Gavin talk about Ellie as if she was Death?

"Jase, no time," Ellie reminded.

Jason took a deep breath. "No. I'm not. And you're coming to Markus's with me."

Gavin nodded. He'd already packed for his drive back to school anyway. Jason went to gather his stuff.

Gavin took a deep breath and looked at his sister. "I want some of that."

"What?"

"Whatever you just gave to Mom and Uncle Tim. I want it too. I want to forget."

Ellie felt her heart break more. Her brothers were so different. Jason was awed by Ellie, proud of her, and protested when she wanted to make him forget. Gavin, her _twin_, didn't want anything to do with her, and _wanted_ to forget. But Ellie loved Gavin and couldn't deny him his right to forget. Especially if it meant he wouldn't have to be scared of her anymore.

Ellie explained this to Jason when he came downstairs.

Jason looked at Gavin. "If you want to forget how awesome our sister is, fine," he spat. "But you need to do something for us first. Tomorrow morning, I will drive us back here, and you will go inside and see what Mom and Uncle Tim remember. I'll take you to wherever Ellie is staying after, and she can make you forget so long as it worked on Mom and Uncle Tim."

"And if it didn't?" Gavin challenged.

"We'll try again," Ellie spoke up. "We need you because they won't hurt you. You can't forget until after they do."

Gavin nodded. He didn't look happy, but he also didn't want to protest. He wasn't sure what Ellie would and wouldn't do to protect her secret.

Ellie and the boys quickly cleaned the house, making it seem as if nothing had happened, and left the house before either Betty or Tim could stir. After making sure Ellie would have a ride (she said she'd call Adam), Jason drove to Markus's house, Gavin following in his car.

Ellie didn't call Adam because she needed to wander and clear her head. At first, she had no idea where she was headed, but it didn't take her long to know there was one only one place she really wanted to go.

When she got the big house, she knocked on the door, hoping it wasn't too late. When the door opened, Ellie asked, "Can I stay here?"

Alyssa smiled sadly, knowing exactly what had happened. "Of course."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: And that's the end. I know it's kind of an abrupt ending, and the last scene wasn't very well written or executed, but it was a plot point that was in my mind since early on in the story, so I was glad I finally got to get it out. Hope you enjoyed! There's a lot of logistics I have to work out for the next couple of chapters, and I'll try to be quick, but I also tried to be quick with these two and it took over two months, so bear with me guys! I love you all, thank you so much for the support!**


	43. GRACE Interrupted

**A/N: Hello everyone! Here are the next two chapters. I tried to get them out as quickly as I could. I actually waited almost a week to publish these, but the reason for that will be revealed soon. In the meantime, enjoy these chapters! **

**Unfortunately, it looks like I've lost one favorite and one follow. It's always upsetting to lose fans and readers, but it makes me appreciate the fans and readers I have left even more, so I'd like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who are sticking with me, especially Arianna le Fay, my first favorite and follow, Misa, SilvenArrow, and WaterAmulet, and Emily, my first supporter, my only Beta for this story, and my best friend!**

**Now, let's get on with it! As usual, the shout outs are split up. **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**caramelcookie: I was re-reading one of the old chapters, and I understood, how in the beginning, you, and others, could've gotten the idea that Chris and Caty ended up together. I'm glad you're so happy with Chris and Ellie. I got the idea for them to be together randomly, in the chapter Loosen Up, and the more I played with it, the more I decided I should try it. Alyssa and James are my absolute favorite couple in the story, and I have a lot of plans for them. And forgiveness is hard, especially when a person you trusted with your life keeps a huge secret from you. For me, Caty is my least favorite character, but also the one most like me. Each character has a little of me in them, but the brains, neurosis, and need to be perfect is so me. And unfortunately for Caty, no bad deed can go unpunished, and even though she loves him now, the way she got together with Brian was a bad deed. Gabi on the other hand, is my favorite. We're both writers haha. I want good things for her too, and she'll get them, but not without some bad mixed in. And yeah, I want Gabi to be my style consultant too. Rae is also one of my favorites. She has my sarcasm. It's hard for her to stop beating herself up over the altermere because absorbing her back into the Heart was basically the same thing as killing another human being. That's not the same as killing a monster. I constantly feel bad for Ellie, and I hate myself because I'm the one making her go through all of this. Chris had to tell. He tried to get Gavin to, and that didn't work out, and he didn't want her getting hurt anymore. Gavin still sees the mother Ellie and Jason used to have. He thinks that if she still acts motherly towards him, one day she'll come to her senses and stop beating up Ellie and Jason, and he doesn't want her to be locked up and lose his mother. But yes, please do run him over. His reasoning doesn't excuse his behavior or his choices. And I adore Jason! He's the perfect older brother. With regards to the reconciliation, the first step is **_**rescue**_** Elyon, because right now she's still locked up with the rest of her family. I have a whole big scene planned out for the eventual reconciliation, but it will be a while. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these chapters. I know you wanted the story to move along, and these two chapters are mainly filler, addressing a bunch of plots points I haven't addressed to tie up loose ends, but I have a big twist coming up soon! Thank you for reviewing, and I hope to hear from you again!**

**Shay: You're my 200th review! And I'm glad the wait didn't affect you too much! I tried to be quicker with these chapters. I had to make her tell Chris how she felt! And I had to get her out of that house. The idea of getting Chris to talk to Gavin came to me while I was writing the chapter 'What Was Stolen' in which Ellie tells Chris what's going on at home. And Ellie's smart enough to know he was just trying to help, but she also feels a little betrayed. I feel really bad because everyone wants Alyssa and Josh to make up, and I did write that part, but it's not in this installment and it's driving me crazy! But that chapter is done. I was considering making this a triple update, but maybe I'll publish that chapter in a few days, instead of making it a double update. Hope you enjoy these chapters!**

**Misa: It's so weird that this happened to you again! I addressed most of your comments when I PM'd you back, so I'll just say thank you for taking the time to log in and PM me because you couldn't review. It really does mean so much! And I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's only been two days since your PM, so you won't have too long a wait!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"This is very stressful," Rae declared the next afternoon, pacing back in forth in The Silver Dragon basement.

Ellie and Alyssa exchanged looks.

"Are you sure _this_ is what's stressful?" Alyssa asked carefully.

"What do mean? Of course I am!" Rae snapped.

"Okay," Ellie said, putting her hands up in surrender, biting her lip so she wouldn't add the words 'calm down.'

After Ellie explained what happened to Alyssa the night before, they both filled Rae in telepathically. That morning, Gavin confirmed that Betty and Tim didn't remember a thing about Ellie's powers, or anything about that day. They were confused. Gavin told them Ellie headed to school and Jason went to work early, and left. They would not question the whereabouts of either for a couple of days. It was not uncommon for Betty and Tim to leave for work early and return late enough to not see Ellie or Jason for a few days in a row.

Harvey took Rae, Ellie, and Alyssa to Markus's so Ellie could erase Gavin's memory. Rae, not wanting to tell everyone else what was going on until it was over, had Sage go to school with Gabi and Josh.

The three girls met at The Silver Dragon early, half an hour before practice to go over the story. Ellie wanted to keep the abuse a secret from Josh, Sage, James, and Cara, the members of Team GRACE that didn't go. They decided to go with 'Ellie's emotions took over and she displayed her powers in front of her mother and brother so she had to erase their memory, and the reason she's staying with Alyssa is because her her mother and Jason are always at work and she doesn't like staying home alone.' They'd explain the real story to the other guardians and-much to Ellie's chargrin, Chris-later.

Rae went into leader mode instantly last night and stayed that way through the morning, but Alyssa thought she'd be okay by now because everything worked out. However, she was still extremely stressed, and now that Alyssa thought about it, she was like that since yesterday morning, and she and Ellie quickly realized there was something else bothering her.

"Well, look who decided to show up," Gabi teased lightly as she and Josh arrived.

Rae visibly stiffened when she caught sight of the pair. Alyssa realized that something must've happened between either Rae and Gabi or Rae and Josh, and that's what was causing the stress. However, since both Gabi and Josh were acting completely normal, Alyssa couldn't tell which of them Rae didn't want to see.

"We have something to tell you actually," Alyssa said. "_But not in front of Josh_."

Gabi nodded. "Josh, can you go get me coke?"

Josh nodded and headed upstairs.

"Okay, what did you want to tell me?" Gabi asked.

"And can you tell me too?" Caty asked as she came downstairs.

Alyssa nodded. "Ellie came over last night. She's officially staying with me."

Caty's eyes lit up. "Really? That's awesome! Are you gonna tell the police?"

"No, not...not yet...but at least I'm safe," Ellie said.

As long as she stayed with Alyssa and Jason stayed with Markus, she didn't really see a reason to tell. Gavin could have the loving mother he wanted and Ellie and Jason could get out. Jason always wanted to move out. He was just waiting for Ellie to work up the courage to leave as well before he did.

Caty nodded. She knew Ellie would have to tell the police eventually, but she also understood this was the best she could expect out of Ellie for now.

Josh came back downstairs and handed Gabi her coke. She smiled at him, then realized she actually didn't want it and gave it to Rae. Josh frowned at this, but didn't say anything.

Sage and Chris came downstairs next. Chris tried to smile at Ellie, but she avoided his eyes, making his face fall.

Josh grabbed Sage's arm and asked if they could talk. She said sure and they went off into one corner of the room, whispering. Rae's eyes tightened as she tried to hear what Josh and Sage were saying, and Alyssa noticed. So something weird happened between her and Josh. Josh probably thought Gabi asked Josh for the coke for Rae and he was upset she wasn't talking to him. But what happened?

Rae sighed when she realized she couldn't hear them and decided to take that opportunity to tell the other guardians and Chris the full story of what happened at Ellie's last night. She had just finished when Hay Lin, Cara and James came downstairs. Josh and Sage rejoined the group, and Rae told them the abridged version before they started practice.

After practice that day, Gabi, who didn't have a shift that day, offered to make everyone Shirley Temples. Everyone liked that idea and followed Gabi upstairs. Ellie and Chris were last, and before Ellie could follow everyone upstairs, Chris grabbed her arm. Despite being angry with him, Ellie still shivered at Chris's touch.

"Wait. Can we please talk?"

"I don't want to talk," Ellie said stubbornly.

"Then I'll talk and you listen."

Ellie sighed, but turned to face him.

"I want to apologize."

"For telling everyone?"

"Not exactly, no. I want to apologize for promising not to tell anyone, and then doing it anyway. I'm sorry for breaking your trust. That was seriously uncool of me. But I'm not sorry for the action itself. I needed to tell them. I was hoping, with all of them to support you, you'd finally decide to leave your mother's house, even if you didn't tell the police, and you did. I'm not saying that's because of my plan, but I'd like to think that had something to do with it. And I _hate_ that you hate me, but I'm not sorry I told."

Ellie sighed. She already knew all this in the back of her mind. Chris helped her so much, from making her talk about everything, including her real feelings about Gavin, to helping her learn how to defend herself. And when she thought about it, the rest of the guardians knowing about her mother _did_ help. They all offered her a place to stay and promised to help her whenever she decided to tell the police. She finally left that place, and it was in part because of Chris. And…

"Gavin left for school this morning," Ellie said quietly. "After I erased his memory and he was saying goodbye, he told me something interesting...about you."

"Oh?" Chris said, and it was clear he knew exactly what Gavin told her.

"Yeah. He said you went to talk to him, to try to convince him to tell someone about Mom and Uncle Tim. He apologized for not being able to do it, but I barely heard him. All I could do was focus on the fact that you tried. That was a really amazing thing to do."

"I care about you El," Chris said.

"And I think I'm only beginning to see that," Ellie said. "You told me at the dance that you liked me, but words are just words. You also proved it, and I've never really experienced that. I mean, I had Alyssa and Adam, but they're my best friends. You and I...we're on another level, and I didn't know how much you cared."

"If it isn't clear, a lot," Chris said.

A smile played on Ellie's lips. "It's clear. And for the record, I don't _hate_ you. I actually kind of like you."

"Oh, only kind of?" Chris asked, feigning hurt.

"I'm sure you'll grow on me," Ellie teased.

Chris gave her that heart melting grin and stepped closer to her. Before Ellie knew what was happening, he was kissing her again. It took a split second for her to respond, enjoying every moment. It was quite a while before they joined the rest of the team.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

On the first day of the first week of April, Caty practically _skipped_ into the Mock Trial classroom. Nina and Misha were already there, as well as Will and Travis. No one else had arrived yet.

The roof was leaking from the rain last night, and no one had fixed it yet since they expected rain on and off for most of the week, and wanted to wait. A bucket was under the small leek, so it could catch the water.

Caty went around the bucket and walked up to her friends.

"Well someone's in a good mood," Nina commented.

"A _very_ good mood," Caty agreed.

"And what brought on this _very_ good mood?" Misha asked.

Caty grinned at her two best friends. "I just got this interesting e-mail last night," she replied, pulling it up on her phone. She handed the phone to Nina, who read it to herself, with Misha looking over her shoulder.

"No way!" Nina cried.

"Ms. Mandel is writing you the recommendation letter? That's awsome Caty!" Misha cried.

Caty nodded in agreement, still grinning. Just as she was about to go to sleep last night, she got an e-mail from Ms. Mandel saying that she was going to write a recommendation either for her or another student (who Caty knew was Brian), but the other student went to Ms. Mandel and told her he didn't her recommendation, and would like her to write one for Caty.

Caty immediately texted Gabi when she saw the e-mail, thanking her profusely for all her help. She then texted Ellie, who was super excited for her and thought Brian was really sweet to actually do that.

Caty still couldn't believe Brian had done that for her. Everything seemed to be working out. She was going to get a good recommendation, the peer eval Brian had written for her was amazing, and she got a real boyfriend that she _loved_ out of all this. Besides that, guardian training seemed to be going really well, Ellie had moved out of her house into a safe environment, Rin slept for two hours at a time in the night now, and she'd left the real SAT test last week feeling really good about it.

"Hey Caty!" Brian said as he walked into the classroom, giving her a kiss. "I read your peer eval for me last night. It was amazing. I didn't know you thought so highly of me."

Ignoring his teasing tone, Caty swatted Brian on the arm. "Brian, you're not supposed to _read_ my peer eval!"

"Oh come on Caty, like you didn't read mine!" Brian replied.

"I didn't," Caty said. She sounded pretty convincing, but she blushed immediately.

"Yeah," Brian said disbelievingly, a smile on his face. "I know you well enough to know you blush whenever you lie."

Caty blushed deeper as Nina and Misha began to snicker.

Brian chuckled. "You're adorable," he said, giving her a kiss on cheek. He gave her a quick wave before joining Travis and Will.

"He's gotten so brave," Nina said. "He used to blush and stutter all the time in front of you, but now he can say anything without being nervous."

"And I love that about him," Caty said.

Yeah, she did love that about him. She loved him. She just wished she could say it.

"We should celebrate this recommendation letter thing," Misha said. "It's Friday. How about we go to dinner and have a sleepover? It's been a while."

It _had_ been a while since the three of them had a sleepover, and it would be nice. Caty hadn't told Misha and Nina that Brian told her he loved her, but she wanted to. A sleepover would be perfect. Except…

"I can't tonight," Caty said. "Lili and I have to babysit Rin and Landon."

Landon was Lili's new brother, who was born just a couple of months before Rin. Dawn and Iris were excited for Landon and Rin to grow up together, the way Caty and Lili had, and were even more excited that since neither were planning to move anytime soon, Rin and Landon wouldn't even be split up the way Caty and Lili were.

"Wow, double cuteness!" Nina cried, making Caty and Misha roll their eyes. As an only child, Nina always wanted a little brother or sister, and adored every baby or little kid she came across. Misha's annoying little brother had a kiddie crush on Nina since she was always so sweet to him.

"And Layla's gonna be home and Peyton's coming over," Caty said.

"Oh Lili must be thrilled about that," Misha said with a laugh.

"You have no idea," Caty said, rolling her eyes. "I don't see the problem though. Peyton would make a great first boyfriend. He's polite, sweet, well-spoken...a nice boy overall."

"And hot," Misha said. "I feel creepy saying it since I'm two years older than him, but if he was 17, I'd be all over him."

"Ew," Caty said, but laughed. "Anyway, sleepover tomorrow night?"

"Sounds good," Nina agreed.

Misha nodded as well, then Brian waved Caty over and she went over to him, a huge smile on her face. She was very thankful she met someone that made her this happy.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie never thought she'd be in the kind of relationship where she and her boyfriend made out all the time. That never happened with her other boyfriends. But with Chris, it was all she could do to keep from kissing him senseless every time she saw him, and even though she knew he wasn't a fan of PDA, he made an exception for her, because they often made out near the apple tree outside of the school before the first warning bell rang.

That morning was no exception. It was hard for them both to break away when the warning bell rang, but they both needed to go to their lockers and had different classes, so they had to go inside and part ways.

When Ellie got to her locker, Jade, Sage, and Milly, who were in her Algebra 2 class, were waiting for her.

"Cutting it close El," Jade teased as the second warning bell rang at the same time Ellie opened her locker.

"Yeah, Chris and I were slow splitting up today," Ellie said.

"I'm glad you're happy with Chris," Sage said.

Ellie smiled, but couldn't help but shoot an apprehensive look at Jade. She was acting like she was fine, but she was still reeling from her break up with Adam. It was hard on all of them because neither wanted to hang out together anymore. Milly stuck with Jade because they were best friends. Ellie stuck with Adam because he was her best friend, and even though she didn't _love_ what he did to Jade, she knew it wasn't his fault that he was losing interest. Besides, she thought it was noble of him to tell Jade the truth when he broke up with her. Most guys would use some lame cliche like the timing is not right, or, even worse, "it's not you, it's me" when breaking up with a girl, and not giving her an actual reason. Ellie thought Adam would be that kind. She should've known her best friend was a better guy than that.

In class, the five of them sat together and tried their best to interact normally, but they were split up everywhere else. While walking to their shared classes, Ellie and Adam walked together while Jade, Milly, and Sage walked together. Ellie ate lunch with Adam while Milly ate with Jade (Sage always sat with the cheerleaders, even before the breakup). After school, Ellie and Sage would have to choose whether to hang out with Adam that day, or with Milly and Jade. Ellie hoped they'd all be able to hang out together again soon.

"When are you going to be happy?" Ellie asked as the girls headed to class. "Do you like someone?"

"No. I'm not over Josh yet."

"Well that's understandable. It would be hard to get over someone that looks the way he does," Milly said, making Jade laugh.

Sage smiled. "There's so much more to him than just his looks. And I'm happy he's finally showing that side to someone else. No one believed me when I talked about how sweet and real he was, but I think Gabi gets it now."

"Gabi and I are good friends," Ellie said, "but I still don't understand how someone who is best friends with you can like someone like her."

"Gabi is more than she shows too. She's also sweet and sincere, and she doesn't show that side a lot, but that's what Josh likes about her," Sage said. "And that's what makes them perfect for each other. They're comfortable showing each a side of them they don't really show other people."

Ellie thought about that. She thought about it all through the day. She had told Chris all about the dark side of her life. No one else had such a clear understanding of what was going on, both at home, and inside her head. But he didn't know much about her as a person and she didn't really know much about him either. Adam was the person who knew her inside and out. He knew her better than anyone. And while she loved that she had a best friend like that, she wanted Chris to know her that way too, and she wanted to know him like that. So maybe they needed to make out a little less and talk a little more. Chris asking her if she was okay everyday wasn't really the same. But she was determined to make a change. She really liked Chris. He was worth it all.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What's going on with you and Jake?" Alyssa asked Rae Sunday afternoon during guardian training. They were just waiting on James, who was heading over after finishing his shift at Lange's.

"What do you mean?" Rae asked as Ellie, Caty, and Gabi stopped their conversation to listen to this one.

"Well James told me that Jake told _him_ that he's not too happy with any of us keeping secrets from him, least of all you," Alyssa said.

Rae sighed. "Ever since the altermere...well he's kind of noticed a...change in me."

"He's not the only one," Gabi muttered.

Rae glared at her, then went on, "And so he's been even more insistent about me telling him what it is we do down here. And he's not too happy that you and James, who are supposed to be two of his closest friends, are keeping the same secret from him."

"Tell me about it," Caty said. "Every time I talk to him he asks me to tell him what's going on. He keeps guilting me, telling me how I'm his _best _friend, and that he tells me everything and how I used to extend the same courtesy to him, and asking me how are we supposed to get our old friendship back if we can't be honest with each other. It's getting harder and harder to keep quiet."

"Just imagine how hard it is for me," Rae said. "But I can't tell him, not with the danger he could be in if he knows. I just want to protect him."

"What do you think will happen?" Cara asked, joining the conversation. "I mean, he already found out once, and from what I understand, he was great about it. He didn't freak out or anything. In fact, he thought the whole things was pretty awesome."

"I know that. I'm not worried about how he'll react."

"Then what's the harm?" Caty asked slowly, curiosity raining in her voice. Whatever Rae said was probably something she should apply to Brian.

Rae shrugged. "I'm not sure. All I know is, portals pop up everywhere, James was present when Snake Dude tried to attack us, and monsters invaded Ellie's house when she wasn't even home, probably trying to attack her brother to get to her. With portals and attacks becoming more frequent, and the unpredictability of portals opening, everyone is in enough danger without knowing anything about the guardians. I'm not subjecting Jake to any of that, no matter what."

Alyssa chewed on her lip before speaking. "Rae," she said uncertainly, "I understand you want to keep Jake safe. I mean, remember how reluctant I was to let James join the team? But you guys have already gotten in fights because of this secret. I don't know how much longer he'll just let you dodge the question or change the subject or even tell him you can't tell him."

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I know what could happen, and honestly, he's in enough danger just dating me. If I was strong enough, I'd just end it now. But I like him too much for that. But if this ends badly because of this secret, then I'll have to accept that. I'll deal with whatever to keep him safe."

Everyone nodded, and after a moment of silence, went back to their own conversations while waiting for James. Cara went back to where Chris, Sage, and Josh were whispering very seriously about something. Rae and Alyssa discussed birthday gifts for James. Caty and Ellie were helping Gabi come up with fundraising ideas so they could raise enough money for a couple of extra people to go to Classics, but while Ellie and Gabi kept brainstorming, Caty kept quiet. She tried to get back into the conversation, but all she could think about was Brian and the danger he might be in.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Monday morning, Caty stood with Misha and Nina in the back of the Mock Trial classroom, looking at Brian, who was laughing with his friends. The roof was still leaking, but there was no bucket to catch the water this time, so there was a puddle forming on the floor.

"Guys," she said taking a deep breath. "I'm going to break up with Brian."

For a moment, Nina and Misha just stared at her, uncomprehending.

"Wait, what?" Misha finally burst out.

"But why?" Nina asked. "You told us _two days ago_ that you're in love with him."

Caty mentally cringed. She'd forgotten she told them that. She knew she needed to break up with Brian. The stronger Caty got, the more the guardian stuff seemed to scare her, and she was convinced a break up was the only way to keep Brian safe. But she had no idea what she'd tell her friends when they asked her why. Yet another reason she wished she could tell Nina and Misha what GRACE was really about.

"Well, I guess I'm not."

"So you...lied to us?" Misha asked, confused.

"No, I just...changed my mind."

"In the course of 48 hours?" Misha was disbelieving.

"Yeah. It happens."

"It happens?" Nina repeated. "You change your mind about where you want to go for dinner, that happens. You change your mind about what you want to write about for a paper, _that_ happens. You don't change your mind about being in love over the course of two days. That _doesn't_ happen."

"Well, it happened to me!" Caty cried.

Misha frowned. "Caty, tell us the truth. What's really going on?"

"I already told you."

Misha's frown deepened. "Why are you lying to us? It's like Brian said. You always blush when you lie. And you keep blushing deeper and deeper. You obviously still love him. So why do you want to break up with him?"

"I don't have to explain everything to you guys!" Caty burst out.

"No you don't," Nina agreed. "But lately, you haven't explained _anything_ to us. Are we even still best friends?"

"Of course we are!"

"Really? Because it sure doesn't feel like it. You barely spend time with us and you're always lying and you're unfocused, which I guess doesn't have much to do with us, but you won't even tell us why," Misha said.

"I have no idea what you guys are talking about," Caty said, feeling a blush spread across her cheeks.

"There it is again," Nina pointed out.

"Oh whatever."

Nina and Misha rolled their eyes and began taking turns listing all the problems they had with Caty recently.

"You never hang out with us anymore," Misha said.

"And I don't know why you continue to use that tutor circle excuse. We knew it was a lie from the beginning," Nina added.

"You haven't written a single article for the paper since December."

"You're not even _trying_ in soccer."

"You don't stay for full meetings of AcDec, Model U.N., Debate Team…" Misha started.

"Or Student Council, Ecology Club, Key Club," Nina finished.

"Do you think you can just do whatever you want with no consequences? Keep slacking off like this, you'll be booted from Editor-in-chief position, as co-head of AcDec, and as Student Council VP. You've missed five meetings, and three meetings is one strike. You're one more missed meeting away from two strikes, and if you get three, you're out of Student Council."

"Not to mention if you keep playing the way you are, you'll be riding the bench for the rest of the season," Nina added. "I've heard rumors that Coach Hansen already thinks it was mistake letting you on the Varsity team."

Caty was horrified to hear that. She didn't know she was doing so badly.

"You're losing your number one positions too," Misha went on. "Brian has officially won five more cases than you have for Mock Trial, and Sheila's itching to kick you out of Model U.N. You can only miss two more meetings before she's allowed."

Caty bit her lip. She had no idea what to say. She couldn't really defend herself. It was all true. Guardian training was tough, and she had a hard time not daydreaming about what horrible things await GRACE in the battles ahead. She managed to stay focused in class, but between training, homework, a boyfriend (which was more like work than anything back when she was still playing Brian), and trying to split her time evenly between Team GRACE members and Misha and Nina, she didn't have as much time for all her clubs. She had to run out of meetings for guardian stuff, and she was too tired or injured from training to play soccer as well as she could.

"It's okay if it's tough for you to keep up with everything," Nina said soothingly. "That's what you have friends for. So we can help you. But you have to _let _us."

"So we'll ask you one more time Caty," Misha said, her voice cold. "What is going on? Why are you breaking up with Brian and what is tutor circle really about it? Tell us the truth."

Caty battled with herself harder than ever. She could tell them and this would all be over. They'd be the supportive best friends they always were. Or they'd freak out and stop hanging out with her. Or they'd tell and convince others it was true and blow the lid on the whole guardian secret. Or they'd think she was crazy and try to get her help. Or they wouldn't believe her and be angrier than they already were. Or they'd be in more danger than they possibly were in already. There were too many unknowns for her to tell them. Rae would never approve, and she couldn't handle erasing their memories if this all went South.

Caty took a deep breath. She hated doing this, but she had no choice. "No."

"What?" Nina choked out.

"You asked me to tell you what's going on. I said no."

Misha's mouth set in a hard line. "I see," she said. She stood up on a chair, looked around, then climbed up to stand on the table.

"What are you doing?" Caty asked.

"Everyone, clear out!" Misha demanded.

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Sheila Breslin asked. "This is the Mock Trial classroom. Everyone in Mock Trial has a right to be here. This is always where we hang out before class."

"Well, today, we need the room," Misha said. "Everyone except Brian, Nina, Caty, and I."

"Misha, what's going on?" Nina asked.

"Let's just go Shele," Sheila's best friend Ralph said. Her other best friend, Mona, nodded. Usually the classroom was full, with all the honors students, but that morning it was only Caty, Misha, Nina, Sheila, Ralph, Mona, Brian, Will, Travis, and Nick.

Sheila sighed, but agreed. "Fine," she muttered. She walked out of the room, Ralph and Mona following her. Caty realized Ralph forgot his notebook, but didn't say anything, too preoccupied with whatever Misha was trying to do.

"You guys too," Misha said when the boys didn't move.

Travis looked at Brian, who just shrugged. Travis shrugged back and led Nick and Will out.

"What are you doing Misha?" Caty asked.

"You said you wanted to break up with him. I'm just helping," Misha replied in a whisper.

Caty grew worried. Misha could be very evil when she wanted to be.

When the boys were out of earshot, Misha walked up to Brian and started telling him something.

Caty threw Nina an apprehensive look. Nina just shrugged nonchalantly. She wasn't sure what Misha was doing, but whatever it is, Caty deserved. She wasn't being a friend to them and she wasn't letting them be friends to her.

Caty sighed and watched Brian and Misha converse nervously. She said she wanted to break up with Brian, but like Rae, she wasn't sure if she strong enough. Was Misha doing it for her? Did Caty really want that?

Brian's expression, which was confused when Misha first started to talk to him, turned from incredulous to upset to angry. He was glaring at whatever Misha was saying, but there was pure heartbreak in his eyes. Caty wasn't sure what Misha was saying, but she had half a mind to go over there and slap her for making Brian so sad. What was going on?

Brian threw angry glances in Caty's direction. At first, Caty wasn't sure why, but when Misha stood back, smirking, and Brian, still glaring, walked over to Caty, she realized what was happening. She felt dizzy. Her knees went weak. Brian stopped when he got close enough to her. No one had ever seen him this angry before. Nina scurried away, backing up against a wall. Misha crossed the room to join her.

"So," Brian said, his voice quiet, but like ice. "Misha just told me something extremely interesting."

"O-Oh?" Caty asked, her voice shaking.

"So was this all some big joke? Fun and games? Oh no wait! You needed something from me, right? So it must've been hard work. But you got what you wanted in the end. Congratulations."

"Brian-"

"I can't _believe_..." Brian stopped when his voice cracked. He took a deep breath and started again. "I can't believe that you were playing me this whole time! I can't believe that none of this meant _anything_ to you!"

"That's not true!" Caty cried, desperate to get her piece in. She didn't want this. She didn't want to break up. She wanted to be with him. And him finding out was never part of the plan. "Our whole relationship meant so much to me! So much more than you'll ever know."

Brian looked disgusted. "You really expect me to believe that?"

"I'm hoping you will. I care about you so much-"

"Stop!" Brian cried. "If you think you care about me, then you're more messed up than I thought. What kind of person would do this, huh? If you wanted the recommendation letter that badly, why didn't you just try to convince me how much it meant to you? Why didn't you just be nice to me or try to be my friend? Why did you do all this?"

"I…" Caty was at a loss. What was she supposed to say? Because Misha thought this would be better? Why didn't she just become his friend, the way Sage suggested? Right. She wanted revenge.

"Every touch, every kiss, every moment...it was all a lie," Brian said, the hurt in his eyes physically hurting Caty. "You let me believe you liked me. You let me take you out and give you presents. You let my family believe you cared. You let me tell you I love you, like an idiot. If you really cared about me, you wouldn't have done any of that."

"Listen," Caty begged. "Yes, what I did was horrible, but the reason I let it go on was because-"

"If you're going to give me some line about how this started out as a plan, but you actually began to like me in the end, save it. I can't be lied to anymore."

"It's not a lie. I really did start to like you. More than like you. You weren't just my fake boyfriend that I was trying to get revenge on. You became my real boyfriend who I cared about."

"Caty, this whole thing is _sick_!" Brian cried. "It doesn't matter whether you're telling the truth or not. I can't be with you. Not now that I know the kind of person you really are."

Caty had tears streaming down her face. Brian's figure became blurry, but she could still see him walking past her.

Caty turned, wiping her eyes furiously. She was glad she was late this morning and didn't have a chance to put on any make up. "Brian wait! Please!"

"For you? Not anymore."

"Brian!" Caty tried one last time. "I love you!"

That made him pause. He looked back at her, shock written all over his features. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Nina glaring at Misha while Misha looked a little guilty.

"I know I couldn't say it before, but I can now. And I mean it. I love you!"

Brian seemed to be struggling for words. For a moment, he looked like he might be willing to at least hear her out. But then anger took over again. "Like I said before, that's _sick_. I don't care if you're telling the truth or not. I can't be with someone like you."

Before Caty could think of anything more to say, he left. Caty let out a strangled cry of anguish before turning to face the girls she called her best friends. She glared at them through the tears, shaking with anger.

Misha bit her lip guiltily. "Caty," she started, "I-"

"How could you do that to me?" she yelled, interrupting the Indian girl. "How could you tell him?"

Misha glared back at her, the guilt gone. "Hey, _you're_ the one who played him. Didn't he deserve to know?"

"This what _your_ idea in the first place!"

"Don't you dare blame me! You're the one who went along with it. You didn't have to do it you know."

"You insisted even though I didn't want to do this. And every time I tried to back out after, you convinced me to keep going."

"Don't act so high and mighty Caty. I may be convincing, but you're stubborn. There's no way I could've gotten you to do this if you really didn't want to. You didn't really want to back out. You just wanted me to tell you to keep going so you could justify it to yourself. This is all on _you_! You've got no one but yourself to blame!"

"Okay, guys, maybe we should just-" Nina started, but was interrupted.

"Don't play peacemaker Nina. Caty's been ditching us for months. She brought this on herself."

"Oh like you even care that much! You're not needy Misha, and you guys had each other. You're not mad because I'm not hanging out with you as much as I used to. You're mad because the people who take me away from you are people you view as beneath you."

"Are we seriously back to this Ellie and Gabi thing?"

"_You_ keep bringing us back. I branched out and made different friends. You need to deal with it!"

"You don't even see the real issue here! Yes, we had each other, but we didn't have _you_. And I don't mean physically. Even when you hung out with us, you weren't all there. The problem isn't that you didn't hang out with us as much as you used to. The problem is, you stopped showing us your real self. You lied to us every chance you got and shut us out. What were we supposed to do with that?"

"Not tell my boyfriend, who I am in love with, how this relationship actually started!"

"You were going to break up with him!"

"And that makes it okay?"

"None of this is okay!"

"Again, this was your idea! I may have gone along with it, but you're the one who came up with the plan in the first place!"

"Oh yeah, put it all on me. That's just like you! Perfect Caty Lewis doesn't do anything wrong because she's so much better than everyone else!"

"I do _not_ think I'm better than everyone else!" Caty snapped. She admitted, she used to feel that way. She didn't choose Nina and Misha as her best friends for any reason other than that she truly enjoyed their company, but she did realize she was the smartest girl amongst the honors crowd, her sub-group, and her little trio of friends, and she enjoyed that. But Nina and Misha…

"You guys judge and stick your noses up at anyone who isn't book smart. But those aren't the only things that matter!"

"You're right. Friendship also matters. Loyalty matters. Oh, and trust. I guess you wouldn't know much about any of that," Misha said coldly. She stalked out of the room. "Come on Nina."

Nina looked unsure of whether to remain in the room and comfort Caty, who was still crying, or follow Misha. After a moment of deliberating, she chose Misha.

Of course. Nina and Caty were friends for years before they met Misha, but Nina was the shyest, meekest one of their trio, and Misha was the one the strongest, most dominating personality. Nina often went along with what Misha said, despite her own opinions. She often took Misha's side on arguments even when she thought Caty, or whoever Misha was fighting with, was right. So of course, in a fight, Nina would choose to go along with Misha.

Caty didn't mind at this very moment. She was glad she was alone in the room. She took advantage of the emptiness and began to cry in earnest. She lost one of the most important people in her life. Brian wasn't just angry with her. He hated her. He hated the person she really was. And Caty wasn't sure if she could take that.

Ten minutes later, Caty sighed. There was still twenty minutes left before class started. She wiped her eyes again. She had to get going, but she couldn't really stop crying. She walked over to where the puddle was and knelt down next to it.

From the minute she walked into the room, she felt a strange pull from that puddle, but she knew she'd get strange reactions from everyone if she sat down next to a puddle. But now, she was alone.

She dropped to her knees and stared deep into the puddle. She was shocked when the puddle started rippling, as if a pebble was dropped into it. Then the water started _glittering_. Caty remembered Hay Lin telling her that's what water did before Irma saw a vision in it.

Sure enough, a picture appeared. It was blurry at first, but when it cleared up, Caty saw it was a picture of the door to room 332, her pre-calc classroom. She saw GRACE in front of the door. They opened it and stepped inside. For a minute, nothing else happened. Then, a portal opened up, right in the classroom!

The Mock Trial door opened, distracting Caty. She looked up to see Ralph peeking in. Seeing only Caty in there, he entered, giving her a smile.

Caty smiled back. Even though she and Sheila hated each other even before the honors crowd formed sub-groups, and Mona hated Caty for no other reason than that Sheila hated her, Ralph was always nice, not just to her, but to everyone.

"I forgot my notebook," he said, grabbing it. "I don't know what I would've done if your friend said this room was still of limits. She kind of scares me. But it looks like you guys are done."

"Yeah, we are. And I noticed you left it. I would've taken it with me and given it to you in math."

Ralph smiled. "Thanks. I'll see you in class?"

"Yeah," Caty replied.

Ralph nodded and left. Caty looked back at the puddle, but the vision was gone. She sighed. She didn't know if there was a portal in the pre-calc classroom or not-the vision could've been of a different time or day-but she had to check. She couldn't let her classmates go in there with a portal open.

She walked out of the Mock Trial classroom. She saw Misha leaning against a wall, her phone pressed to her ear. Besides the kids who hung out in the Mock Trial classroom, the hallway was usually empty, the perfect place for someone to take a phone call. Nina was next to her.

Further down, she saw a girl with short black hair making her way to class. Just the girl she needed to see!

Misha put away her phone just as Caty started running after the raven haired girl. She bumped into the Indian.

"Ow!" Misha cried angrily. "Geez, where's the fire?"

"Ooops!" Caty called back. Her tone was apologetic, but she didn't look back or even actually say sorry. She kept running. "Rae!" she called when she was near enough.

Rae stopped and turned around.

"Caty, hey. What's wrong?"

Caty lowered her voice to a whisper as she reached Rae. "I saw a vision in the water."

Rae's eyes widened. She closed her eyes and Caty knew she was trying to reach Alyssa.

"_What's wrong?_" Alyssa's voice asked in their heads.

"_I need you to connect us to Ellie and Gabi_," Caty said.

"_El, Gabs, can you hear me?_" Alyssa asked.

"_Yup_," they said simultaneously.

Caty explained her vision to the group. "_I don't know if it's happening now or not, but we need to go close it if it is, before class starts. And I got distracted, so I didn't get to see the whole thing, but the way our lives usually go, there's a good chance monsters will come out of the portal. We have to protect everyone here. They're all innocent._"

"_Okay, we'll meet at the room_," Alyssa decided.

Caty nodded before remembering Alyssa couldn't see her. She and Rae ran the distance to the room. The others were already there. Since they all had math as their first class (Calc 3 for Alyssa, AP Calc BC for Rae, Honors Pre-calc for Caty, and Algebra 2 for Ellie and Gabi), they were all around the room as they waited for class to begin.

"Alright," Alyssa said, looking at her phone. "We still have ten minutes before class starts. Still, we have to try our best to be in and out."

Everyone else nodded. Rae opened the door and the girls entered.

"I don't see anything," Rae said.

"Give it a minute," Caty replied.

Sure enough, the Heart started to vibrate, and a portal opened. Gabi closed the door behind them. Rae took out the Heart.

"Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

Alyssa looked confused. "Rae, why'd you change us? What if nothing happens?"

"Better safe than sorry," Rae replied, already creating a lightning ball. Nothing came out of the portal.

"It looks like we're in the clear. Let's close it now, before something does try to attack us," Gabi suggested.

Rae nodded. Before she could start the process however, the door opened, and in walked Misha and Nina.

Caty let out a startled cry. So did they.

"Caty, what are you _wearing_?" Misha asked.

"And what's that?" Nina asked, voice shaking as she looked at the portal.

"Do you have..._wings_?" Misha continued.

"And what's _that_?" Nina repeated urgently, pointing at the portal now.

Caty's mouth dropped open. How was this happening. "Wh-why did you follow me?"

"Well, it seemed pretty obvious something was up when one minute, you and Rae was standing around staring at _nothing_, doing and saying _nothing_, and the next, you took off," Misha replied, trying not to look at the portal that was scaring Nina so badly.

"Guys, we've _got_ to be more careful when we have our telepathic conversations," Alyssa decided.

The others nodded, each having embarrassing experiences because of a telepathic conversation.

"Telepathic?" Misha repeated.

"Will somebody please tell me what that is?!" Nina cried shrilly, her eyes glued to the portal.

"Rae, close it," Alyssa said.

Rae nodded. She closed the portal and changed the girls back.

Misha and Nina's mouths dropped open.

"You can change your clothes at will?" Misha asked.

"Not at will," Caty said. "Although...guys, watch this." She snapped her fingers. In an instant, her dark blue tight fit shirt, light wash cutoffs, and white sneakers all turned pink.

"New power?" Gabi asked.

"Yeah. You like?"

"Please. Pink is so childish," the brunette said, rolling her eyes.

Caty smirked and snapped her fingers again. Her sneakers turned white again. Her shirt also turned white and the cutoffs were black.

Gabi's eyes widened. "Now that's cool."

"I can only do pink and black and white so far," Caty said, snapping her fingers again. Her clothes went back to normal. "But I'm sure I'll learn more soon."

Rae groaned. "Are you serious Caty? How can you be so smart, but display your powers so callously in front of your friends?"

"Because they're my friends, and I wanted them to know about this since I found out about it."

"And what is this exactly?" Misha asked.

"Uh, hello? Floating, glowing, blue circle. Explanation?" Nina demanded.

"That was a portal to another dimension," Alyssa answered quickly before turning to Rae. "So, Memory Flower?"

"Definitely."

"Definitely _not_!" Caty argued. "I'm not going to erase their memories. You might've been able to do it Rae, but I have a sense of _morals_."

"Erase our memories?" Misha asked.

"What do you mean _another dimension_?" Nina asked, her voice shrill again.

"How _dare _you Caty!" Rae cried, livid. "I have morals. I erased Jake's memory so he wouldn't be in _danger_!"

"_Danger_?" Nina squeaked.

"She's right Caty. That was out of line," Alyssa said.

Caty sighed. "I know. And I'm sorry Rae. But I can't do that to Nina and Misha. I couldn't tell them, but they found out, like James, and we didn't make him forget."

"We didn't have anything to make him forget then," Rae argued.

"We let him join the team," Ellie said. "Even _after _we knew we could go to Taranee to ask for the memory powder."

"Didn't we decide that the guardian closest to the people who find out get to make the final decision?" Gabi asked. "You made it with Jake New Girl, because you're dating. But Ellie made the decision with Jason, Alyssa made it with James, and Caty should make it with Misha and Nina."

"Whatever is going on here, you are _not_ erasing our memories," Misha declared.

Caty felt her anger flare up. "Do you actually think I'd do that?"

"I don't know. You've been lying since the beginning of the school year, and clearly this, whatever _this_ is, has something to do with that. You're ready to let go of your lies already?" Misha asked mockingly.

"This is craziness, that's what this is," Nina said her voice going so high, some of the words were inaudible. She started to pace. "There's light and colors and wings!"

Caty looked back at the other girls, wondering what to do. Nina clearly wasn't able to handle this.

"I've got this," Alyssa said. She went up to Nina and put a hand on her shoulder, making her stop pacing. "Nina, it's okay. I understand this is scary, but you have to remember, it's something your best friend is involved in, and nothing about Caty would warrant worry. So just calm down and let us explain."

Nina nodded and took a deep breath. Finally, she smiled. "You're right, thanks."

"_Lyssa, what did you _do_?" _Ellie asked.

"_I just used my powers to make an emotional link with her. My calmness infected her and calmed her down too_."

"_Nice_," Caty approved. "_Although, I could've just commanded she calm down_."

"_What happened to your _morals_?" _Rae smirked.

Caty glared at her.

"Okay, you're doing that weird thing where it's clear you're having a conversation but you're not saying anything again," Misha broke in.

"That's because Alyssa's telepathic," Caty said. "So we have conversations in our mind when we're talking about guardian stuff, because that stuff is private."

"Guardian stuff?" Nina asked.

"That's what this is," Alyssa said. "We're known as the Guardians of the Veil."

"What's a guardian of the veil?" Misha wondered.

"Someone who...guards...the veil," Caty said.

Misha and Nina fixed her with 'Seriously?' looks.

Caty blushed. "God, we're terrible at this! How come it was so much easier to explain this to Jason and James?"

"Because they saw us _fighting_ in our guardian forms," Alyssa said. "Seeing is believing, so they understood a little more than Misha and Nina do by the time we had to explain."

"So then let's give them a dose of sight," Rae suggested, realizing she'd have to climb on board of the 'Misha and Nina deserve to know' train. "Let's invite them to guardian practice."

"Guardian practice?" Misha asked.

"That's what tutor circle actually is," Caty explained.

Gabi's face suddenly broke into a huge smile. "And now that you guys don't know, we don't have to ever use the term 'tutor circle' ever again!"

Ellie and Alyssa laughed.

"So what do you say?" Rae asked. "We meet every day at The Silver Dragon. Today, since no one has anything to do, we're meeting right after school."

Nina and Misha looked each other and shrugged. "Sounds good," they said in unison.

Caty gave Rae and grateful smile, then turned the smile on her friends. "This is going to explain everything, I promise," she said earnestly.

"But you only get to keep your memories if you swear not to say anything about anything that you'll see or hear to anyone else," Rae said seriously.

Nina and Misha both nodded. "Swear," they said, again in unision.

"Good. And guys, can we please agree not to let anyone else find out. This is getting out of hand," Rae said to the guardians wearily.

The others nodded.

The bell rang.

"Okay. Class is gonna start in four minutes," Rae said. She looked at Nina and Misha. "I'll see you guys at lunch, and then again after school."

Nina and Misha nodded, and waved good bye to Rae, Alyssa, Ellie, and Gabi as the girls left to go to their respective classrooms.

Caty had a huge smile on her face as she took her seat. Her friends were finally going to understand everything! But her smile vanished instantly as Brian walked into the classroom with his friends. Her best friends might finally be in on her secret, but she'd still lost the person she'd loved like no one else. And Misha was right. She had no one but herself to blame.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Adam, can I ask you a favor?" Sage asked later that day. She, Ellie, Jade, Milly, and Adam were sitting on the floor in front of the small stage that was built in the Drama III classroom. For today's class, their drama advisor, Mr. Brewer decided everyone should practice their solo performances.

As Eponine, Ellie had a whole solo song, On My Own. Sage had performed Castle on a Cloud as young Cosette in the beginning of the period, and Jade had just finished performing (and killing) Fatine's famous I Dreamed a Dream.

Ellie couldn't wait until rehearsal the next day, when they would start rehearsing all the songs. One Day More was one of her favorites, and she could wait to practice it.

"What's the favor?" Adam asked.

"I need a date, or at least, a partner, for James' birthday dinner," Sage replied.

"I didn't know you were going to that," Ellie said. She thought it was just supposed to be Alyssa, James, Rae, Jake, Caty, and Brian.

"Well, I was invited, but at that time, there was supposed to be an evening rehearsal at the same time as the dinner. But when Alyssa found out Mr. Brewer cancelled it, she insisted I come, even though I told her it was too late to ask Sam."

"Sam?" Milly asked.

"He's a senior on the basketball team," Sage said.

"He's James's closest friend outside of...tutor circle," Ellie said. Gabi may have thought she'd never need to use that term again, but Ellie still did.

"And his closest guy friend," Sage added. "Because the only guys in tutor circle are Chris and Josh and they both hate him."

"Why can't you ask Sam now?" Jade asked.

"He has plans. When Alyssa invited him to James's birthday dinner, he said he'd try to get out of them, but then he found out I wasn't coming, and he didn't want to be a seventh wheel, so he committed to his other plans."

"And now you don't want to go without Sam, or someone, because you don't want to be a seventh wheel," Milly said, nodding in understanding.

"But why me?" Adam asked. "I haven't said a single word to the guy. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know who I am."

"He knows. Alyssa's told him about you," Ellie said.

Milly and Jade both hid a smile at this.

"El, that's even worse," Adam said. "He probably hates me."

"He doesn't _hate_ you," Sage said.

"But your tone signifies he at least dislikes Adam," Milly pointed flatly.

"No surprise there," Jade muttered.

Ellie coughed awkwardly. The five of them were so used to spending time together in their music and drama classes that Jade and Adam agreed to be civil during those classes so they could still hang out together, but Jade wasn't doing a very good job, putting in a snide remark every five minutes. Adam, to his credit, had been putting up with it for an entire week, not snapping back at all.

"I can't go alone, and I need a guy," Sage said, directing the conversation back to James' dinner to ease the tension. "They're going to Two's Company. Otherwise, I would've asked Ellie. She's pretty close to James, after Alyssa."

"And Rae and Caty and you," Ellie added playfully.

"Ew. Why are they going there?" Jade asked at the same time.

"The food," Sage explained.

Two's Company was a very fancy, but inexpensive restaurant with amazing food. The only catch was that they were very close minded. Every group of people they let in needed to be an even number, and paired off. They didn't need to be a couple, but they all had to be paired off, at least as friends, and it had to boy-girl pairs. No boy-boy or girl-girl pairs allowed. Most people still went there, following this rule, because the food was to die for. But this meant Sage couldn't go alone, which she didn't want to do anyway, and she had to go with a boy.

"I'll go," Adam shrugged. "But only if you can't find someone else. I really don't feel comfortable going to dinner for a guy I barely know who happens to be dating my ex-best friend. Talk about uncomfortable."

"Almost as uncomfortable as being broken up with at a dance. Although I guess that's more sad than anything," Jade remarked.

Ellie could tell all Adam wanted to do was remind Jade _she_ broke up with _him_, but remained quiet. He did feel bad for hurting Jade and didn't want to make things worse. Ellie wasn't sure how long Adam could remain calm and quiet though. Even someone as cool and collected as Adam would snap eventually.

"Community theater auditions are today," Milly said, taking her turn to ease the tension. "Everyone excited?"

"Oh yeah!" Jade said, perking up. "I really want the role of Ariel, even though I look more like Rusty."

"Community theater is doing Footloose?" Ellie asked.

Footloose was her favorite movie. Unlike most people, she and her friends thought the 2011 film was better than the 1984 one. They'd seen Sheffield do a musical version of Footloose when they were still in eighth grade and had wanted to do it ever since, so they'd been pushing for the community theater to put it on, since Sheffield never did the same play or musical twice. Unlike most schools that just focused on one aspect, Sheffield prided themselves on their academics, their arts programs, and their athletics department.

"Yup," Jade said, popping the 'p.' "Which you would know if you were doing the musical."

Ellie shrugged, not really wanting to lie. She'd opted out of doing the community theater musical this year. She had too much going on already. She wouldn't have time with guardian training. Even though Hay Lin had long since told them training was only mandatory for two hours a day (three on weekends), ever since she started the sparring system, training had gone over every single day. Not to mention with Hay Lin cracking down and insisting the girls practice Heartless transformation and teletransportation at the end of practice every day, and Rae agreeing easily, they sometimes stayed for four hours even on weekdays.

All the girls already had to cut down on the number or work shifts they could take (except for Caty, who didn't have a job), and drop an extracurricular or two (except Caty, who was too neurotic to drop anything). Ellie manager was only scheduling her for opening hostess shifts on weekends, and she had to drop out of Glee Club. Her friends didn't understand what was happening.

"Not so fast," Milly said when she realized Ellie wasn't going to say anything about not participating. "I would like the role of Ariel too. This is Footloose, and dancing is my forte."

Adam looked at Ellie curiously as Milly and Jade began to lightly argue about who'd get Ariel.

"Why aren't you doing community theater? You do it every year," Adam said.

Ellie just shrugged again, shooting Sage a 'Help!' look.

Sage shrugged helplessly.

"But now that you know it's Footloose, are you going to try to make time?"

"I can't," Ellie said, even though she desperately wanted to be part of the production now. "I don't _have_ time."

"Oooh, guys, let's practice after school!" Milly said suddenly, her argument with Jade over. "El, Sage, I know you're not doing community theater, but you can help us prepare for our auditions after school, right? Adam wants to be Willard, and Jade and I both want Ariel, but we'd both settle for Rusty or Vi Moore."

"I've never even heard of Footloose," Sage said.

Jade, Milly, and Adam looked at her incredulously. Ellie sighed inaudibly. Sage being from Meridian made her weird, but she could hide it better than Josh. However, she was always honest, and often told people she hadn't heard of things that most people knew about, like Footloose.

"Sage's family don't watch many movies," Ellie said.

"So what? You could've never seen a movie in your life, but you still would've _heard_ of Footloose," Jade said.

Sage shrugged, realizing Footloose was in the same league as Grease and Dirty Dancing, two other movies she hadn't seen and should've kept quiet about.

Milly and Jade immediately launched into the story of Footloose. Adam looked at Ellie.

"So will you help us today?"

Ellie was about to agree when she remembered guardian practice was taking place right after school. Between educating Nina and Misha that afternoon, and already missing two practices in a row in which Alyssa had managed to transform (though she hadn't been able to do it again since then), and Rae and Gabi had been able to teletransport a good distance safely, Ellie couldn't afford to miss or even be late to training for a while. Plus, ever since Ellie told Chris on Friday that she wanted to get to know him better, he and Ellie would always sit in his room with Shirley Temples and work on their homework and talk for hours after training. It was the best part of her day, and the earlier training was over, the more time they'd have together, so she didn't really want to ask the the girls if they could push it back an hour.

"We can't today," she said. "We have tutor circle."

An annoyed look passed over Adam's face. "No you don't," he sighed. "There's no tutor circle."

"What?"

Adam sighed and scooted away from Jade, Milly, and Sage. Ellie crawled after him, realizing he wanted to talk in private.

"You're a great actress Ellie, so great that even other actresses like Jade and Milly can't tell when you're lying. But me? I'm not just a fellow actor. I'm your best friend. And I know tutor circle is a lie."

"You're right," Ellie said.

Adam looked surprised that she was admitting it, but didn't say anything.

"It's not tutor circle. It's self defense."

Adam ran his hand over his face in frustration. "That's a lie too Ellie. Self defense was a lie since the moment you told me. I tried to catch you in it by insisting I watch, but you got your friends to play along for you. I don't know why they did that-I guess I'm happy you have such good friends-but it's not acceptable that you're lying to me."

"Excuse me? Not _acceptable_?" Ellie asked incredulously. "Are you trying to tell me what to do?"

"No. I'm trying to understand. I am your _best_ friend. What possible reason could you have to lie to me?"

"I'm not lying to you," Ellie said.

"You _are_," Adam insisted. "You may be able to fool everyone else, but not me. You've been acting weird for _months_. You run out on rehearsals, you barely have any time to hang out, you don't work nearly as much, even though I know you need to make bank to help out at home, you quit Glee Club even though you're the best singer in this whole school, you're not doing Community Theater even though you love it, you're going out with _Chris Lyndon_ of all people-"

"Is that what this is about?" Ellie broke in. "Chris?"

"No! I mean, I'm not gonna lie El, it's _weird_. I _never_ expected you to even forgive him or be friends with him, so you guys dating is a real shock, but that's not _all_ this is about. I'm not mad that you're dating Chris, I just find it another thing to add to your list of strange behavior. Besides everything that I mentioned, there's also Sage."

"What about Sage?"

"I know you guys are friends, but even before you guys were close, you were always a we."

"A we?"

"Whenever we ask you guys to do something, you two always answer for yourselves and each other. _We'll_ be there, _we'd_ love to, _we_ can't today because _we're_ busy."

"We have self defense together-"

"_Stop it_ with that bullshit excuse Ellie!" Adam cried, raising his voice. A few people, including their friends, turned to look at them.

Jade gave them a questioning look.

'Are you okay?' she mouthed to Ellie.

Ellie nodded, letting Jade, Milly, and Sage know they were fine. Milly and Jade exchanged looks, but then shrugged and went back to their conversation with Sage.

Adam lowered his voice again. "I'm not saying you're not doing anything," he said. "It's pretty obvious you're busy. I don't think you're just ditching us or anything. You're doing _something_. I don't know what it is. But I _do_ know self defense isn't it. So tell me what it is."

"Adam I can't. Can't you just trust me?"

"I _do_ trust you. I've always trusted you. But you never lied to me before, and if you won't tell what it is you're doing, at least tell me why you're lying."

Ellie couldn't exactly tell Adam she was lying to protect him without him asking more questions and even getting Jade and Milly involved. And while Ellie and Sage were pretty good liars, she wasn't sure she could handle all three of them questioning her.

"I can't do that either," Ellie mumbled. She squirmed under Adam's gaze. He wasn't angry like she expected him to be. He just looked disappointed and almost betrayed. Ellie could feel her heart breaking. After Jason, Adam was the last person she wanted to lie to. And also after Jason, Adam was the last person she wanted to get hurt. According to Alyssa, GRACE had at least three enemies, and Kasson's monsters had already come after Jason. What was stopping them, or any of the other monsters after them, from coming after Adam too? Rae insisted the less people knew, the better. And they'd all agreed just that morning that they wouldn't let anyone else past Misha and Nina know about this. So she couldn't say a word.

"Ellie, this is not okay," Adam said quietly. He was hurt. She could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He didn't try to mask it.

_I know_ she wanted to say, but didn't. She was pretty sure if she said anything, she'd cry. She'd never felt so bad for hurting someone before. Even when Adam told her how he felt about her for the first time back in eighth grade and she had to reject him, she didn't feel this bad. He was heartbroken back then sure, but he wasn't betrayed. Now she could tell he felt like he couldn't trust her.

Ellie got up. She had to get out of there. She grabbed the bathroom pass and left. She'd barely walked five feet from the classroom when Adam followed her.

"El, stop!" he said. "We need to talk about this."

"There's nothing else to say Adam! I can't tell you and that's that," Ellie replied, whirling around to face him.

Adam stepped closer to her. "Ellie, I know you. I'm your best friend. I can see it's hurting you to keep this from me. So stop torturing yourself."

"I _can't. _I'm sorry."

Adam's mouth set into a hard line. "Are you?" he asked. "Because if you were really sorry, you'd give me _something_."

"That's not fair."

"What's not fair is the way you're acting. Ellie, you know how I feel about you. I love you. I always have. Even when I was dating Jade, even when I really did like her, my feelings for you didn't go away. When she broke up with me, I knew I wasn't over you. I still love you."

Ellie cringed. Ever since Adam started dating Jade, she wanted him to like her again. But now that he was telling her he did, it made her feel weird. He was very good about never telling her how he felt about her ever since the first time he told her because he knew she never felt the same. He was saying it now to try and convince her to tell him her secret.

"You've never returned those feelings, and that's okay," Adam continued. "What's not okay is that now you're barely acting like my friend."

Ouch. That hurt. And he wasn't wrong. She wasn't being much of a friend to not just Adam, but Jade or Milly either. She barely ever hung out with them or did things with them anymore. But she had more important things to worry about, like the fate of all the known worlds. She couldn't be singing and dancing in a Community Theater production when she was supposed to be training to save Kandrakar, Earth, Meridian, and every other world out there.

"I thought, no matter what, we'd always be friends. Now, I don't know."

"Adam, I _am_ your friend. We're best friends, and we always will be. I care about you so much. You have to know that."

"I _don't_ know that. I hear what you're saying, but you're actions completely foil your words."

"I...Adam, I don't know what that means," Ellie said desperately.

Adam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It doesn't matter," he said finally, his voice low like it always was when he was serious or sad. Ellie could guess which was one he was now. "I've tried to ignore your lies and just let you be, but it's becoming too much. I know you care El, and I do too. But that's not enough anymore."

"What are you saying Adam?"

"I'm saying that I can't just let it be. I'm saying that I'll always love you and I'll always be here, but until you tell me the truth about what's been going on with you and what you've been doing...I can't be your friend anymore."

"What?!" Ellie could hardly believe what she was hearing. Adam was always around. He stuck by her through _everything_. And now he was leaving? He was going to walk out of her life?

"I'm sorry Ellie. We're supposed to be best friends. We're supposed to be honest with each other tell each other anything and everything. If you can't do that anymore, then I don't really see the point of continuing this friendship. Can you?"

"_Yes_! Adam, I _love_ you! I mean, as a friend, but still."

"I love you to El, both as a friend, and as more. But that's not enough. The trust is gone. You can't-"

"Adam, that's not true. It's not that I can't trust you. I can't tell you, but it has nothing to do with trust. I trust you with my life."

"Then I don't know what's holding you back, but you need to figure it out. I'm really sorry El, but you have to tell me. We can't be friends until you do."

Before Ellie could say anything else, he turned around and walked back into the classroom.

Ellie continued on to the bathroom, needing a break. She wasn't even sure what had just happened. It wasn't until she reached the bathroom that Adam's words sunk in. They weren't friends anymore. She just lost her best friend. Ellie wasn't much of a crier. Dealing with abuse made her stronger than most people realized. However, in that moment, she shut herself in a stall and cried, as if she'd just lost the love of her life.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: I know this is awkward place to end it, but I didn't realize this chapter was long enough to be two before I ended it. I, of course, meant to write and publish two at the same time, but it took me until the end of the next chapter to realize I'd written out both, so I had to end it as midway as I could, and this seemed more logical than everything else. Hope you enjoyed it!**


	44. The Heart of Earth

**A/N: Alright guys, here's the next chapter, or, more accurately, the second half of chapter 41. Enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: You're such a **_**child**_**! But right? Neither of us have stuck to a story for 12 months in a row before this one! Had to. It was like an homage to Nerissa and WITCH's second season. I always meant to. Oh come on, Ellie and Adam were friends for most of their lives, and Adam's liked her for about as long. There's got to be **_**something**_** between them past friendship. I always intended the fight too. And yes, I love you was exactly for that reason. I'm glad you approve lol. I knew you'd like all that. Obviously the fight was resolved, so you can stop "boo-ing" me now. You knew what was going to happen with *them* eventually. Foreshadowing! You should understand, you and the boys are under the same pressure. This week's terrible! Anyway, this was sort of fast, and you know there was a week delay with these chapters.**

**SilvenArrow: As usual, you always ask the right questions and pick up on subtle things, like the Mage's powers possibly being passed on to Alyssa and Josh. You'll just have to wait and see though, I can't give away too much! I'm glad you agree that it's a big thing. I got the idea while I was re-watching WITCH season 2 for the hundredth time. I was watching H is for Hunted and was like, 'What if this happens to GRACE too?' I always planned to make her story unbelievable at first and have Chris uncover the truth. I'm glad you like it. They seem to be a very popular couple, and I think it's the first couple you've been interested in. Hope you didn't mind the wait and hope you enjoy these chapters!**

**Taylor: I love the little moments Chris and Ellie have. I'm surprised with myself for executing those. I feel like I could've done a lot better with Will though. I'm very glad I got the idea for Ellie to take down her mother, and like most others, you're a huge fan of Chris and Ellie. Don't worry, the Josh and Rae thing will get sorted out.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Three days later, Rae entered Down the Rabbit Hole for her first shift in two weeks.

"Hey stranger," Ronnie said when she saw her.

Rae rolled her eyes. She hadn't been in the bookstore for a while, but Ronnie and Brooke still stopped by her locker most days before class. They'd seen each other plenty.

"Do you know what I'm doing?" she asked.

Ronnie nodded. "You're on register with me. Brooke's stocking and Lainey's on floor."

Rae got behind the counter and opened up her register. Lainey hadn't really talked to Rae since her blow up a few months ago, but she hadn't really been rude to her either. She avoided Rae for the most part, but always polite when she had to address the Keeper, and they managed to keep their fight a secret from Brooke and Ronnie. The four of them still kept up conversations during work and went out for dinner or coffee or dessert after work with no weirdness.

That night though, the weirdness came back. Even though it was Thursday, Star City High School had the next day off, so Lainey was allowed to stay late. Mrs. Potter asked Rae to close up. Rae and Lainey were the last two left at closing time.

"You good, or do you need to do something else before I close up?" Rae asked. She felt slightly uncomfortable. It was rare for her to be alone with Lainey.

"No, I'm good. But I'd like to talk," Lainey said, and unlike the norm, her voice was cold and she had a glare on her face.

"Oh, um, okay," Rae agreed.

"When I told you why I was mad at you, I kept waiting for you to apologize, to me and my parents, and return what you took. But it's been almost five whole months and you haven't done any of those things! What exactly is wrong with you?"

Rae had no answer for that. How could she have been so stupid? Of course GRACE should've returned what they stole. And why didn't she apologize?

"Lainey, I'm _so_ sorry," Rae apologized sincerely. "I have no idea what was going through my mind that I didn't apologize to you. I am sorry for stealing from your family. And I really did want to be friends. You're one of the few people I've met who love Harry Potter _almost_ as much as me."

Lainey halfway laughed at that.

"And you're right, I should apologize to your parents too. We will. My friends and I will apologize to your parents and return what I took."

Lainey sighed and nodded. "Okay. Try to come tomorrow or Sunday. Greg and I are going to our grandparents' early on Saturday, but I'd like to be there when you explain why you took what you did, and how you managed to guess the code to my mom's lock pad."

Rae paled, but nodded. The explanation was that they wanted to get WITCH back together, and Lainey wouldn't understand why they were so invested. They could use Alyssa as an excuse. She was the one who wanted to get them back together in the first place, and they could say she wanted to do it for her mom, but she knew Irma and Joel would be more likely to forgive them if they revealed their guardianship, something they couldn't do in front of Lainey because it was pretty clear she didn't know about WITCH. They'd have to go on Sunday despite Lainey's request.

"Okay. Once you apologize to my parents and give their stuff back, we can talk about that friendship you say you want," Lainey said.

Rae smiled, happy to hear the cold tone gone, and even happier to know Lainey still wanted to be friends too. "Great."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The next day was James' birthday, and his dinner. Jake didn't want to go at first, but knew he couldn't back out last minute. It'd be rude, and besides, James was keeping the girls' secret for the girls. It wasn't his fault he couldn't tell Jake.

Sage ended up needing Adam, unable to find another guy to go with her. All of James's other friends had plans already. It was Saturday night after all!

Caty didn't want to come at all, following her break up with Brian, but after talking to James, who really wanted her there, she decided to go anyway. She asked Tony to come with her. He and James didn't know each other that well, but they were better friends than James and Brian were.

Gabi had plans that night and couldn't help Caty with her make up, so Alyssa took over, picking out an outfit, jewelry, and doing her make up. Caty was really nervous at first, because Alyssa didn't even wear makeup, but she did an amazing job, explaining that putting makeup on was kind of like an art project, and that's how she was so good at it.

Alyssa also did an amazing job on her makeup. Two's Company was a fancy place, so they all had to get dressed up. Today, Alyssa was the best looking of all the girls, even with Sage in the mix. Still, she couldn't stop fidgeting. James had asked her several times if she was alright, and that was even before they'd even started for the restaurant. It was clear to Caty that she and Jake were the only ones who knew Alyssa wanted to tell James she loves him.

"So how are we all getting there?" Jake asked once he arrived at Alyssa's house, their meeting place.

"Didn't you see Harvey outside?" Rae asked. "He's taking us."

"Your mom doesn't need him?" Jake asked.

"My mom can _drive_ Jake. If she needs to go somewhere, she can just take the Civic."

"_Your mom_ has a _civic_?" Caty asked dubiously.

"_Yes. _What's wrong with that? Jake has a civic," Rae said defensively.

"There's nothing wrong with it. I'd just expect your mother to have, I don't know, a BMW or something."

"Mom's not into cars."

"Her dad is though," Jake said. "You should've seen the beautiful car he showed up in for Thanksgiving. It was an Audi, R8 Spyder, V10, seven-speed 5 tronic, dual clutch, all wheel drive."

Tony whistled. "Damn. That's almost 200k," he said.

"That's not his only car," Jake said. "He had five other cars. I really want to see his BMW. It's a six series, 650i Gran Coupe."

Rae groaned. "Can we stop? I don't know what _any_ of that means, and I don't care either."

Cars were one of the things Frank tried to bond with Rae over, but Rae couldn't care less about cars.

"Let's just go," Alyssa said.

James frowned. Why did Alyssa sound so stiff and nervous? And why were Caty and Jake exchanging practically giddy looks whenever Alyssa spoke? Caty hadn't smiled much since Monday. She was relatively happy while the team explained everything to Misha and Nina, and even happier when they hugged her and told her they supported her, but since then, nothing. She was too upset over her break up with Brian to be happy. Misha, feeling extremely guilty, tried to get Brian to talk to Caty, but it was no use. So why was Alyssa's strange behavior making Caty smile?

Everyone climbed into the limo and James shot Rae a look that screamed, '_Do something!'_

Alyssa wasn't too open with him today, but maybe she'd tell Rae. But Rae clearly wasn't at her best. Between still being haunted by what she did to the altermere and being on edge about something that happened between her and Josh (James wasn't sure what-Alyssa was the one who told him something was going on), because she just shrugged.

"So I think we should lay down some ground rules," Alyssa said.

"Rules? I thought this was a party," Tony said.

Caty put her hand over his and shook her head quickly, telling him he should not be arguing with Alyssa today.

Alyssa glared at him before looking at Caty and said, "You, don't be depressing."

"Um, ex_cuse_ me?" Caty replied, offended.

Alyssa ignored her and looked at Jake. "You, don't start a fight."

"But I wouldn't-"

"You always start a fight asking about The Basement Gang. Just cool it for today," Alyssa interrupted. She turned to Adam. "And you, just...behave."

Adam raised his eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Sage gave him an apologetic smile.

"Lyss, calm down. Tony's right. This is a party. No rules," James said.

"I just want it to be perfect," Alyssa said.

"It will be, because I'm with my friends. Anyway, all I need for this day to be perfect is you," James assured her, making Alyssa blush.

"I think you owe Caty an apology," Jake spoke up. He understand Alyssa's rules for him and Adam, but asking Caty not to be depressing because she's been sad since her break up was too much.

"No, it's alright. I get it," Caty said, looking at Jake. She gave Alyssa an understanding look, to which Alyssa responded with a grateful smile.

"Thanks. But I _am_ sorry. That was rude and out of line."

"Don't worry about it. I get it," Caty said again.

Rae wished she had telepathy because she really wanted to talk to Caty privately. So she did the next best thing. She took out her phone and texted Caty.

**What do you mean you get it? Do you know why Alyssa's acting so weird?**

** Yeah, of course **Caty replied.

**So what's going on?**

** Wait, you mean, she didn't tell you?**

** Tell me what?**

** Sorry, it's not my place.**

Rae sighed softly, putting away her phone. She was a little worried about what was going on. Even though she and Alyssa made up about what happened on her birthday months ago, it seemed like all had not been forgiven. Alyssa had gotten close to Gabi and confided in the cheerleader and water guardian more than she did in Rae.

Today, it seemed like Alyssa was on edge about something, and it was Caty and Rae's own _boyfriend_ who knew what it was, and it was clear to Rae that Ellie and Gabi knew what was going on as well. But Rae had no clue.

Rae knew things weren't the same between them, and it wasn't Alyssa's fault alone. Rae had also felt weird around her every now and then. Most of the time, they were the same way they always were, but lately Rae felt herself getting jealous at Alyssa's newfound friendship with Gabi, and her rebuilt friendship with Ellie, even though in the beginning, Rae _wanted_ Alyssa and Ellie to rebuild their relationship. And no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to tell Alyssa about the kiss she and Josh shared. She needed advice, and Alyssa was usually the one who gave it to her, but she felt weird just mentioning it.

Even with all the weirdness, dinner passed uneventfully. The service was great, the food was amazing, James loved his presents, and everyone was polite and cordial the entire time. The only problem was, the more time passed, the more agitated and restless Alyssa became.

"_What's going on Lyss_?" Rae asked in the fire guardian's head as the group headed out to the limo at the end of the night.

"_Nothing, I'm fine_," Alyssa said, but she wasn't very convincing.

In the limo, Alyssa, Caty, and Jake took out their phones and Rae knew they were texting each other. She leaned in to see what they were talking about once, but Jake drew his phone closer to himself, giving Rae an apologetic look. Rae smiled and shrugged, as if it didn't matter, but it did. All she managed to see was that she was right-Jake, Caty, and Alyssa had a group text going. But what was it about?

Rae wasn't sure why Alyssa was keeping secrets from her, but it put her in a bad mood. She barely acknowledged Jake when he gave her kiss good bye when Harvey dropped him home, and said nothing to Alyssa and James when Harvey dropped them at Alyssa's.

Alyssa barely noticed Rae's mood, getting increasingly nervous. No one was home when she and James entered the house. John was sleeping over a friend's and Alyssa remembered Taranee saying she had a case tonight.

"So did you have fun?" Alyssa asked hopefully.

"Lyss, I had an amazing time," James assured her.

"Really? Everything was to your liking?"

"Well, there was one thing that worried me."

"What?" Alyssa asked, looking absolutely devastated.

James gave her a soft smile. "You. I know you keep saying you're alright, but you're clearly not. What's going on?"

Alyssa shook her head. "Nothing, I swear. I just...I have something to tell you, and I'm not sure how you're going to respond."

"Is it bad?"

"Not necessarily. It could be very good or very bad."

"Whatever it is, it's going to very good, because you're the one saying it."

Alyssa blushed. "You keep saying things like that, but I just don't know."

"Okay, tell you what. I also have something to tell you, and I'm also not sure how you're going to respond. And this could also be very good or very bad. So how about I go first?"

Alyssa nodded, wondering what it is James could possibly want to tell her.

James reached into his suit jacket pocket. "I try my best to be good with words, and most people say I am. But I'm very nervous to say this, so I decided to say it in writing."

He pulled out a long box, wrapped in red paper, tied with gold string.

"You're giving _me_ a present on _your_ birthday? You're something else James," Alyssa teased.

James grinned and handed Alyssa the box. She undid the ribbon and ripped off the paper. It was no big mystery that inside was a necklace, but she was still excited to see what kind it was. When she opened it, she saw it wasn't just a necklace-it was a locket. It had a silver chain, and the locket itself, which was shaped as a heart, was also silver. Alyssa was mesmerized by it's beauty.

"Open it," James urged.

Alyssa did, and saw inside was a mini, heart shaped version of one of her favorite pictures of herself and James. They were at The Silver Dragon after practice, and they were kissing. Gabi took the picture. It was a rather recent picture, taken only a day or two after Rin was born.

"James, thank you. This is so sweet and beautiful. Now my present feels inadequate."

James shook his head. "No way. Lyss, this is beautiful," he said, holding up his left hand.

Alyssa had gotten James a watch. It was no Rolex, but it looked like one. It showed the date, time in four different timezones, and had a flourescent light built in that brightened in the dark. It was silver with a black face and silver hands. It was pretty expensive, but Alyssa knew James loved watches-he had a collection of seven so far-so she had to get it for him.

"But Lyss, the most important part of that locket? It's what's on the back."

Alyssa frowned, confused, and looked at the back of the locket. Engraved on the back were the words 'I love you.'

Alyssa's heart leapt into her throat as she looked at James, shocked. "It...it says I love you," she said stupidly.

James's ever present easy smile widened. "Yes it does," he agreed.

"Well...oh," was all Alyssa could manage.

James's grin faltered. "Are you okay?" he asked. Should he not have done that? He'd discussed this plan with Jake and Caty, and at first, he thought that's why they were so giddy, but they only got stupidly happy when Alyssa spoke. But they also both assured him he should absolutely tell Alyssa how he felt because she most definitely returned those feelings. He figured maybe Jake and Caty actually heard that from Alyssa. But maybe he was wrong. Did she not feel the same?

"W-oh! Oh wow, yeah, sorry! I'm just surprised. I love you too!"

James's smile came back.

"That's what I was so afraid to tell you because I was scared you wouldn't feel the same way, but you just made it so easy and I love that, and I love you _for _that and just, I just...I love you!"

James's smile widened. He kissed Alyssa deeply. When he pulled back he said, "Best birthday ever."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Why do you do this to us Rae?" Alyssa groaned the next morning when they all met early at Rae's house.

"You must really _hate_ us," Ellie declared.

"Honestly, you have a _problem_," Caty agreed as Sage yawned.

Rae rolled your eyes. "We all have _this_ problem."

"Rae," Alyssa said, "I understand we need to apologize to Irma, but why did we have to get up so early? This is just like the day we went to go defeat the nymphs. We don't get enough sleep as it is. We shouldn't be getting up so early on the day of sleep."

"Technically, _Sunday_ is the day of sleep," Caty corrected, yawning.

"God, even when someone is on your _side _you're a know-it-all," Gabi groaned. "No wonder _you're_ so tired all the time."

"Jeez, and I thought _Josh_ was the grumpy one in the mornings," Caty bit back.

"He _is_," Ellie said. "He just told me to stop being a lovesick puppy."

"Uh huh. And what did you say before that?" Caty asked.

Ellie blushed. "That seeing Chris would make this morning better."

"Aww," Sage cooed.

"Same with seeing James. Why isn't he here?" Alyssa whined.

"We don't need James," Rae said.

"But we need _him_?" Alyssa asked, throwing a glare at Josh.

"_Yes_. It'll help having a couple of kids of the old guardians," Rae said.

"So why can't we just invite Chris? He's Hay Lin's son and Ellie would be happy and since Chris isn't Josh, I'd be _euphoric_."

Sage winced. She was very protective of Josh, and found it hard to not defend him. At the same time, she didn't really see how she _could_ defend Josh against Alyssa. She thought Alyssa had every right to be mad at him.

"What does euphoric mean?" Ellie asked.

"Not really something you need to know," Josh said darkly.

Rae rolled her eyes. "Sage and Josh can help explain what's been going on in Meridian. This'll only take a couple of hours. Do you two think you could be cordial for that long?"

The siblings in question just shrugged. Rae took that as a yes.

"Okay, so we know the plan? We apologize, give the stuff back, then transform to show Irma and Joel why we stole the things. Good?"

Everyone nodded.

"Alright, let's go."

"You better have Harvey out there," Ellie said darkly. "It's too early in the morning to walk anywhere."

"Actually, Sage is going to teleport us," Rae said.

Ellie brightened immediately. Everyone put their hands on Sage arm and Sage teleported them to Irma's. They landed in front of her door.

"Whoa. That feels even worse than teletransportation," Rae muttered. "At least with that I don't feel like I'm free falling."

"That's because teletransporting is an innate skill for guardians," Sage said. "Teleporting isn't, so it feels really weird. But it feels fine to me."

"Me too, because I'm so used to it," Josh put in.

"As interesting as this is, if we can get this done, I can actually go back to sleep," Gabi interrupted.

Rae nodded, and Gabi rang the doorbell.

Irma opened the door, smiling. When she saw who is was, the smile disappeared. "Oh. Hello," she said.

"Hi," Rae said. "Listen, I know you're not too thrilled with us right now, but do you think we can come in? We'd like to explain, and we have your stuff to give back to you."

Alyssa held up the diary and Gabi held up the ukulele case. Ellie showed Irma the lock box. Irma sighed and stepped back, giving the girls and Josh room to enter.

"And you guys are?" Irma asked, eyeing the Meridianites.

"Sage," the Meridian princess said.

"And Josh," the rebel army second-in-command added.

"No last names?"

"No," the two said in unison.

Irma raised her eyebrow, but said nothing. Rae said it was probably best to keep their last names a secret until they showed Irma who they were. And that was a last resort. Even though she was an ex-guardian, Rae still didn't want to show Irma and Joel that they were guardians unless they didn't forgive them for stealing.

Irma then looked at Gabi and Alyssa. "And you guys?"

"Gabi Shay."

"And Alyssa."

"You don't have a last name either?"

"Nope."

Irma rolled her eyes. Rae was surprised she didn't recognize Alyssa, but she didn't say anything.

"Is Joel here? We'd like to apologize to both of you."

Irma sighed, as if what Rae had asked what a big liability, but called Joel into the room. Joel was also smiling when he first walked in. Like with his wife, the smile disappeared when he saw his guests.

Rae quickly launched into an apology. "We're really sorry. We did want to be friends with Lainey, please don't think we had ill intentions towards your daughter. But we can explain _why_ we stole what we did."

"Okay. Explain," Irma said.

"You were friends with my mom and some of her other, uh, ex-friends," Alyssa said. "And we wanted to see if we could facilitate a reunion between you guys and Wreck 55. You were all such good friends. It seemed a shame you guys don't even know about who each of you married."

"And seeing the stuff in the lockbox just reinforced how close you guys used to be," Caty added. "It was even sadder after that, to think about the fact you guys aren't friends anymore."

"Back in middle school, I got humiliated by one of the girls in the popular clique," Alyssa said.

Gabi winced.

"And I lost my friends. But then I met Rae, and all of us came together and now I have a lot of friends, including a boyfriend and…" Alyssa stopped speaking to step back and link her arm with Rae's. "...and a best friend."

Rae smiled at Alyssa. She didn't always feel like Alyssa's best friend, but she did appreciate Alyssa trying to reinforce the idea.

"So thinking about my mom losing friends she'd been close with for years made me scared that I might lose the friends I have now, and I never wanted that to happen. I was hoping if we got you, my mom, and your other friends together, it would give us more confidence in our friendship, either by seeing you guys want to make up for lost time, or at least by you guys telling us what happened to split you up so we can make sure that never happens to us."

Joel's face had softened through Alyssa's story, but Irma's expression stayed stony.

"And let me guess. You _do_ have a last name. It's Ashcroft, and you're Taranee and Nigel's daughter."

"Well yeah, but I wish you wouldn't say it like that," Alyssa replied, alluding to the fact that Irma said Taranee's name as if Taranee was a terrorist or something.

Josh smirked. "Yeah, _my mother_ is the one that supposed to hate her, not you."

Alyssa turned to face him, a shocked look on her face.

"What?"

"Why would you say that?"

"Because it's the truth."

"So? You can't just say that."

"Why not? You're the one who acts like I'm not worth the ground you walk on around everyone else, so shouldn't they all know why?"

"God Josh, shut up!"

"No. Get over yourself Alyssa!"

"What's _with_ you today?"

"What, I'm not allowed to fight back?"

"You have no right!"

"I'm getting pretty tired of your attitude."

"And I'm getting pretty tired of _your_-"

"HEY!" Rae yelled. "Knock it off you guys." She turned back to Irma, knowing they'd have to reveal their secret. "There's something else you guys should know. Something that may make you understand."

Alyssa, who was in a glaring contest with Josh, snapped to attention. Rae looked the other girls, who all nodded.

Josh and Sage stepped back. Irma and Joel did the same, exchanging confused looks. It all made sense when Rae pulled out the Heart. Joel's eyes widened and Irma gasped.

"Are you…?" Irma couldn't even finish.

"Yeah," Rae said, then transformed them as proof. "Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

Joel and Irma gaped at the girls before them.

"Oh my God," Irma gasped out finally.

"So they're the new guardians. I guess it makes sense. Alyssa is Taranee's daughter so she must've been chosen for continuity of spirit," Joel said.

The girls exchanged looks. Technically, they were all chosen for that reason, but they didn't say anything.

"How long have you guys been guardians?" Irma asked.

"A few months. Since September. That's when we found out anyway," Rae said.

"So it's only been seven months? But you already have the power of quintessence. Will didn't get that power until over a year after we found out."

"There's a reason for that," Rae said.

"Who's your guardian teacher? Is it your mother?" Joel asked Alyssa.

"No, it's Hay Lin," Alyssa replied. "My mother didn't want me to have anything to do with the guardians. It was only in the last couple of months that she came around."

"Huh. That doesn't sound like Taranee. She always had the strongest sense of duty, after Will," Joel said.

"I guess we all changed," Irma said.

"I thought Will would be your teacher though," Joel said.

"Will isn't in Heatherfield anymore sweetie," Irma said.

"Where is she?"

"On Jumelle!" Ellie cried.

"How did you know-oh. The diary," Irma said. Her tone soured again, remembering that these girls stole from her.

"Yeah, the diary," Alyssa agreed. "And you know, meeting her helped."

Irma's eyes widened. "You _met_ her?"

"When we went to Jumelle."

"You went to _Jumelle_?"

"Are you gonna be surprised by everything we say?" Josh asked, annoyed.

The girls all gaped at him, as did Irma and Joel. Gabi wiggled her fingers, causing an Earthquake under Josh's feet. He fell, making Alyssa laugh.

"That was _so_ rude Josh. Apologize," Rae demanded. When Josh looked at her however, she went completely red and turned away from her as she always did when Josh looked at her as of late.

"Josh," Sage insisted.

"Fine. Sorry," he grumbled, getting up.

"He's always cranky in the morning," Gabi said.

"And who is he really?" Irma asked. Then she addressed Josh directly. "How do you know about the guardians?" Then she looked at Sage. "And how do _you_ know about the guardians."

"We know because I'm Sage Martin," Sage said.

"And I'm Josh Hart."

"So you're Elyon and Drake's daughter and you're Caleb and Cornelia's son," Irma realized. "How...how are they doing?"

"I actually haven't spoken to Mom and Dad in a while," Josh admitted. "The family's kind of in a fight right now. Ellie saw them more recently than I spoke to them."

Gabi frowned. "Ellie saw your parents mid-March. You haven't spoken to them in over a month? Aren't they worried about you?"

"I checked in with them since they're my guardians now," Sage said. "I filled them in on Josh."

"Caleb and Cornelia are your guardians? Why?" Irma asked.

"Um...my parents...are...away," Sage said.

Ellie wondered how Sage was such a good actress if she was such a bad liar. She figured lying just wasn't in Sage's nature.

"You can tell them the truth Sage," Rae encouraged, realizing she probably should've specified to the princess that she allowed to tell Joel and Irma what really happened.

"My parents were captured by Prince Kasson, also known as the Dark Prince," Sage revealed.

"He and his family dethroned Elyon and took over Meridian a few months before we found out about being guardians," Alyssa said.

Irma and Joel's mouths dropped open.

"I'm going to make some tea. We have a lot of questions," Joel said.

The others nodded. They put the stolen items on the coffee table as they passed through the living room, took seats at the dining table, and waited for Irma and Joel to be ready. As soon as they gave everyone a cup of tea (which Rae declined), Sage, Josh, and GRACE told the Stevens about the Thousand Year Guardians, the prophecy, the Heart of Meridian, Kasson, Angel, the other enemies, the secret of the Hart bloodline, what they'd learned so far powers wise, the other members of Team GRACE, and gave them a quick update on how the old guardians were doing. They also answered all the questions Joel and Irma had.

Irma gave Caty some advice, teaching her some tricks and helping her to keep ice from melting for longer while Joel told the other girls and Josh some of the stories from his days on "Team WITCH." Joel also said that Irma did desperately want to repair her broken friendships with WITCH and Elyon, but didn't know how to make the first move. He said he hoped the girls succeed in their plan of a reunion, once they rescued Elyon. He himself would like to see the members of Wreck again. None of them said anything. They just smiled. They knew however, because of Will's reluctance to come to Earth and Taranee and Cornelia's beef, a reunion wouldn't be happening.

Irma and Joel insisted the group stay for lunch, and they had another delicious meal from Joel. The group left Irma's house feeling pretty good. They managed to gain Joel and Irma's forgiveness, and they had a couple more allies should they ever need them.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That afternoon, Gabi, who was taking to nap to try to catch up on the sleep, got a really rude awakening. Someone was banging on her door.

"Gabi!" Eva screamed. "Mommy has something for you."

Gabi groaned and threw open the door, glaring at the she-devil, who was holding a manilla folder.

"What Eva? Make it quick, I'm busy."

Eva scoffed. "Doing what? Yourself?"

Gabi gasped, wondering if the eight-year-old even knew what that meant. "You little-! Go _away_ Eva!"

Eva smirked at the Earth guardian. "Okay. And I'll just take these pictures of you and your mommy with me."

Gabi's eyes widened. She gasped as she tried to snatch the manila folder out of Eva's hands, but she backed away.

"If you want this," she began cockily, "you have to give me five bucks."

Gabi stared at her. Was she serious?"

"To spend on what?" Gabi asked. "Chew toys?"

Eva scowled. "I'm not a dog!"

"Really? Then I guess I should tell Dad to cancel the dog house he ordered."

Eva rolled her eyes.

"And we should probably stopped building that doggy door too," Gabi went on, enjoying herself.

Eva had enough. "Five bucks. Now."

"No way," Gabi refused, crossing her arms. "I earned all my money myself."

"No money, no pictures," Eva taunted.

"Give me those you twerp!" Gabi cried, reaching for them again. Eva jumped back. Gabi couldn't use force if she didn't want to get in trouble. "Those pictures are supposed to be mine!"

"Well, they won't be if I don't see a picture of our honest president looking up at me in the next ten seconds."

Gabi grumbled under her breath, but pulled a five out of her wallet and handed it to Eva. Eva smiled and gave Gabi the folder.

With the picture in her possession, Gabi smirked evilly and used her telekinesis to make the ficus in the corner of the hallway move from one end to the other. She wanted to steal her five back, but Eva was clutching it too tightly, so Gabi settled for scaring her.

Eva was horrified. She screamed bloody murder. "Mommy, Gabi's making the plant attack me!" she shrieked, running downstairs.

Mission accomplished. Gabi shut the door. With only Sienna home, there was no way Gabi was getting in trouble for that. She opened the folder. There were five full sized pictures in there, all on glossy paper.

One was of a nine-year-old Michael in a suit and her mother in a gorgeous sapphire blue dress. The next one was of her mother in the same dress and her father in a suit. Then Alexandra in the blue dress and a five-year-old Gabi in the same dress, except in magenta.

Finally, two pictures of Alexandra, Daniel, Michael, and Gabi, all in the same outfits. The first was a dignified family portrait. Gabi remembered this picture being on the desk in her father's study until he started dating Diana, the first of his gold digging sluts. The second was the whole family again, but instead of a dignified family portrait, they were all silly. Michael was making a derpy face, Daniel was giving both Michael and Alexandra bunny ears, Alexandra was sticking her tongue out at the camera and tickling Gabi at the same time, and it showed on Gabi's face-she was laughing wildly.

Gabi remembered that day. Michael was grumbling about having to get up early and wear a suit and take pictures, so Alexandra promised him they'd do one silly shot of the family all together if he behaved through all the serious shots. Gabi was excited to wear a dress and take pictures. She wanted to document that she and her mother were wearing matching dresses.

She smiled as she studied each picture. Alexandra was always so much fun, and Daniel used to be so silly. It was after Alexandra died that he became serious and somewhat stiff. She missed the way her family used to be. In the back of her mind, she knew Luc, her favorite person in the world, wasn't born yet, and she wouldn't trade Luc's presence for anything, not even having her mother back, but it didn't mean she missed her mother any less. There were often times when she had memories of times when her mother was still alive, and for a few seconds, she wished she could go back to that, despite the fact that her mother being alive meant Luc wouldn't be.

Gabi sighed and ran her hand over the glossy paper of the silly family photo.

"I miss you Mom," she said to no one.

"Gabi!" Eva shrieked from the other side of the door, sounding gleeful. "Daddy got home and I'm gonna tell him what you did with the plant! You're gonna get in so much trouble!"

Gabi growled under her breath. She really hated that kid!

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Alyssa's pretty worried about you. And so am I now that I think about it," Caty said to Rae Monday afternoon. The two were sitting in a booth at The Silver Dragon, waiting for the others to show up.

Rae had work right after school that afternoon. Lainey told Rae she heard from her parents that they'd apologized. Lainey asked why they didn't come that day so she could be there. Rae explained the girls' schedules wouldn't allow them to do this for a while if they didn't do it on Sunday and they didn't want to put it off.

Rae told Lainey why they stole the stuff-because they wanted to facilitate a reunion. She even told Lainey Alyssa's story. She said they wanted to remind Irma of her old friends and find out where one of her friends, Will, was since they couldn't find her on the Internet. Lainey thought they could've accomplished the same task by just telling Irma that and asking her where Will was, but forgave Rae just the same. For the first time in a long time, Lainey acted like her old cheerful self around Rae, and Rae could see they might one day have a real friendship.

"What do you mean?" Rae asked.

"You've been acting so weird lately. I mean, I know there's the thing with the altermere-"

Rae winced and Caty paused.

"Sorry. But I had to bring it up, because you've been acting even weirder for that to be the only thing bothering you."

Rae sighed. She knew she'd been acting weird. She was already upset about killing someone. Now she had Josh's kiss on her conscience too. It was just a spur of the moment thing. She had no feelings for Josh. She was sure of that. At least, she was 75% sure of. She'd wanted Jake since she first saw him, even though she hadn't immediately been able to admit it. Josh was just some guy who happened to be related to her best friend. Sure he'd pretty much saved her life ten times over in the battle in Meridian, but…Okay, there was no way to end that the right way.

"Rae? Hello?" Caty waved her hand in front of Rae's face.

"Caty, can I trust you?" Rae asked, wanting to tell _someone_. Anyway, secrets had gotten her a lot of trouble already. She couldn't keep this to herself.

"To do what?" Caty asked, hoping this wasn't leading to something dangerous or super weird.

"Keep a secret."

"Oh yeah, because we're all so good at _that_," Caty replied, rolling her eyes. "But sure."

Rae rolled her eyes. That wasn't the assurance she was hoping for, but it was the best she was gonna get. She wanted to tell Alyssa, but Alyssa was clearly hiding a secret from her, so Rae didn't feel much like confiding in her. She'd grown exceptionally close to Sage, and thought about telling her, but then she decided it'd be too weird, what with Josh being her best friend, and crush, so Caty was the next person she wanted to tell.

"I kissed Josh."

"No way!" Caty cried, her eyes widening.

"Well technically, he kissed me, but I didn't exactly push him away."

"No way," Caty repeated.

"And I think I liked it."

"No way!"

"And I haven't told Jake yet."

"No freaking way!"

"I think you've been hanging around Ellie too long. You're starting to lose brain cells."

Caty hid a smile, but then grew serious. "Rae, I want to keep your secret, and if you were dating anyone else, I would. But Jake's like my best guy friend. I can't hide this from him. You have to tell him soon, or else I will. It's not an ultimatum, I'm just legitimately unable to keep anything from him."

"I know. I think that's part of the reason I told you. I'd have to tell him once you knew."

Caty wasn't sure if that was an insult, compliment, or just a comment, so she just nodded. "Does anyone else know?"

"It's possible Josh told Sage, but other than her, no. And I'm not even sure she knows."

Caty nodded again. "I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me, but I'm not sure I'm the best person to tell."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what you need now is ideas on how to tell Jake what happened. And looking at the circumstances around my disastrous break up with Brian, I clearly don't know the best way to tell someone something like this."

"In your defense, Misha was the one that told Brian, not you. I'm not saying it would've turned out much better if you were the one to tell him, but it definitely wouldn't have been as bad," Rae pointed out. "And can I just ask, after she did that, how are you still best friends with her?"

Caty smiled. Rae was not the first person to ask her that. Ellie and Gabi both told her she should just shun Misha, but Caty couldn't do that.

"What she did was terrible, and even now I'm still mad at her. But seeing how supportive she was after we told her about GRACE, I knew I couldn't ever just stop being her friend. She's too important to me. I mean, Alyssa hated you for keeping Josh's secret, but she forgave you too because you were too important to her."

Rae nodded. She could understand that. And although she was mad at Misha on Caty's behalf, she still liked the girl anyway. If Misha wasn't Caty's friend anymore, she wouldn't be Alyssa and Rae's friend either.

"You should tell Sage. She probably knows good ways to break bad news," Caty said, directing the conversation back to Rae's kiss.

Rae nodded. That was true.

"Okay. I'll tell her today, and tell Jake tomorrow."

"Good luck."

"I'm gonna need a lot more than luck to make it out of this one."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Friday night, Ellie had an uneasy feeling, like something bad was going to happen. And whatever it was concerned Gabi.

She told Alyssa, and Alyssa told Gabi to watch herself, but neither girl really thought anything would come of Ellie's feeling. They should've known better.

Gabi was already asleep when she heard the scream. Her first thought was, 'The step monster is being a baby.' But then she remembered Daniel and Sienna had gone to visit a friend, and were staying overnight. Luc was also gone, at a friend's house for a sleepover. Anyway, the scream was girly, and since Josh could never make such a high pitched sound, that only left...Eva!

At first, Gabi contemplated not even getting out of bed and going back to sleep. The she-devil probably just had a nightmare or something. Gabi was not going to be a comforting big sister. But then Eva screamed again and it actually sounded like she was in some real danger, which scared Gabi, so bolted out of the room. On her way to Eva's room, she ran into Josh.

"You heard the scream too?" he asked her.

Gabi nodded, though he probably couldn't see that in the dark. She noticed the gleam of his sword.

"Hide that and don't take it out unless we need it," Gabi said. The last thing she needed was for Eva to think Gabi was a witch _and _Josh was some sort of ninja or samurai or something.

Gabi and Josh burst into Eva's room, turning on the light. The eight-year-old was shaking violently, only her fear filled eyes peeking out from under her comforter.

To Eva's credit, she had something to be scared about. There were two figures in her room, one with a sword, and the other with a dagger. The one with the dagger was also holding rope, a blindfold, and a something that could be used as a gag. It seemed like they wanted to kidnap her. What surprised both Gabi and Josh were that the figures were _human_.

The one with the sword was a boy with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He was tall and looked about 17-years-old. The one with the dagger was a girl with honey colored hair and the same blue eyes. She looked to be about 14-years-old. Were there humans after Eva for some reason? Maybe they wanted to hold her for ransom or something? Whatever the case, Gabi and Josh were not prepared for this. Gabi couldn't use her powers in front of humans.

But when the boy and girl saw Gabi, they grinned evilly and the boy said, "No mere Guardian of the Veil can defeat us."

"Good news. It looks like they know who I am," Gabi said, turning to Josh.

"That's _good_ news?"

"Yeah. It means I can do _this_!"

With that, Gabi ripped Eva's metal closet doors off their hinges and threw it in the direction of the intruders. Eva screamed. Gabi ignored her. Before the doors could hit however, the boy and girl both disappeared.

"Where did they go?" Gabi asked.

"Over here!" the girl's voice rang out from behind her.

Gabi whirled around.

"Teleportation," Josh murmured.

"Teleportation? But that means...you have magic!" Gabi cried.

"Well don't you catch on quickly," the girl said mockingly.

"I like her. She's more than just a pretty face. We should take her too," the boy said. He looked at her as if he was predator and she was his prey.

"You will not _touch_ her," Josh growled, and Gabi's heart swelled at his protective tone.

"Oh, you have a boyfriend? Too bad," the boy said.

"Who are you?" Gabi demanded.

The girl smirked. "I guess there's no harm in telling you. You would've found out some time." She curtsied teasingly. "Pleased to meet you Guardian of the Veil. I'm Princess Hope Durange."

"And I'm Prince Riley Durange. And I'm _extremely _pleased to meet you."

"And you must be part of the rebel army?" Hope asked Josh.

"Second-in-command," he said slowly.

"Oooh, a fighter. This is gonna be fun," Hope said.

"Durange? Where have I heard that name before?" Gabi wondered out loud.

"Durange is Kasson's last name," Josh said quietly.

According to Hay Lin, Kasson had four children. Piper was the oldest. Then there were two sons, one that was 18 and one that was 17, and one more daughter, who was 14. It made perfect sense.

"So you're Kasson and Cassandra's spawn," Gabi said distastefully. "What do you want with Eva?"

"Oh come on Earth guardian. You can't be serious," Hope said. "I thought you were _more_ than just a pretty face."

"I am," Gabi bit out. "But if the reason you want her is because she's the Heart of Earth, you're wasting your time. She gave her powers away."

"We know that," Hope said rolling her eyes.

"Even without the power, she is still the Heart of Earth," Riley said. "And we don't need her power. We just need another world's Heart."

"Then go take one from somewhere else. You are _not_ getting my sister!"

Then Gabi gasped at herself. Did she just call Eva her _sister_? Josh, and even Eva, in her terrified state, seemed just as surprised, but Gabi knew she couldn't dwell on it now.

"Then it seems the time for talking is over," Hope said. "It's time for _taking_."

"Clever," Gabi said sarcastically before jumping out the way of an energy blast. She telekinetically floated the plant in Eva's window to in front of her. She used her power to uproot the plant, then shoot the roots out towards Hope. They wrapped around her wrist. She struggled for a moment before using an energy blast to separate herself from the roots.

Meanwhile, Riley was fighting Josh. He made copies of himself, like Rae could with astral drops. Like astral drops, they had no powers, and the minute Josh touched them, either with his hand or his sword, they disappeared, but it did help Riley hide among them.

Gabi wondered why she and the other guardians never thought of sparring with Sage one on one. They could've used the practice against someone with magic. Riley and Hope seemed to have studied many of the same skill sets as Sage. Practice would've come in handy.

"Give it up guardian," Hope said, rolling her eyes. "In that form, you're so pathetically _human_. Too weak to defeat me. This is _too_ easy."

"There's nothing wrong with being human," Gabi said. "But if you want to a challenge, I guess I can accommodate you."

Hope looked confused. Gabi smirked and willed herself to transform into her guardian form. She felt the familiar surge of power hit her.

"Earth!"

Hope started, open-mouthed. "But...but how?"

Gabi figured it was better not to answer that question. Instead she said, "I think you'll find me a better opponent now.

"Wow," Eva breathed, crawling out from under her covers.

Gabi had forgotten she was there. She turned to see her step sister's eyes almost sparkling.

"Gabi, you're not a witch!" she said happily. "You're a _fairy_!"

"I most certainly am _not_," Gabi huffed as Hope laughed at that. "_Fairies_ are lame little creatures for babies. _I_ am a _guardian_."

"What's a guardian?"

"Someone who protects all the worlds."

"Wow. So you're like a superhero!" Eva cried.

"Yeah, I guess," Gabi replied. Superhero wasn't that bad. It was more flattering than fairy anyway.

"Well superhero, why don't you show me what you got?" Hope challenged. She used the same trick as her brother and made copies of herself to hide in. Gabi smirked.

"You don't know much about the guardians, do you?" Gabi tried to telekinetically lift up Hope. It worked just as she hoped. Since the Hope copies weren't real, Gabi couldn't pick them. Real Hope struggled in the air in front of her.

Sage had the powers of telekinesis and flight. Judging by the way Hope was flailing around, she probably had neither.

"Well _princess_ it looks like you're of tricks."

Hope rolled her eyes. "You caught me by surprise," she said. She stopped struggling and shot more energy blasts at Gabi. Gabi was forced to relinquish her telekinetic hold on Hope. Lucky for Gabi, Hope didn't think this plan through because she fell to the ground. Gabi snickered then used her telekinesis to send the energy blasts back. For a few minutes, they battled back and forth with the energy blasts. However, Hope was faster and eventually, Gabi could do nothing but dodge.

As the battle wore on, Gabi and Josh began to grow tired while Hope and Riley didn't break a sweat. In fact, Hope seemed to grow more powerful, as her energy blasts became bigger. Gabi tried to counter by using her own geo-based energy blasts, but as Hope's blasts got bigger, Gabi's blasts weren't powerful enough to destroy them like they used to.

At one point, Hope launched a blast so big, Gabi was sure she was done for. If she dodged, it would hit Eva. Gabi thrust her hands out, feeling silly, because really, how could her palms protect her? But then something amazing happened. The energy blast hit something invisible just in front of Gabi's palms and disappeared.

"Damn barrier," Hope growled.

Barrier? Gabi faintly recalled Hay Lin saying something about telekinetic barriers when she was telling Gabi about how far she could take her powers. Gabi hadn't practiced that yet, but it seemed like luck was on her side and she was able to create a barrier.

Gabi quickly turned to the right to see how Josh and Riley were doing. Riley had stopped with the astral projection trick. In fact, it seemed like he'd stopped with the magic altogether. He and Josh were engaged in a pure sword fight now. Gabi was confident that if Riley didn't use any more magic, Josh could win. And maybe Gabi could beat Hope as well.

Hope was not about to be outdone, however. She started using teleportation and appeared to Gabi's right, shooting an energy blast at her. Gabi turned and used the shield, but before she could celebrate, Hope appeared on her left, doing the same. Gabi managed to use the shield again, but when Hope appeared above her, Gabi wasn't fast enough. She couldn't use the shield, and she barely managed to dodge. The energy blast hit the ground, and Gabi could feel her barrier disappear.

Gabi got into the air, and to her surprise, Hope joined her. So she could fly! This was going to be a problem.

Gabi telekinetically smashed a book from Eva's shelf into the window, breaking the glass. Eva screamed. Gabi used her telekinesis to push Hope out the window, and followed her through. Gabi had much more power outside.

Gabi forced vines to rise from the ground and trapped Hope. Hope didn't even struggle. She just smirked and phased through them, a power she shared with both Sage and Cara.

"You're pitiful guardian," Hope called.

Gabi growled. She needed help. "_Alyssa, please wake up! I need you!_" Gabi cried.

"_Gabs?_" Alyssa groaned sleepily. "_What's going on_?"

Gabi had Alyssa connect to Rae and quickly explained the situation while dodging Hope's energy blasts, trying to get her barrier back up.

"_Okay, I'm on my way_," Rae said. "_And I'm bringing Sage._"

"_I'll come too_," Alyssa said. "_And I'll bring Ellie_."

"_No_!" Gabi cried. "_They want a Heart. They came here for Eva, but I think any Heart will do. I need you New Girl, because you can transform without the Heart. Leave the Heart at home. Do you have some place safe you can keep it_?"

"_Yeah. Sage enchanted one of my drawers. It only opens with my touch. I'll keep it there_."

"_Great. Alyssa, keep me connected to Rae, and add Sage too_."

"_Okay_," Alyssa said.

Rae and Sage arrived in just a few seconds, both arriving through the air.

"Oh, you have help?" Hope mocked as Sage flew inside to help Josh. "Doesn't matter."

"Oh stuff it," Rae said, shooting lighting at her.

Hope dodged and her eyes widened. "Riley! The Keeper is out here!"

Riley flew outside to join them, Sage following behind. Josh looked out the window. From how tired he looked, Gabi guessed Riley started using magic again.

"If we capture her, we can get the Heart of Kandrakar. That's the most powerful Heart. We'll be Dad's favorites," Riley said happily.

Hope rolled her eyes. "Grow up Riley! This not to win Dad's favor."

"Speak for yourself. He loves you as much as he loves Piper. He hates me and-"

"Shut up dumbass!" Hope snapped, sounding like she was cutting him off before he said something stupid.

"_He was about to name his brother, but Hope didn't want him to_," Rae said. "_That's weird."_

_ "That's also not the hot issue right now_," Gabi replied.

"Hope, she doesn't have the Heart," Riley said.

"What do you mean?"

"I can sense when Hearts are near, and only the Heart of Earth is. The Heart of Kandrakar is near here, but not on her."

"But the Heart is supposed to fuse with the Keeper's body!" Hope insisted, sounding like a frustrated little kid. "Unless...you also possess the power to transform without the Heart!"

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" Rae cried, as sarcastic as ever.

Hope growled and started firing energy blasts.

Riley floated higher into the air. Josh grabbed Sage's hand. For a moment, nothing happened, but in the next second, Josh looked a bit reenergized, and he was able to fly out the window.

Gabi remembered Sage telling her that she could heal and transfer her powers. The more she healed or gave, the weaker she was, but it seemed she healed him just enough so he could keep fighting and only granted him the power of flight. They both joined Riley at his altitude.

For a while, the fight was even. Even though it was two against one, Hope and Riley were formidable enemies. However, with both magic and fighting skills, Sage gave Josh the edge he needed to take Riley down.

He cried out as Sage used a trick to deprive him of his ability to fly, at least for a minute.

"Riley!" Hope cried, losing focus. She flew after him and managed to catch him before he hit the ground.

Gabi wiggled her fingers to cause an Earthquake where they were standing. They both fell. Gabi kept going until they were knocked unconscious.

"All yours New Girl," Gabi said.

Rae shook her head. "They may be our enemies, but they're human. I can't kill them."

Gabi huffed. "If this is about that stupid altermere-"

"That wasn't stupid!" Rae cried. "And even if that hadn't happened, I still couldn't kill other human beings."

"Good," Sage said. "Because I couldn't either, and I wouldn't have let you." She used glamour and instantly changed appearances into a shorter girl with short blond hair and brown eyes. "Josh and I will take them to Meridian. There's a prison there that can hold them. It held Phobos."

"Sound good Keeper?" Josh asked, looking directly at Rae, who had barely looked at him, both through this fight, and through the week.

Rae went completely red, but nodded.

The group flew back into Eva's room. The little girl had tears streaming down her face, and was shaking even more violently. She was only eight. She probably couldn't even _begin_ to comprehend what she'd just seen.

Sage used her magic to fix all the holes in the wall and floor that Gabi and Hope made with Hope's energy blasts, and fixed everything that was broken, including the window. Then, she opened a portal and she and Josh went through, Sage using her telekinesis to levitate Hope and Riley through.

"What's going on between you and Josh?" Gabi asked Rae. She knew something had happened, but she wasn't sure what.

"Nothing," Rae said. "Shouldn't you be taking care of Eva?"

Before Gabi could answer, Rae opened the window and flew in the direction of her house. Gabi just rolled her eyes, closed the window, and changed back into her regular form. She walked towards Eva's bed.

"Can I sit?" she asked.

Eva nodded.

"Hey, you're not still scared of me, are you?"

Eva shook her head.

"You sure?"

"Yes. That was cool I guess," Eva said, sounding bored. She was clearly trying to be brave.

"Good. Because I just saved your life."

"Why?"

"Because Sienna and Dad would kill me if I didn't."

Eva didn't appreciate the joke. "I mean why did those people want me? Are they witches?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. They have magic anyway."

"Your friend Sage has magic. Is she a witch too?"

"Yes, but she's a good witch. Like...like Glinda in the Wizard of Oz."

"And the people who wanted to take me are wicked?"

"Yeah. But don't worry about them. Sage and Josh are taking them to jail."

"What was that blue thing in my room? And where did Sage and Josh go? Is Josh evil?"

Gabi bit her lip. How to explain? "That blue thing was like a doorway to where Sage and Josh are from. That's where they went. And no, Josh is not evil."

"Where are they from?"

"A different world."

Eva looked at her dubiously.

"I turned into a superhero with wings in front of your eyes and you don't believe there are other worlds?" Gabi challenged.

"If they're from a different world, why are they really here?" Eva asked. "It can't be for school."

Eva was a lot smarter than Gabi gave her credit for.

"They're not. It's their duty to help and protect my friends and I...people with powers like mine."

"How did you get those powers?"

"I was chosen."

"Why you?" Eva sneered, sounding like her old self.

"Well...I was chosen because of you," Gabi said, keeping up her kind tone.

"Me?" Now Eva sounded awed.

It took another two hours, but Gabi managed to explain to Eva everything she needed to know about Meridian, Kandrakar, the guardians, and Eva's own powers. She also had convince Eva it was a good idea for the regents to keep her powers because once Eva realized she was the Heart of Earth, she wanted her powers back.

Gabi didn't tell Eva everything. She was still just a little kid, and didn't need to know. But she explained everything that was okay for her to know and made her promise not to tell anyone, especially not Luc.

"They'll be in even worse danger than you," she said. "Hope and Riley just wanted to capture you because you're the Heart of Earth. But the rest of the family isn't special like you. They'll just kill them."

Eva nodded, looking scared. Gabi actually felt bad for scaring her, but needed Eva to know how important it was that she kept this secret.

Gabi left Eva's room before Josh came back. She knew her relationship with Eva had shifted. She still wasn't sure what possessed her to call Eva her sister and she still didn't particularly like the girl, nor did Eva particularly like her, but something had definitely changed.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Saturday afternoon, Rae was sitting at the bar, talking to Chris, who was behind the counter. It had been a long time since Rae and Chris had a conversation one-on-one. Not since the day Alyssa forgave Chris. And they hadn't had a friendly, less serious conversation since before Alyssa's birthday. Now Chris was telling her about some of the art schools he wanted to go to if, by some miracle, his parents decided to let him pursue art instead of business. It was nice.

"Why can't you just double major?" Rae asked. "Alyssa's doing it. Just major in art and business. Go to Princeton. They have good programs for both."

"Okay, first off, I can't just _go_ to Princeton. Getting into Princeton will be a lot harder for me than you. I'm ranked 27th, and I only take honors classes in the artsy field, and business. Princeton would want to see honors everything. And I know Princeton is good, but other than that, I haven't found another school that has a good art and business department."

"You need to really talk to your parents and tell them this is what you really want to do. Then you can go to Pratt."

Pratt University in New York was Chris's first choice. It was an amazing art school, and he knew he could get in. Pratt was Alyssa's second choice, if she couldn't get into Yale. Rae's mother had also applied and gotten into Pratt, but she chose to go to F.I.T., before she decided to forego college altogether.

"I've tried. You should see my room. It's set up like an art museum. I've done and said everything I can possibly think of so they'd give me their blessing to be an artist. But they won't budge."

"If they expect you to take over the restaurant," Rae started slowly, "what do they want Cara to do?"

Chris shrugged. "They groomed me for this business stuff because I started talking about art school ever since I was in sixth grade. Cara hasn't ever talked about what she wants to do, so they don't talk about it yet."

"She wants to take over. She should. You should go to art school."

"In a perfect world, I would," Chris sighed. "But I don't have parents like the rest of you, who'll let you go to whatever school you want to pursue whatever degree and job you want. This is it for me."

"Your mother was an artist though. Shouldn't she get it?"

"She doesn't," Chris replied. He'd had this conversation with Ellie several times. She wanted him to go to art school more than anyone and kept coming up with ways to convince Hay Lin and Eric to let him. She was such a supportive girlfriend. He loved having her in his corner. It was much nicer than when she hated him.

Before Rae could come up with a response, Caty walked in and grabbed Rae's arm. "Sorry, need to borrow her," she said to Chris before dragging Rae to an empty booth in the corner.

"Ow Caty! What?"

"You still haven't told Jake about Josh," Caty said quietly. "I've been avoiding him for a whole week so I wouldn't accidentally let it slip when he would inevitably ask me why you've been acting so weird. You need to tell him!"

"I _will_. Once Sage and I come up with a way to tell him that won't make him break up with me."

Caty rolled her eyes, but sighed, "Okay. I get it."

"Get what?" Alyssa asked, sneaking up on them

Rae and Caty both just stared at her, Rae in shock, Caty in confusion.

"Wait...you didn't tell her?"

"I told you I was only telling Sage. And by the way, she did already know. Josh told her, like I said."

"But I didn't think you wouldn't tell _Alyssa_."

"Tell me _what_?" Alyssa asked.

Rae sighed. "Okay, it concerns Josh and I didn't tell you because even though you don't like to hear or acknowledge this, he _is_ your brother, and that'll make it weird."

"Make _what_ weird? You gotta tell me!"

"Josh kissed me."

"He did _what?!" _Alyssa cried.

Rae told her the whole story-what they were talking about, how it happened, how she told Caty, and how Rae and Sage were trying to come up with a good way to tell Jake.

"You didn't tell her the most interesting part," Caty said.

"What?" Alyssa asked excitedly.

"The kiss...she thinks she _liked_ it."

"Ew!" Alyssa cried.

"See, it's weird," Rae said, blushing. "And I didn't _like_ it. I mean...okay, a little...maybe...but it was nothing like when Jake kisses me. That's much better."

"Just because you liked it, that doesn't mean you like him," Caty said. "Maybe Josh is just an exceptionally good kisser."

"Ew!" Alyssa cried again. "I hear enough of that from Gabi. Stop!"

"Gabi?" Rae asked. She knew Gabi liked Josh, but she didn't know they'd kissed.

"Yeah. After she and Josh kissed, all she could do was talk about what a good kisser he was, even though their kiss only lasted for like, five seconds."

Rae frowned. She was with Jake. She _liked_ Jake. So why did she feel a little jealous when she heard Josh kissed Gabi?

"So what have you and Sage come up with?" Alyssa asked. "On how to tell Jake?"

"Nothing yet. Nothing good anyway. I don't want to break up."

"You won't. He kissed you, right? Not the other way around. And you didn't respond, right?"

Rae nodded.

"Then it wasn't your fault. It was his. As far as I'm concerned, Jake doesn't even need to know."

"Except I'm incapable to keeping secrets from Jake. Everyone is that way. Once he asks you something and he makes you look into his eyes, you have to be honest with him. It's his own little superpower that he doesn't even know he has," Caty said.

"Exactly. That's why I don't look him in the eyes when he asks about GRACE, and that's why I have to tell him. If I don't Caty will."

"Then say it exactly how I did. He kissed you and you didn't respond and it meant nothing," Alyssa said. "He'll be mad, but mainly at Josh, and you won't break up."

Rae nodded. She could do that.

"And I'm sure it meant nothing to Josh as well," Caty added. "After all, he likes Gabi."

Of that, Rae wasn't so sure.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So are we not going to talk about it then?" Josh asked the next day as he and Rae waited for the others to arrive for guardian training.

"Talk about what?" Rae asked innocently.

"Oh I see. You're forgetting it happened."

"Forgetting what?"

"Really Rae?"

"Josh, I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about the fact that I kissed you!"

"Shh!" Rae begged as she looked around. She realized the restaurant was almost empty except for Chris, Cara, and an elderly couple, but she was still paranoid. "Can you not go parading it around like some idiot? I don't want anyone-especially Jake-to find out."

"If anyone finds out, it'll be because of you, not me. You're the one who refuses to look at me, and when I _do _catch you eye, you go completely red."

"I have a boyfriend," Rae found herself saying. "And I like him. Not you, my best friend's brother."

"Look, I know you like Jake."

"Then why'd you kiss me?" Rae demanded. "If you wanted to keep me up at night wondering who I should date, then you failed, because I haven't been doing that!"

"Good," Josh said. "That's not what I wanted. You were crying and freaking out. I did it to calm you down."

Rae scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right." She was well aware of Josh's crush on her.

Josh frowned. "No really. I'll admit I used to like you, but now I'm into someone else.

"Oh really? Who?" Rae challenged.

Josh cringed. Clearly Gabi had told Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie about the conversation he and the Earth guardian had a few weeks ago about liking each other but not being able to take the leap, but no one had clued Rae in.

"Gabi."

Rae, who hadn't spared him a glance since they walked into the restaurant, looked up sharply. "Gabi?" she repeated. "You're not serious?"

Josh nodded confidently. He may not be ready for a relationship, but he did like her and he wanted everyone to know. It was the least he could do-letting everyone know how much he cared about-since, even though she said she'd wait, she was clearly upset they weren't together yet.

Rae shook her head in shock. Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie had all said that Josh liked Gabi back, but didn't tell her what made them think that, so Rae figured they were just trying to be optimistic for her friend. But clearly, they were right.

"Gabi," Rae said again before looking back down at the table they were sitting at. Why did she feel so put out by that?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So what did you guys think? I know these chapters were mostly filler, but I have a lot of this filler stuff to cover before the guardian stuff can make sense. We're getting there though, promise! Review guys!**


	45. The Power Switch

**A/N: Hey guys! Whew, I had a crazy couple of weeks with finals (exams and projects), choosing which grad school to attend, and GRADUATION! That's right, I'm officially done with school until grad school starts early September, and my best friend and I are psyched to be attended the same one. I do have some summer courses we both want to take so we can graduate early from grad school and finally enter the workforce, so I don't know if my update speed will as fast as last summer, but it won't be as slow as this semester. **

**Anyway, here are the next two chapters. Before the shout-outs, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to hannahjoma for favoriting this story. Hope you enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Guest: You have to understand, what Caty did was a huge betrayal. While he was falling for her, she was playing him. And yes, she fell in love with him as well, but how is he supposed to believe that? And their big problem is, it doesn't matter to him how she feels. Regardless of how much she cares for him, he doesn't think he can be with someone who would be so cruel. It's going to take a lot for him to forgive her. Unfortunately, Jake is not going to be able to change Rae's mind because her confession doesn't happen the way most people think. You'll see what I mean soon. James truely loves Alyssa. What's strange about that? But then again, maybe you're right. You'll just have to keep reading. Thanks for the review! I hope you like these two chapters, and hope to hear from you again!**

**WaterAmulet: Thanks for the PM. I understand you didn't want to post that long of a review, but I wouldn't have minded. Since I PM'd you back, the only thing I have to say to you is sorry. You'll see what I mean at the end of this chapter.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

After Hope and Riley tried to capture Eva, GRACE knew they'd have to face battle again soon, especially since neither the prince nor the princess were locked up. Sage and Josh miscalculated, and Riley woke up before they got to the prison.

He was still weak from the battle, and couldn't beat both of them on his own, but managed to stall them long enough for him to grab his still unconscious sister and teleport away. Sage and Josh returned to Earth with the news that Kasson still had his son and daughter in his army.

Still, it was a couple more weeks before the guardians had a real battle again. It was thanks to Gabi that they found out they were needed. After telling Hay Lin about the battle, the Chinese woman was having Gabi practice with her telepathic powers, including telepathic barriers and greenspeaking. While she was practicing greenspeaking, she saw a vision in the ground.

"The five of us were there, and one other person too, though I don't know who," she explained. "I've never seen the place we were, but I know it was Meridian. And the monsters we were fighting were like nothing I've seen before."

A quick description of several different types of monsters clued the guardians into the fact that a lot of them were the monsters they didn't manage to kill in their first battle in Meridian.

Gabi wasn't sure when the battle was taking place, but the day after she had the vision, Caleb and Cornelia contacted Josh and told him about monsters attacking Meridian. They weren't Kasson's forces, and since they weren't attacking the palace, Kasson's armies weren't doing anything about it.

The guardians and Josh were at The Silver Dragon when they got the message, waiting for Sage, James, and the Lyndons to get there for practice. Hay Lin sent the six ahead, promising to send the others as soon as they arrived.

When the group arrived in Meridian, everything seemed okay at first. Cornelia met them at the portal and explained the monsters weren't attacking the mainland, but the land near the River of Meridian.

"Why there?" Alyssa asked. "Wouldn't the palace or the mainland be better targets?"

"The land near the river is uninhabited for a reason," Cornelia said, her tone clipped. Now that Alyssa knew who her real father was, Cornelia could be freer with her dislike of the fire guardian. "That's where the Mage Council meets."

Alyssa and Josh, unintentionally, exchanged a look at that.

"They meet there because the first ever mages of the council left a piece of their magic there before their children became mages. Every mage from every new generation does this, and the Mage Council meets once a year to use the magic to power themselves up."

"Like a charging station," Caty said.

"Or the way the Jumellans needed the Heart," Alyssa added.

Cornelia frowned. "You guys went to Jumelle?"

"Sage didn't tell you?" Rae asked innocently. "One of the nymphs were there. We went there to defeat her and we met Will."

Cornelia's mouth dropped open. Rae smirked and took off. The others followed her, Gabi carrying Josh.

They didn't take much notice of it the first time, since they were supposed to be looking for the Water Nymph, but the land by the River of Meridian was barren and desert like. It was just a bunch of dust, boulders, and sand. But unlike a clear, barren land like it was the day Caty and the others fought the nymph, now it was filled with monsters of all different types.

Missing were the brown monsters GRACE was pretty sure were Kasson's forces, the green monsters that wanted Alyssa and Josh for being Harts, and the monsters that attacked Rae and Alyssa at the bookstore. Those three monsters were actually enemies of GRACE, but the monsters they were fighting now was more of a guardian thing: defeat whoever threatens the safety of any world.

Meridian's army was already there, being led by Caleb. Rae saw Aldarn right next to Caleb, and Julia and Jilly farther back. There were several people in the army, humans and others. They weren't doing too badly, but they would lose without more help. Rae hoped they would be enough.

"So what's the plan?" Ellie asked.

"Alyssa, link us," Rae ordered.

"Done."

"Okay, guys split up and aim to kill. All plans after this should be communicated through the link. There seem to be monsters in those caves and outside, off to the left. There are probably more monsters there than any other area, so I want two of you over there," Rae said. "Go."

Alyssa immediately took off towards the caves. Ellie flew towards a rather large monster, and Caty staked a space near the water.

Gabi, Josh, and Rae were left. Gabi made a move to follow Alyssa when Rae said, "Stop. Josh, you go help Alyssa."

"What? But-"

"It makes more sense for you and guardian to pair up than two of us," Rae interjected. "I don't care how she feels about you or how you feel about her. This is your home, you are in command of an army. Act like it and defend your people."

Josh looked at Rae for a moment. Even after he told her he liked Gabi, she wasn't that comfortable around him. But now, she needed to be leader and she assumed that role, letting go of all the problems she had as a human, acting solely as a guardian.

As always, her voice had a harder, no arguments edge to it, her eyes held a fierce look, and she carried herself as if she knew exactly what she was doing, even if she didn't, so that her team would gain confidence. If Rae could let go of the problems between them during battle, he could let go of the problems between himself and his sister, at least until this was over.

Josh ran over to where Alyssa was. Gabi and Rae split up and helped out where they could as well.

"What're you doing?" Josh asked Alyssa. None of the monsters were dead and Alyssa wasn't shooting any fireballs.

"What are you doing here?" Alyssa asked, glaring. She had sword in her hand and was slashing monsters with them the best she could.

Josh remembered Rae decided Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie should learn how to fight and use their fighting skills as much as they could, until they learned how to transform without the Heart in case they got attacked and couldn't reach Rae.

"Helping. Rae said two of us."

"And it makes more sense for you to pair with a guardian instead of two guardians pairing together," Alyssa realized.

"You got that too? Maybe you would've made a good leader too," Josh said, hoping to soften her up.

"It's not that," Alyssa muttered, refusing to look at him as she cut a monster down. "I just know how she thinks. I know Rae really well."

"You know me really well too," Josh said, not sure what he was hoping to accomplish with that comment as he slashed through two monsters.

"And yet, for the life of me, I can't figure out what would possess you kiss her."

"She told you about that?"

"Of course she did! Best friends, remember? I don't know what you were thinking, but you put Rae in a really awkward position, and if Gabi ever found out, she'd be crushed."

"So another thing for you to be mad at me for?"

"Huh, looks like you know me pretty well too," Alyssa said nastily. She swung her sword at a monster and missed. "Oh for_get_ this!" she cried, dropping the sword. Josh picked it up and sheathed it in a spare sheath in case one of the monsters decided to pick it up. Most of them fought with clubs, axes, and scythes, but he was pretty sure they could probably figure a sword out pretty fast. Elyon's guards were taught mastery of several weapons. These monsters might've been taught the same way.

"See those monsters in the caves?" Josh asked, getting close to Alyssa so he could whisper. "Those caves go deep. There are probably a lot in there. If you can shoot a blast of fire big enough to kill all of them in all of these caves, that'll be a big blow to their army."

"That's a good idea, but that's a lot of fire," Alyssa whispered back.

Josh was surprised she reacted so well to his advice, but ran with it. "You're powerful. You can do it. Just take it one cave at a time. I'll cover you."

Alyssa nodded. She readied herself. Josh stood behind her. They were back to back. Alyssa shot her hands forward, trying to emit a huge blast of fire. The blast was huge for sure, but instead of shooting fire, Alyssa shot _air_. Not used to that, it knocked both herself and the monsters back. Alyssa crashed right into Josh and sent them both tumbling backwards. Josh broke Alyssa's fall.

"Ow," he groaned.

"What the…" Alyssa breathed as she started at her hands. She slowly got up and tried to shoot a fire blast at another monster. Again, air came out.

Josh groaned and got up. "Why didn't they die?" he asked.

"Because apparently, I'm not the fire guardian anymore," Alyssa said. She shot another air blast at a monster.

Josh's eyes widened. "How did _that_ happen?"

"Don't you think if I knew that, I'd be trying to fix it?" Alyssa snapped. She looked over to Ellie who was using her fancy flying to confuse some of the big, hulking monsters that were most likely powerful, but slow.

If Ellie could still fly like that, did that mean she still had air? So did that mean Alyssa and Ellie both have air, or was Ellie so good at flying that she could still be that good in the air, even while she somehow had Alyssa's power of fire?

"_Rae, we have a problem_!" Alyssa said in Rae's head before realizing her telepathy probably wouldn't work.

To her surprise however, she heard Rae respond in her head, "_What's wrong_?"

Alyssa gasped in surprise. A few monsters came over to her. She shot a few air blasts at them. They weren't as powerful as Ellie's, but it helped stall them long enough for Josh to cut them down. She established a link before they separated, but if she really lost her power, the link would've broken. For it to still be working…

"Josh, I think I still have my telepathy!" Alyssa cried.

"_Alyssa_?" Rae asked.

"_Give me a minute_," Alyssa said.

"How?" Josh asked.

"Not sure. And honestly, I need to test it." "_Can you hear me?"_

Josh nodded. "_You're in my head. So you don't have your elemental power, but you still have your second power_."

"_El, can you hear me?_" Alyssa asked.

"_Yup, what's up_?"

"_Sometime in the next ten seconds, I need you to go invisible_."

"_Okay_!" Ellie said excitedly. Ellie loved going invisible so much that she often did it when it wouldn't even be beneficial to her. Just as Alyssa expected, Ellie disappeared right in front of her eyes.

"_Okay, listen. I tried to use fire on these monsters and ended up using air. But I still have telepathy. So I think we kept our second powers, but switched elements, unless you still have air_?"

"_Whoa really? I mean, honestly, I haven't tried to use my power yet. You think I have fire_?"

"_Maybe. Try. But be careful. I was so bad at air that Josh and I were knocked back like twenty feet._"

"_Okay, I'll try now_," Ellie said. She reappeared and wound up her arm as if she was pitching a baseball. She's seen Alyssa do this when she wanted to shoot a baseball sized fireball. What came out of her hand was definitely _not_ fire.

"_Ellie, you just shot _lightning_,"_ Alyssa cried.

"_Yeah, I know. Even _I'm _not _that_ stupid_," Ellie said.

Alyssa looked over at Caty and Gabi, who were still fighting with their swords, and Rae, who was talking to Caleb, probably discussing strategy.

Alyssa tried one last trick to see how much of her fire power she lost. She took a deep breath and blew, hoping her breath of fire hadn't left her. Nope. She only blew a huge gust of air. On the upside, it was so huge that it trapped, choked, and killed a few monsters.

"Nice. You might be getting the hang of air," Josh said appreciatively.

Alyssa just shook her head. This was _not_ good.

"_Guys_," Alyssa said, in everyone's head, "_we have a serious problem. I don't have my power over fire anymore, I have air. I thought somehow, Ellie and I switched, but Ellie has Rae's power now._"

"What_?!"_ all three girls cried.

"_I still have telepathy though, and Ellie still has invisibility. I don't know how our powers got switched, but I think we all still have our second powers. Our elemental powers are all messed up though. I don't have any remnants of any powers connected to fire, not temperature manipulation, not microwaves, not even my breath of fire."_

_ "So what do we do?"_ Caty asked.

"_Test your powers. See if you still have your second powers and find out whose element you have."_

As she said this, Alyssa grabbed Josh and flew them up high so they'd have a few minutes to observe the others without having to defend themselves.

Caty concentrated, looking at monster with a scythe. In the next second, the monster used the scythe to cut off his own head, dying.

"_Whoa. Caty, what was _that?" Alyssa asked, a little frightened.

"_That was my mind control. I ordered him to kill himself,"_ Caty said nonchalantly.

Gabi used her telekinesis to steal an ax from a monster and use it to chop his head off.

"_Mine still works. My second power I mean_."

"_Yeah, I can see that. You two are freaks!_" Alyssa declared.

"_How is your burning monsters alive or Rae electrocuting them any worse than this?"_ Caty challenged.

"_I think I figured out my new power_," Rae said.

Everyone looked at her to see her splash a monster using water from a nearby power. Caleb killed it.

"_Rae, what was _that_?" _Caty complained. "_You can do so much more damage_!"

"_Sorry, not my power_," Rae snapped.

Caty rolled her eyes and tried to find out what element she had. She shot her arms forward, hoping something would happen. A boulder flew at a monster, crushing him.

"_Oh! I have Earth_," Caty announced.

"Great," Alyssa muttered out loud.

"What's wrong?" Josh asked. "That worked out pretty well."

"Yeah, but...see, I was hoping Caty wouldn't have fire because it would be harder for her to control the element opposite of her natural one. But this leaves fire to…"

"Gabi," Josh finished.

The pair looked towards Gabi, and just as they feared, she was laughing her head off, shooting fireballs every which way.

"_Gabi, if you're not careful, you'll burn the good guys. Calm down_!" Alyssa commanded.

"_Not that it's not fun electrocuting monsters or anything_," Ellie said, killing a monster with a lightning ball the way she'd seen Rae do, "but how exactly did this happen?"

"_We don't know_," Alyssa said. "_We're just going to have to deal and make the best of this situation to win this fight."_

With that, Alyssa lowered herself and Josh to the ground and the girls continued to fight. They spent the rest of the time talking each other through their powers.

"_Gabi, those small fireballs are good, but they keep missing or burning only parts of their body. Concentrate on making bigger fireballs. Those rarely miss, and can burn two or three at a time. If they do miss, then they at least hurt the monsters a little."_

Alyssa knew telling Gabi how to create bigger fireballs could be a bad idea, especially when Gabi's fireballs kept falling before she released them, the way Alyssa's used to when she was inexperienced. However, the more time went on, the better Gabi's control became. She was no Alyssa, but only half her fireballs went amiss by the end of the battle.

"_Alyssa, you're thinking too small. Air blasts only distract. Use air the way you did when you used your air breath. Create big gusts and use them to trap, choke, and kill the monsters."_

Ellie knew Alyssa couldn't use some of the same tricks as her, like creating large gusts of wind to distract and imbalance the monsters, entrap more than one in a tornado, or make the air around several monsters stale, but by the end of the battle, Alyssa learned how to make Hurricane Alyssa hit and kill about twenty monsters at once.

"_Caty, if you keep throwing boulders, you're never going to get anywhere. That takes out one monster at a time, if you're lucky. Land, feel the ground to sense where the vines are, and bring them to the surface. You can squeeze several monsters to death by doing that_."

It took Caty an especially long time to be able to bring up dozens of vines to suffocate dozens of monsters to death the way Gabi could, but she managed by the end, earning her cheers from the parts of the Meridian army that were near her "area."

Rae was having a tough time.

"_Rae, you're not limited to the water available to you. Even if you're unable to produce water, the water in that puddle you're using will essentially replenish itself and give you an endless supply of water to use. The only thing that doesn't work on is if I use water from plants. Anyway, the water is limitless. Use that to drown your opponents."_

"_Caty, I know how you're power works!"_ Rae snapped. "_I just can't seem to use more water than what's available."_

She seemed to have the hardest time getting used to her new element. Eventually, Caty and Rae switched places so Rae would be near a water source. It helped a little, but not by much. Alyssa and Josh, defeating the monsters near the cave, needed to help her.

It became clear that each guardian needed tips that related to their element. Alyssa started that off.

"_When you use smaller fireballs, keep up a steady stream the way you do with boulders. Don't shoot them down, shoot them straight out. Be fast."_

Ellie immediately followed suit.

"_My breath of air is no different from your breath of fire. And it's easier to use. You can do some serious damage with it_."

She was right. Alyssa managed to knock over, knock out, and kill several monsters using it.

"_You don't need to keep making lightning balls_," Rae advised Ellie. "_In fact, that's a waste of time. Just shoot lightning bolts at the monsters. It's just as effective. The balls are just for when you need more accuracy_."

"_You know how you use big water blasts to knock monsters off their feet? You can do that with boulders too, if you insist on using them. Throw it at a monster's side with enough force that he'll hit other and they'll all fall_," Gabi advised.

"_If you can't use too much water_," Caty said to Rae, "_then use whatever you can to get them in the water. It'll be easier to drown them once they're in the lake." _

Using air and fancy flying, Alyssa and Ellie helped get monsters both from Ellie's area and Rae's own into the lake, and Rae drowned them.

It became very apparent that the odds were changing. The guardians and the Meridian army were killing monsters left and right while the enemy, who were racking up casualties at one point, were now barely managing to knock out their opponents.

It would be overkill to say the guardians got the hang of their new powers by the end of the battle, but they could control them up a point. After killing most of the monsters, forcing the remaining to retreat, and taking care of the wounded and injured, the guardians went back home to tell Hay Lin what happened, eager to get an explanation, and hopefully a solution. They got neither.

Hay Lin had no idea how their powers got switched. Sage was just as confused. She, Hay Lin, and Eric promised they'd do some research to switch their powers back, but as of now, they'd have to work on controlling their new elements.

The girls nodded, not too worried, but when practice started, it was clear the adrenaline rush of battle was what made them okay with their new powers. Now that it was just practice, they were loose cannons. From the exercises Hay Lin had them doing to them nearly hurting each of the others at least once, it felt like they were going backwards. Hay Lin and Sage remained optimistic that they would find a solution, and most the girls were having fun trying to control their own powers, and even felt a bit of nostalgia dodging attacks gone awry.

Rae did not share the same good mood. Everything was weighing on her more heavily. She'd gotten out of tutoring just a month ago, only for Mrs. Johnson to ask Jake to tutor her _again_. Her relationship with Jake was already deteriorating, and despite Josh assuring her he didn't like her anymore, and he liked Gabi (which irritated Rae enough), he was having a lot of fun teasing Jake, practically telling him they kissed. And ever since her mistake with the altermere, everything guardian-related became much more serious for her. And if this whole switch was permanent and they had to start their training all over because of their new powers...how were they ever supposed to save _any _world, let alone all of them?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"And what power do you have again?" Lili asked the next day.

It was Sunday afternoon, and when Lili came bounding into her room, saying she got in a fight with her mother and would rather hang with Caty instead of her siblings instead, Caty had been staring at a glass of water, willing it to do something, _anything_, to prove she had her powers back, but no such luck.

Yesterday, she hadn't minded the change so much. It was even sort of fun. She always thought Gabi had the coolest power, and had a good time experimenting with it during practice. In fact, it was a good distraction. A week ago, everyone who had taken the March SAT had gotten their scores back. Misha, Nina, Rae, and Alyssa were all ecstatic. They'd gotten more than high enough for their desired schools (Coumbia, NYU, and Yale respectively), meaning they didn't have to take the SAT again and didn't have to take the ACT at all. Caty, for all her good feelings, had wound up with a 1690, which was even worse than what she'd gotten on her first ever practice test, far lower than Yale's desired score, and had been in constant study mode ever since, hoping to pull off at least a 2100 in the May SAT, the average minimum score of most Yale applicants and accepted students.

She barely put down the books, took practice tests every day, bit off the head of anyone who tried to talk to her, friend or foe, and wasn't all there during any of her activities (including guardian practice), or even in class. She was thinking in complete SAT terms. She even asked her friends ways she could get Brian to talk to her in the form of a multiple choice question, which made them look at her like she had a thousand heads. Sure, having the ability to control an element didn't seem strange, but the minute she obsessed about the SATs, she was practically an alien.

So both the battle and the switch had been a good, calming distraction. But now she just missed her power over water.

"Earth," Caty replied. "Watch."

She looked over the daisy at her windowsill and shot her arms out toward it. The daisy grew taller, the petals glowing a brighter white. The leaves grew longer, then four separate vines started sprouting out of the stem, coming towards Caty and Lili. Caty made them spiral and make pretty shapes before dropping her hands.

"Whoa," a voice breathed from behind.

Caty and Lili both jumped, crying out and whirling around. Caty calmed down when she saw it was just Misha and Nina. Misha was the one who'd spoken. The door was closed, so no one else had seen...probably. Lili didn't look any calmer. Caty hadn't realized, but she hadn't told Lili that Misha and Nina knew.

"I didn't know water could do _that_," Nina said, awed.

"It _can't_. I don't have water anymore. Somehow, the guardians switched powers. Rae has my power over water, and I ended up with Gabi's power over Earth," Caty explained.

"Wait..._they_ know about the guardians?" Lili asked.

"_She_ know about the guardians?" Misha asked before Caty could respond.

Caty told Misha and Nina how Lili found out, and explained to her cousin how her friends found out. Then she told the three of them the whole story of the previous day's battle, and the power switch.

"And there's no solution?" Lili asked.

"Or even a theory as to how and why it happened?" Nina piped up.

"There are no theories or solutions _yet_," Caty corrected, needing to hope. Her power was supposed to be one aspect of her life she could control. Now she couldn't even control which power she had! And despite the impressive trick she just did, she could not get the hang of this new power at all. Every amazing thing she did was all luck. Like the other girls, she was prone to accidents, and, also like the other girls, most of her tests and experiments ended up not working, or going awry Yesterday, she accidentally hit Rae's wings with needles from a cactus she hadn't even meant to grow, and Rae accidentally froze Gabi's wings, causing her to crash to the ground at the same time she was making a fireball, which escaped from her just before her wings were frozen, and almost burned Hay Lin.

"I can see you wanting to freak out," Misha said as she sat on Caty's bed. "Don't."

"The way I see it, you have five options," Nina added.

"Yeah. You can either A.) Panic, B.) Embrace your new powers, C.) Throw a tantrum, D.) Go ask someone higher up than Hay Lin for advice, or E.) Both A and C," Lili said teasingly.

Misha and Nina collapsed into uncontrollable giggles.

"Ha, ha," Caty muttered bitterly. The fact that she was being made fun of for the way she'd been asking questions lately was not lost on her. Then her eyes lit up. "Wait, what did you say?"

"Uh...I don't think I can repeat the whole thing."

"About asking someone other than Hay Lin."

"Just that. I actually said someone higher up. There's gotta be someone who knows more about this stuff than her, right?"

Caty nodded slowly. "Yeah. The Oracle!"

"Who?" all three girls asked together, even though Lili knew about the Oracle already. It figures she'd forgotten.

Caty explained to them who the Oracle was.

"I better call the others so they know to plan for a trip. Today at practice, we're heading to Kandrakar."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Alyssa always thought Josh was funny, but she'd stopped laughing at his jokes. Until now anyway. It was Wednesday morning. As usual, Josh got to school early with Gabi and Bree. Sage joined Gabi and the other cheerleaders when she arrived with Rae and Alyssa, and even though Josh usually stayed put, hanging out with the cheerleaders and basketball players, his new game with Rae and Jake was too much fun, so he followed the Keeper and the fire (air?) guardian into the school building and to Alyssa's locker where Jake and James would meet the girls.

"Any change?" Josh asked, figuring he'd talk guardian business before Jake arrived. "Gabi says no."

"No for us either. I try it every few hours, but I'm stuck with water and Alyssa has air," Rae sighed, looking at Josh. She'd been a lot more comfortable with him since the battle, unless he and Jake were in the same room, in which case she acted even weirder than before.

The girls, in accordance to Caty's plan, went to Kandrakar with Hay Lin and Sage during practice on Sunday, but he said he had not foreseen this happening, and although he discussed theories and solutions with Hay Lin and Sage (and the guardians as well, although at that point, it seemed like the Oracle, their teacher, and the Meridian princess were speaking a forgien language), but nothing seemed to stick, so they came back from their trip no closer to getting their old powers back.

"It's not _all_ bad," Alyssa said, trying to soothe Rae. "My power over air has completely gotten rid of my fear of flying. I'm sure water will do something for you too."

"Like, you can get over your fear of swimming," Josh suggested.

"I don't _have_ a fear of swimming!" Rae snapped, making Alyssa giggle.

"Well then, you can learn to swim faster."

"Why?"

Alyssa laughed harder. Josh was always funny, whether he was trying to be or not.

"Uh…" Josh wasn't sure how to continue this conversation so he switched topics. He looked at his sister. "So, when you get your own powers back, do you think you'll be scared to fly again?"

Alyssa glared at him.

"That's a terrible thing to say!"

"It was just a question."

"You're so dumb Josh!"

Josh bristled. During the battle a few days ago, it seemed he and Alyssa were patching things up. But maybe it was only because they were in battle, and she was scared, suddenly losing her old power and gaining a new one.

"Well-" Josh started when Rae interrupted.

"Can we _not_ today?" she begged.

"Yes, let's not," Jake said as he joined them. "You're fighting is exhausting." He threw his arm around Rae and she snuggled into him happily.

"And frankly," James said as he joined them, "I'm beginning to feel bad for Josh." He leaned down to give Alyssa a kiss that made her so happy, she didn't even care that he said he was feeling bad for Josh.

"I'm feeling bad too," Josh agreed.

Rae groaned under her breath because she _knew_ Josh was not talking about himself.

Josh turned to Jake. "For you I mean."

"What now?" Jake sighed. He'd been on the receiving end of Josh's subtle hints for almost a week now. What he was hinting at, Jake had no idea although he pretty sure Rae knew.

"It must just _suck _not knowing what I know."

"I'd know what you know if you'd just tell me."

"I think that's for your girlfriend to tell you," Josh replied.

Rae glared at him. That was the most obvious hint he'd thrown so far.

"_Josh, _what_ are you _doing?" Alyssa asked in Josh's head. "_Are you _trying_ to ruin her relationship_."

"_Yes."_

_ "_What?! Why?" Alyssa cried, realizing too late she spoke out loud.

"Why...what?" Jake asked

Alyssa blushed and laughed nervously. She let go of James' hand, grabbed Josh's sleeve, and said, "Excuse us for a minute."

Rae's eyes widened. "Are you sure it's a good idea for you guys to be alone?" She got no response.

"They're going to kill each other, aren't they?" Jake asked solemnly.

"Oh yeah," James replied.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

But Alyssa and Josh did not kill each other. Instead, they just talked.

"Okay," Alyssa said when she'd dragged Josh into the otherwise empty art studio. "Explain. Why are you trying destroy Rae's relationship?"

"Because that's what she wants, even if she won't admit it."

Alyssa paused, then furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"You've heard her for the last couple of weeks. She wants to keep him safe, she doesn't want to lie to him, she's worried about his safety, she wants to tell him the truth but can't. She's like a broken record, repeating the same two things in a million different ways."

"So?" Alyssa asked, a protective edge creeping into her voice.

"It's driving her crazy Lyssa! Rae is one of the bravest people I know, so it's unnerving seeing her scared, but it's real fear in her eyes and voice when she talks about wanting to protect Jake and keep him safe. It's _killing_ her having to keep GRACE a secret from him, especially since he knows she has a secret. And the more time I spend with them, the more tension and turmoil there is in their relationship. You have to have noticed that."

"Yeah, I have," Alyssa said slowly.

"Well, the only things that are going to make her feel better is if she cracks and tells Jake, which is she is completely against, or if she breaks up with him, which she admitted she wasn't strong enough to do. So, I'm doing it for her."

At first, this whole thing seemed really stupid to Alyssa. What right did Josh have to break up Rae and Jake? But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense, as much as she hated to admit it.

"If they break up, she'll be devastated," Alyssa pointed out quietly.

"I know. But it'll be better in the long run. Think about how easy it is for you, having your boyfriend on the team. But remember how hard it was for you to accept his membership. Rae's not going to tell Jake, let alone let him join. This is the only way she can feel okay. I know how heartbroken she'll be, and I don't want that, but I can't bear to watch her torture herself."

Alyssa contemplated this for a moment. The more Josh spoke, the more truth there was to what he was saying. It made Alyssa sad just to _think_ about how heartbroken her best friend would be if she and Jake broke up, but she agreed with Josh: she couldn't bear to watch Rae torture herself either.

"That's actually really...sweet...in a twisted way," Alyssa sighed finally. "But, I _refuse_ to be party to this plan!"

"That's okay!" Josh assured her quickly. "I'm not asking for you to help me break them up. But if you could not stop me when I'm trying to break them up…"

"Yeah, okay," Alyssa sighed, knowing this could get her into trouble, but also knowing she was just trying to protect Rae, the same way Rae was just trying to protect Alyssa when she hid Josh's secret.

Deciding their conversation was over, Alyssa began to walk back in the direction of Rae, Jake, and James. Josh grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Wait," he said as she turned back around and shook him off. "Alyssa, you've been so mad that I just let it go every time you said you didn't want to talk. But you just had a whole conversation with me, so please have another one and let me explain."

Alyssa sighed but looked at him expectantly.

Josh let a small smile grace his lips before starting to speak. "I'm so incredibly sorry that I hid this secret from you. I shouldn't have done that. I know that now. There's no excuse-"

"But you could give me a reason," Alyssa broke in, her voice quivering.

Josh was surprised to hear the emotion in Alyssa's voice. She was mad at everyone, but she forgave everyone except Rae pretty easily. She made Rae work for it a little, demanding a reason, but after the battle they fought together, she wasn't really mad. She remained angry with Josh and he was beginning to realize his keeping this from her might've been a bigger betrayal than anyone else, including Rae, keeping this from her.

"I don't know what you'll think of my reason, but okay. We were best friends when we were little, and when you found this secret out, we ended our friendship, and I was afraid that would happen again. I'd just gotten you back...I didn't want to lose you again. But that ended up happening anyway. I will do anything to make us okay again. Just please forgive me."

For a while, Alyssa didn't say anything.

"Lyss?" Josh asked.

"I...understand," she said finally. "Why you hid it. I get it now."

"Do you forgive me then?" Josh asked hopefully.

Alyssa bit her lip uncertainly. Josh knew that was a nervous habit of hers. It was a nervous habit of his father's too.

"I...I don't know," Alyssa said.

Josh's face fell.

"We have class," Alyssa sighed and hurried back over to her friends. Jake, Rae, and James looked up at Alyssa curiously when she rejoined them.

"What happened?" Jake asked.

"Where's Josh?" Rae asked.

"Are you okay?" James asked.

Alyssa nodded, only answering James' question. Josh caught up to them at that point. James, Jake, and Rae all gave him curious looks. He just shrugged weakly. His attempt to make up with Alyssa didn't go exactly as planned, but she was _talking _to him, which was something. Maybe eventually, he'd earn her forgiveness.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi smiled when she saw Josh and Alyssa walk into The Silver Dragon for practice that afternoon. She waved them over, then handed Josh a glass with a drink in it.

"It's blue," he said.

"Cyan actually. Like the cyan crocodile," Gabi corrected.

"The what now?" Alyssa asked.

Gabi laughed. "The Cyan Crocodile. It's one of Josh's favorite Meridian drinks."

"Interesting name."

"The drinks there are named after the color they are and the fruit or animal they're made from."

"Animals?" Alyssa squeaked. "In your _drinks_?"

A look of annoyance passed over Josh's face. "Why do you all react that way?"

"Because that's gross Josh! Is the Cyan Crocodile actually made from a crocodile?" Alyssa asked.

Josh nodded, then took a sip of the drink Gabi made him. "Mmm. It's no Cyan Crocodile, but it's pretty good."

"Oh, let me try," Alyssa said, grabbing the glass and taking a sip. "Oh Gabi, this is so yummy! What is it?"

"I used Chris's Shirley Temple recipe, except instead of using cherries, I used blueberries and put some white food coloring in there to get the right color," Gabi explained. "I can make one for you if you want."

Alyssa nodded excitedly, handing Josh's glass back to him. "But no food coloring please."

Gabi laughed.

Sage walked in and Josh walked over to her, and they began talking animatedly.

"So what's with you two?" Gabi asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on. You're sipping from the same cup, you're speaking freely...you haven't actually _talked _in months!" Gabi grinned. "So, give me the details!"

"No details. We're okay now," Alyssa said. Even though she wasn't sure if she could forgive Josh, she didn't feel the same anger every time she saw him, so she asked him to sit with them at lunch instead of with Gabi, and held a real conversation with him. Since then, they'd been talking and joking around like they used to.

"Seems like more than okay to me," Gabi replied. "You seem like you're on your way to becoming best friends again. Maybe even actual siblings."

"Maybe. It still feels different than it was."

"Give it time," Gabi advised. "It'll feel the same eventually."

Josh made his way back over to Gabi and Alyssa as Ellie walked in and engaged Sage in conversation.

Gabi finished her drink and handed it to Alyssa.

"Oh it's so good!" Alyssa sighed, taking a sip.

"It's good," Josh agreed, "but not as good as you're making it out to be. I don't get your drinks. Shirley Temples, Arnold Palmers...you know what beats all of those?"

"The Cyan Crocodile?" Alyssa guessed.

"Well, yes, but I was actually talking about the Honeydew Horse."

"Oh God," Gabi groaned. "Please tell me that's a joke!"

Josh shook his head.

"And it's made from an actual horse?" Alyssa asked.

Josh nodded. "I'll get you one next time we go to Meridian."

"Ew!" Alyssa cried. "No thanks! I don't even eat horse meat. I'm definitely not drinking anything made from a horse!"

"It's good Lyssa."

"No, it's _weird_ Josh. Like you!"

"How am I weird?"

"How are you _not_ is a better question," Gabi retorted.

"I mean, think about it this way. You've lived on Earth for eight months now, and you still act like you're from a different world. You could _try_ to fit in," Alyssa said. "If for nothing else, than to at least not blow your cover."

Josh huffed. "I _have_ tried to fit in. I have a job, I'm on the basketball team, I understand the game well enough to have a conversation about it, I have friends apart from Team GRACE, and I just got asked out by a cheerleader."

"_What_?!" Gabi cried, looking up from the drink she was making for herself as her shift ended. Lots of girls, including several cheerleaders, had asked Josh out, but since he admitted he liked her, Gabi put a stake in Josh, claiming him as her own, making him off limits to any girl on the squad or in her inner circle. Being captain of both JV and Varsity, this meant _none_ of the cheerleaders were allowed to ask Josh out, or accept if he asked them out.

"This is the fifth time this girl has asked me out," Josh went on, not realizing how angry Gabi was. "But I said no."

"Who?" Gabi growled.

Josh seemed to realize he was in trouble, and Alyssa backed away, slowly at first, then faster, not wanting to be in the middle of the fight that was going to break out.

Rae and Jake were sitting in a booth. Alyssa slid in next to Jake.

"Why does Gabi look like she's about to blow a gasket?" Jake asked.

"She just found out one of her cheerleaders asked Josh out."

"So? Girls ask Josh out all the time," Rae pointed out.

"Yeah, but a couple of months ago, Gabi laid a claim to Josh, meaning the other cheerleaders are not allowed to ask him out. One did anyway."

"And you know that how?" Rae asked.

"Gabi told me. Truth be told, I'm curious to know what cheerleader was stupid enough to ask Josh out. My money's on Kelli. Lana probably made her, to get to Gabi."

Rae rolled her eyes. Since when did her smart, down to Earth best friend care about the Sheffield cheerleader politics?

"Hey, is that the new blueberry drink Gabi makes?" Jake asked, nodding to the glass in Alyssa's hand.

"Yeah! It's great, isn't it?"

"Amazing! But mine was cyan. Why is yours dark blue?"

"She wanted to make it cyan for Josh's sake, so she added white food coloring to it. I asked her to make one for me without the food coloring," Alyssa explained. She offered her glass to Rae.

Rae shook her head. She was not about to put anything Gabi made in her mouth.

"Oh come on Rae, just take a sip. You'll love it."

"I don't think it'll go with the fortune cookies," Rae said, motioning to the plate of chocolate covered fortune cookies between herself and her boyfriend.

Alyssa and Jake both rolled their eyes at that. Rae had a dislike of fortune cookies. It wasn't that she didn't like the taste. She just didn't know _how_ she felt about their taste. Jake on the other hands, loved them.

As a result, whenever Jake and Rae hung out at The Silver Dragon, they'd order a plate of fortune cookies (which wasn't a real order, but Hay Lin made an exception for them-Team GRACE got pretty much whatever they wanted food wise), Rae would amuse herself by reading all the fortunes, and Jake would eat the cookies. Usually Alyssa or Caty, or both, would join them and eat the cookies too. Rae didn't like this because they always kept the fortune in their own cookies.

Alyssa took a cookie and broke it in half. "A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet," she read. "That's not a fortune."

"But that's a great attitude to have in life," Jake said.

Alyssa smiled. "I agree."

Rae groaned. "Two of the happiest people I know at the same table. Kill me now."

"Oh you _love_ us," Alyssa said. Then in Rae's head she said, "_Or at least one of us_."

Rae blushed and glared at her friend. Alyssa giggled, but instantly felt bad. Why did she keep teasing Rae about being in love with Jake if Josh was working to break them up?

"So you and Josh...are you two good again?" Rae asked.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well it's good you've forgiven him," Jake said.

"Oh, I haven't," Alyssa said. "We're friendly, joking around and talking. But there's no forgiveness...yet. Maybe one day I'll forgive him, but right now, I'm still mad at him for keeping his relation a secret from me. I'm just trying to move past it."

"Can you really do that? Move past it without forgiving him?" Jake asked.

"I guess we'll see."

"It's like a science experiment," Caty said as she and Ellie joined the trio.

"Except with people's feelings," Ellie said pointedly.

Caty rolled her eyes.

"Pretty drink Lyssa," Ellie said, her eyes lighting up.

"Right? It's really good too. It's Gabi's creation."

Ellie's face fell. "I want one, but Gabi and Josh are fighting and I'm scared to go over there."

"Definitely exercise caution," Jake said.

"How do you _exercise_ caution?" Ellie asked, making everyone laugh.

Ellie huffed, clearly not getting it. "Okay, I'm gonna go see Chris."

She headed upstairs.

"She and Chris are _such_ a cute couple," Rae gushed.

"I used to be in a cute couple," Caty sighed, sliding in next to Rae.

"How're you doing?" Jake asked sympathetically.

"Horrible," Caty groaned, putting her head down on the table. Her voice came out muffled, so no one understood her.

"What?" Jake asked.

"She's either feeling A.) horrible, B.) terrible, C.) like she wants to die, D.) devastated, or E.) all of the above," Alyssa said.

Caty lifted her head to glare at the fire/air guardian. "Why does everyone keep doing that to me?"

"Because up until a few days ago, that's how you talked," Rae replied.

Caty huffed, knowing she couldn't deny that. "Anyway, I said I was horrible. I feel bad and super guilty for what I did, I'm still mad at Misha for what she did, and I'm heartbroken that Brian broke up with me, even though I understand it and I'm frustrated because no matter what I do or say or how many times I try, he refuses to talk to me, not that that's really a surprise. I just want to scream!"

"Not in my restaurant you don't," Hay Lin said as she passed by their table. When she saw James come in she said, "That's all of you. Get down there."

Alyssa looked over to where Gabi and Josh were standing, still arguing, and said, "I think we're gonna need a few minutes."

Hay Lin sighed but didn't say anything.

James slid into the booth next to Alyssa, giving her a kiss. Then he grabbed a fortune cookie.

"You will be flying with danger," he read.

"What?" Caty asked laughing.

"That's what it says."

"Well what does _that_ mean?"

"Don't look at me. You're supposed to be the smart one."

"You're girlfriend's smarter than me. So's your best friend," Caty said, looking at Alyssa and Jake.

"That's the weirdest fortune I ever heard," Jake declared.

"Yeah, that fortune's weirder than Josh," Alyssa agreed, making Jake laugh.

"Would you _stop_ taking my fortunes? Eat the cookies if you want but those fortunes are supposed to be mine! I paid for them, technically," Rae complained.

Alyssa broke another cookie. She didn't even look at the fortune as she put one half of the cookie in her mouth and threw the other half at Rae playfully. It hit her right in the forehead.

Caty giggled as Rae's mouth dropped open. Rae threw a whole cookie at Alyssa. Alyssa dove to her right, leaning into Jake. The cookie hit James. He picked it up and threw it back at Rae, who swatted it away. Alyssa threw another one at the quintessence/water guardian. She dove to the left, and the cookie hit Caty.

"Hey!" Caty cried, throwing a cookie at Rae, which missed and hit Jake.

The group continued to throw cookies at each other, laughing. Until, that is, they were silenced by an angry Hay Lin who got complaints from a customer that kept getting hit with random pieces of fortune cookies.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Out of the corner of her eye, Gabi saw Rae, Alyssa, Jake, James, and Caty throwing fortune cookies at each other, but she ignored them as she headed downstairs, Josh at her heels.

"Come on, are you really going to stop talking to me?" he protested as they both reached the basement.

"Oh my God Josh, do you _not_ see why this is such a problem?"

"No! Yes, Kelli asked me out, but I said no."

"Why'd you say no?"

"Because of us!"

"There's an us?"

"Well, I mean...we had that conversation."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Please Josh, don't say no to Kelli or anyone else on my account. You _should_ go out with her. You should go out with anyone you want."

"I want to go out with you...eventually."

Gabi scoffed. "And in the meantime, you can have all the fun you want going out with all the other hot girls in our school."

"Like you'd still go out with me if I dated _any_ other girl."

"Do you even _hear_ yourself right now?" Gabi exploded.

Josh cringed. He was aware he wasn't coming off well right now.

"Don't use me as an excuse Josh. I don't want to hold you back," she went on.

"I'm not using you as an _excuse_."

Gabi scoffed again.

"I'm _not_! I don't _want_ to go out with Kelli."

Gabi just rolled her eyes and turned way, back to the silent treatment.

"Come _on_ Gabs, don't _do_ that! I don't think you have any right to be mad at me about this. I can't control who asks me out. It's not my fault Kelli asked. And I said _no_."

"I know that! I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at her and I'm mad that it happened and I don't want to say something to you that I'll regret, but now that I think about it, I am kind of mad at you because I want to be with you and you don't want to be with me and I hate that and-!"

Gabi's face was red and she felt tears prick in the corners of her eyes, so she stopped talking so wouldn't burst into tears.

Josh was bewildered. "Gabi, I _do_ want to be with you. I'm just not ready. That doesn't mean I don't want to be with you someday."

Gabi didn't say anything.

Josh stepped a little closer and put his hands on her shoulders. "I _like_ you Gabi, and you should know that, considering I told you that point blank. I'm not ready to be with you, so why would I _ever_ want to be with someone else? I would never accept an invitation for a date with any other girl because _you're _the girl I want."

Gabi still didn't say anything, but her face softened.

Josh didn't need her to say anything. He was on a roll and wanted to finish up. "I told you I'm not ready," he said softly. "That doesn't mean I'm going to go out with anyone else. How can I be ready for anyone else when I can't even take the leap with you? When I _am_ ready, it'll be with you and only you."

Gabi let out a breath. "I'm sorry," she said. "No one knows this because I don't usually let it show, but sometimes, I can be just as insecure as Caty. When it comes to things I care about. Like you."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Alyssa thought it was really cute how, on their way home, Gabi and Josh were both telling her the story of their fight, and how they resolved it. It was cute because they were finishing each other's sentences and giving each other little smiles. Even when she was mad at Josh and didn't much like Gabi, she was always a huge supporter of the two of them as a couple. She was glad it was sort of working out.

"What I don't get," Alyssa said, walking backwards so she could see both Josh and Gabi, who were walking in step with each other, "is how you guys can say things like that to each other without blushing. Or how you can feel that way about each other, but not be together."

"That last part is _his_ fault," Gabi said, nodding to the Meridianite.

"Then just take the leap Josh!" Alyssa begged.

"It's not that easy," Josh defended. "Gabi said she'd wait."

"And I will."

"You guys are sickeningly cute," Alyssa teased.

"And what do you call your relationship with James?"

"Perfect," James called, taking a pause from the conversation he was having with Rae and Sage. The three of them were bringing up the rear on the walk home. As usual, James and Rae were going to Alyssa's house. Sage, who alternated, was going home with Gabi and Josh that day.

Alyssa giggled, blushing madly. "Perfect," she confirmed.

Gabi giggled at the disgusted look on Josh's face, but couldn't help but roll her eyes. Perfect was right. Alyssa and James were perfect. She hoped she'd get her perfect relationship soon.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"You're aware that the SAT takes four hours, correct?" Nick asked Caty teasingly the next morning in the Mock Trial classroom.

"Of course I'm aware. I took the SAT once already you know," Caty replied as she filled in the bubble for the letter 'C' for the question she was on.

"Then how do you expect to finish a practice test before class?" Will asked, sitting on the table in front of Caty's.

Caty sighed and looked up. She did not appreciate being distracted, but Nina and Misha, who were sitting next to her, had been trying to get Caty to stop her early morning SAT study session for twenty minutes.

"I'm not doing a whole practice test. I've done a bunch of those. I'm just working on the kinds of questions that trip me up."

"What's your best practice test score?" Nick asked.

"I got a 2270 on one last week, but that was an outlier. Most of them have been in the 1900 range."

"That's not bad. I got a 1990 on the January test, which is high enough for Bucknell as long as I keep up my grades."

"And I got a 2060," Will added, "which is only twenty points lower than the highest average score of Bucknell accepted applicants."

"Bucknell class of 2021, here we come!" Nick crowed.

Caty banged on her head on the table. "How is it possible that every single person I know got a good enough SAT score for their top choice college on their _first_ try, and I didn't even get high enough to get into a community college?"

"You're exaggerating Caty," Nina soothed. "Two percent of accepted Yale applicants have your SAT score. With class rank number 3 and a GPA of over 100%, maybe your score is good enough."

"Good enough is _not_ good enough. And colleges see your _unweighted _GPA, which is not over a hundred. But Alyssa's unweighted GPA is exactly 100%, and she's also a Sheffield student applying to Yale with exceptionally high SAT scores. I need to get _at least_ a 2100."

"You're usually a good test taker Caty. What's going on with the SATs?" Nick asked.

Caty shrugged, exchanging a look with her friends. She wasn't sure it was so much the SATs as it was GRACE. The SATs were clearly not her forte, but she did do much better on the practice test than the real test. When she took the test in March, all the reading and writing sections somehow reminded her of GRACE, distracting her. When she talked about this with Rae and Alyssa, neither had the same problem. GRACE was destroying her academic career!

Caty looked up and saw Brian leaning against the podium in the front of the room, talking to Travis. Since she and Brian broke up, Travis had been giving Caty a ferocious glare every time he saw her, the way Bree did to Jake before Gabi and Jake became friends again. Caty figured Brian had told Travis everything.

Nick and Will on the other hand, didn't seem to be in the know. They were still friendly to Caty. Not _friends_, the way they were before the break up, and considering Brian and Travis were furious with her, most of what they said to her was teasing, but at least they weren't glaring at her.

Caty looked at Nick and Will. They didn't like that she upset one of their best friends, but maybe they would still help her.

"Do you guys think I should go talk to Brian?" she asked.

"How can they answer that Caty? They don't have any choices," Misha said teasingly.

Nina looked at the boys. "Let's start over. Should Caty go talk to Brian? A.) Yes, B.) No, C.) Maybe, D.)-"

"Stop that!" Caty snapped. "Don't do that."

"But it's so you Caty!" Nina giggled.

Caty shook her head angrily and looked at Nick and Will. "Well?"

"I mean, I guess," Will shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"He could call me a bitch. Travis keeps doing it."

"Nah. Yeah Travis does it, but Brian would never," Nick assured her.

"What happened between you two anyway?" Will asked.

Caty rolled her eyes. Between the two of them, Nick and Will had probably asked her that question a hundred times. They probably asked Brian three times as much. Neither was saying anything. Caty knew Brian still cared about her because he was protecting her.

"You know I'm not going to tell you. I only want your advice. Should I go talk to him?"

"I don't see why not. He can only say one of five things," Nick said, a grin playing on his lips. "A.) Yes, B.) No, C.) Get away from me, D.)-"

"Enough!" Caty cried as everyone began to laugh. "Stop doing that that. I _swear_ the next person to make fun of me using SAT material…" She trailed off, not being able to think of a way to finish that thought. She sighed and made her way to Brian instead.

As she approached, she figured nothing could be worse than the SAT jokes. But when Travis saw her, he glowered at her, and she wished she could endure the teasing again. But she couldn't back down, not if she wanted Brian back.

She walked up to the two boys and tried to ignore Travis's glare.

"Brian? Can we talk?"

"I think you've done enough talking," Travis growled out.

Caty felt her anger flare up. Yes, she hurt Travis's best friend, but why was he getting in her way. "Well no one freaking asked you, did they?" she yelled at him.

Not only did Brian and Travis jump, but everyone in the room looked at her. Caty didn't even care. She kept her eyes trained on Travis, glaring at him. Travis looked at Brian, who shrugged. Travis walked a few feet away. Caty let the glare melt off her face before turning around to face Brian.

Before she could open her mouth however, Brian spoke.

"Save it Caty. I don't want to hear what you have to say."

"But you haven't spoken to me at all since...you know…"

"I found out?"

"We broke up."

"That's because I don't _want_ to talk to you...ever again."

Caty felt her heart break a little.

"But-"

"And I already know what you're going to say. You're going to apologize profusely and you're going to say our relationship started out as fake, but you fell in love with me, and if I give you another chance, you'll spend your life making it up to me and you'll be the best girlfriend ever."

Wow, that was oddly specific. Clearly, Brian really got to know Caty while they were dating. But Caty knew Brian too. And she knew, as hurt as he was, he still loved her. She just had to get him to admit it.

"But I don't care about your apologies or your feelings or how you're going to try to make this up to me, because the truth is, you _can't_ make this up to me. I opened myself up to you. I fell _in love_ with you, and it was all fake. You _played _me. So I don't want to hear it because it's not going to help or fix anything."

"Brian, I love you, and I _know_ you love me. I know it's going to be hard to try to get past this and forgive me, but-"

"Hard? It's not going to be possible! It is literally _impossible_ for me to forgive you, and I will get over how I feel. I've never wanted to get over someone more. So please, if you ever cared about me at all, do me a favor, and stay away from me."

Caty shook her head, refusing to give up. "No. Brian, listen-"

"Caty, stop!" he interrupted. "What part of I don't want to hear it do you not understand? I want you to leave me alone. I don't want to see your face or hear you voice...I can't _stand_ it. I can't stand _you_."

"I know that's not true or else you would've told Nick and Will what happened between us. Please, just-"

"God Caty, what does it _take_ with you?" Brian exploded. "I don't love you anymore. I don't care about you. Caitlin Lewis, I _hate_ you."

That did it. Caty's heart shattered into a million pieces. Everyone heard Brian and was looking at him in shock. Misha and Nina immediately ran over to them. They both glared at Brian, then grabbed Caty's arm and pulled her out of the room. The minute they were in the hallway, Caty broke down. She began crying in earnest, her whole body shaking. She'd never been so humiliated and heartbroken in her life.

And she knew she brought it on herself. She did this. She played Brian and pretended to be into him for a stupid recommendation letter she didn't even _want_ anymore. She just wanted Brian, and the way he looked at her just then, his eyes blazing in fury, she knew, even if some part of him still loved her, another, more dominating part, truly hated her with every fiber of his being. And that hatred was something she fully deserved.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi knew Lana made Kelli ask Josh out (not that it would've taken much convincing-Kelli was head over heels for the Meridianite), and she was out for blood. That morning, she was furious that Lana and Kelli had decided to take an impromptu mental health day. How could she exact her revenge if they weren't even there?

But then she realized something. She didn't have a revenge plan yet, but their absence gave her perfect one. So when Lana and Kelli returned to school the next day, they had a rude awakening.

Everything seemed the same at first, so Lana and Kelli were none the wiser that something was up. They found it a bit weird that, at lunch, they were the only ones sitting at their table. Usually, a bunch of the cheerleaders and jocks would already be there. It was also strange that Sage and Josh were sitting with New Girl, Classless-a, Jake Saunders, and the nerds instead of with them, and most of the boys that sat at their table were sitting at a different table all the way across the cafeteria. But they didn't question it. Sometimes the boys sat at that table when they needed to discuss game strategies.

Lana looked up just in time to see Gabi walking into the cafeteria, the entire squad, as well as Eve, Andria, and Michelle, behind her. All the girls on the squad were in their uniforms. Gabi walked over to the table, giving Lana a sweet smile.

Lana was uneasy now. She'd asked Kelli to ask out Josh, even though Gabi had claimed him. Then, she and Kelli took a mental health day so that some of the cheerleaders that were better friends with her and Kelli than Gabi and Bree would tell them what Gabi was planning as revenge. When she didn't hear anything, she figured maybe Gabi was letting it go. She'd been a little different, a little nicer, and somewhat distracted, lately. Clearly, Lana was wrong.

"Lana, Kelli, so nice to see you again. It's a shame, isn't it?"

"What's a shame?" Lana asked. "And why are Holly, Skye, Brenda, Shauna, Lise, and Kaleigh not in uniform while the rest of you are?"

"Oh, didn't you hear? They were cut from the team."

"What?"

"Well, they didn't make it during their re-audition. They're still part of the clique though.

"Wait, what re-audition?" Kelli asked.

"Don't you know? Traci and I decided there were too many girls on the JV squad, so we had everyone re-audition. I cut those six juniors, and twelve of the sophomores, and Traci cut ten of the seniors. That's why we're wearing our uniforms today, even though we don't have a competition or performance. To show the school who is and isn't on the squad."

"Re-auditions? When?" Lana asked, fearing the worst.

"Yesterday after school," Gabi said, confirming Lana's suspicions.

"But...but we weren't here yesterday," Kelli complained.

"Oh, that's right. I almost forgot! Too bad."

"No. You cut 28 girls. That means the squad only has 18 girls. You need 21!"

"Oh, that's right. I guess we do need three more people. I guess you guys can re-audition today after school...to be flyers."

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Lana repeated, because only sophomores were flyers and being a junior flyer was worse than not being on the squad at all.

"You heard me. Guess you shouldn't have skipped school yesterday."

Lana was seething. Now she understood. No one told her anything because Gabi threatened to kick them off the squad and the friend group if anyone mentioned the auditions to Lana or Kelli. Gabi probably had three out of the twelve sophomores kicked out on standby to fill the three flyer spots if Lana and Kelli didn't want them.

"But-!" Kelli tried. "That's not fair!"

Gabi just shrugged. "Like I said, you shouldn't have missed school...or asked out Josh."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"We need to talk," Jake demanded the next day, walking up where Alyssa, James, and Rae were talking by Alyssa's locker. He didn't even kiss her, like he normally did.

"Okay," Rae said slowly as Alyssa and James immediately walked towards the art studio, knowing this was a private conversation.

Jake saw Josh walking towards the group. Alyssa grabbed his arm and dragged him along with her.

"What's up?" Rae asked.

"You tell me," Jake replied. "I've held my tongue for this long Rae, but I can't anymore. I want to know what it is you're hiding from me."

Rae blinked, surprised. Jake was always frustrated by the GRACE secret, but he'd never been so direct about it before.

"I can't tell you."

"Can't or don't want to?"

"_Can't_. I know I've never been open about it, but that's because I really _can't_ tell you."

Jake let out a breath. "Okay, what about this? For two months, you've been acting really differently. You're more serious, less relaxed. It's like you've been...hollow. It took this long for you to even be able to start smiling and laughing again, and even then, it's not the same as you used to be. What happened?"

Rae knew he was talking about the change in her behavior since she killed the altermere.

"I can't tell you that either. Sorry."

Now Jake was really frustrated. "Well what about for the past couple of weeks when you've been acting strange around Josh?"

Rae blushed. She'd hoped he hadn't noticed that, and worked really hard to relax around him.

"I _can't_," Rae whispered, shaking her head.

"Rae, why are you hiding these things from me? You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"No, I _can't_," Rae insisted. She suddenly had an urge to run away, so she turned around and began walking away, knowing immediately that she couldn't escape Jake, even if, by some miracle, he didn't chase her, because they were going to the same class, a class which was in the opposite direction of the way she was headed.

Predictably, Jake came after her. "Rae, stop!" he cried. "I want an answer. One. Just one. Just tell me _one_ of the many secrets you're hiding."

"I can't do that!" Rae cried, stopping. There were several people in the hallway, but no one seemed to care what was going on between the two of them.

"Why not? How can you just hide things from me? I'm your boyfriend!"

"And I'm trying to protect you!"

"Why? Is your secret really that dangerous?"

Rae looked at the ground. She wasn't supposed to let it slip that she was trying to protect him, but it was too late to take it back. "Yes," she sighed, looking at him.

"What is it that you're doing Rae?"

"I really can't say."

"Why not? Everyone else knows! Caty is avoiding me because she doesn't want to keep lying, but you're making her. James knew the secret before he and Alyssa even started dating. He's _part_ of the whole thing. Josh and Sage knew the secret from the beginning and you didn't even _know_ them before they moved here. I know Sage isn't your pen pal. It's too much of a coincidence that your pen pal happens to be best friends the other new guy. You don't even _like_ Gabi but you're both in on it. So what's going on?"

"Why are you so interested?"

"Because I can't date someone who's keeping secrets. Tell me what's going on!"

Rae wasn't sure what possessed her to say it, but she blurted out, "I kissed Josh!"

Jake's entire expression changed. He wore a look of complete shock as Rae's hands flew to her mouth in surprise.

"What?" Jake asked.

"I...kissed Josh. Or...I guess, more accurately, he kissed me. I was upset and he just kissed me, and I pulled away immediately. It didn't mean anything, to either of us. I'm with you and he likes Gabi. It was just a mistake."

Jake's face darkened and his eyes blazed with fury. Rae felt fear wash over her. She'd never ever seen Jake angry. He was very good at controlling his rage. No one had really seen Jake angry, except Gabi because they were close, and Alyssa that one time.

"I'm going to _kill_ him," Jake growled, balling his hands into fists.

"No, you're not," Rae said firmly. "Because you know it didn't mean anything and you know I'd never do anything to hurt you, and that's not what you're really mad at about, so please don't go projecting."

Jake glared at Rae. "You're right. That's not what I'm really mad about. But as for knowing you'd never do anything to hurt me...I _don't_ know that."

"How can you say that?"

"Because you're keeping secrets from me, and you have been since I first met you!"

Rae realized with a start he was right. She'd only been in Heatherfield for three days when she found out about being a guardian, and she only knew Jake for one full day before she became a guardian and started hiding stuff from him.

"I'm sorry Jake, but I can't tell you!"

"Why not?"

"I'm trying to keep you safe."

"That's not your job or your decision to make."

"I disagree. It's my secret."

Jake let out a breath. "Rae, I've dealt with this for too long. We've been together for six months and I just let you run away and do whatever it is you do down in that basement with no explanation. And you can continue you to do that. All I'm asking is that you _tell_ me what that is. Why do you feel the need to hide this from me?"

'You're too important to me for me to lose you,' Rae wanted to say, but didn't. If she said anything along those lines, he'd never let it go.

"Come on Jake, just give it a rest."

"Rae, you know how much I care about you," Jake said. "But I can't be in a relationship with someone who keeps secrets."

Rae's eyes widened and she gasped. What did he say?

"This has got to stop. I can't keep doing this."

What was happening?

"So, you choose. You either tell me or you don't."

"Jake, what are you saying?"

"I think you know exactly what I'm saying Rae. Are you going to tell me or not?"

"_Not_!" Rae cried. "I can't believe you're giving me an ultimatum!"

"I can't believe you think it's okay to hide a part yourself from your boyfriend. You know everything about me. Shouldn't I know everything about you?"

"Not this Jake. Anything else, but not this."

"_This_, whatever it is, is the only thing you're hiding."

"Why can't that be okay? Why can't I have one secret all my own?"

"Because it's too big! If it was just a little secret, I'd let it go, but this is a huge part of your life, and you refuse to share it with me, and that's not okay. Not anymore."

"I _can't_ tell you," Rae whispered desperately. "I'm _so_ sorry."

The anger was completely gone from Jake's face, replaced with a look of pain that broke Rae so completely.

"Me too," he said.

"No! Jake, please, don't walk away!" Rae begged.

"I'm sorry Rae, but this is not how a healthy relationship works. We have to break up."

The words cut like a knife.

"Jake-"

"Rae, you did this," Jake said, cutting her off. "This is your fault."

Rae couldn't believe what he just said. She'd never been more hurt. And she could tell Jake felt bad he said it. She also knew he meant it anyway.

Jake shifted and said, "You have one last chance Rae. Tell what you've been doing. Show me who you really are. Share every part of your life with me."

Rae winced. He was smart. He knew exactly how to phrase his request so that Rae would most likely _have_ to tell him. But she couldn't. She knew that.

"No," she whispered, her voice cracking.

"Okay then," Jake said.

But still he lingered, as if hoping she'd change her mind. And changing her mind was all Rae wanted to do. But she had to be a good guardian, a good leader, and a good person. She couldn't be selfish. She had to let him go.

A minute passed before Jake got the message. Rae wasn't going to change her mind. He didn't understand what it could be that she was doing that was more important to her than him, but he had to accept her decision. He loved her and wanted to tell her, but couldn't be with her if she wasn't going to be honest. He sighed sadly, turned around, and left.

Rae knew she was going to see him in class in just a few minutes. He was in every class with her. But watching his retreating back, she couldn't help but feel, even with school in the picture, he was walking out of her life forever.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So the next chapter became really long, so I broke these two chapters up into three. I didn't want your eyes to bleed. Two chapters left for this update!**


	46. Promposals

**A/N: Here's the rest of that chapter. I'm wondering how the last chapter affected you, because reading it over to edit it, it kind of shook me! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: This is the one and ONLY time I will reply to a verbal review. You want a shout-out, you write something out. Since I answered most of your questions verbally, all I can say is, hope you beta'd this well. Haha, love you!**

**caramelcookie: Yeah, I wanted each of the guardians to slowly find out who the new guardians are. It'll make their eventual reunion easier, and Irma was the last one I needed to loop in, so that's good. What Caty did was awful. Brian has every right to be mad at her. But it was always my intention to have Misha and Nina find out exactly the way they did. It always sucks when a friend walks out of your life. I would know. If all goes according to plan, Adam will be the next to find out, and a couple of others will find out at the same time. It was definitely wrong of her to erase Jake's memories, not just for her own sake, but morally. It's so unethical! I'll get into that. And the kiss is revealed this chapter, and if you think Rae's in a lot of pain right now, just wait til the end of this chapter! I have Asian parents as well. I am Indian, and we don't have a business, but my brother and I have been groomed to be top of the class since we were little. I haven't thought about it, but I could imagine Cara looking like Sohyun Kim. I hope you enjoy these chapters! I can't wait to hear what you think!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae had forgotten all about prom until that afternoon, when she entered the basement and saw Ellie and Gabi explaining to Sage what a "prom-posal" was. They were the only ones in the basement so far.

When the girls saw Rae, Sage and Ellie rushed up to her immediately with a torrent of questions like 'Are you okay?' and 'What happened' and 'Do you want to talk about it?'

"How did you guys _know_?" was what Rae wanted to know.

"Jake's the most popular guy in school. It's common knowledge whether or not he's dating someone and who that someone is," Ellie said.

"And also, Jake and Ellie are friends and he told her," Sage added, causing Ellie to stick her tongue out at the Meridian princess.

"Anyway, are you going to be alright?" Sage asked.

Rae didn't answer. She didn't want to. The only person she wanted to talk to was Alyssa, whose house she was going over to after guardian practice. Alyssa had even told James _not_ to come over so that the girls could be alone.

"Give her room to breathe guys," Gabi said. "She wouldn't want to talk about that."

Sage and Ellie nodded slowly and sat back down to continue their conversation. Rae sat in the corner of the room where Josh and Sage usually sat when Hay Lin was giving the girls a history lesson.

"Thanks," she said to Gabi when the cheerleader joined her.

"No problem. I know how hard a break up can be, especially when the guy is Jake."

Rae grimaced. "Listen, I never apologized to you. I kind of stole Jake from you, so I'm sorry."

"Don't be silly," Gabi said, waving it away. "We were over before the newspaper and before he decided he liked you. He'd already stopped loving me, and I started liking Josh."

Rae gave Gabi the barest of smiles, though she found it a bit unnerving Gabi was being nice to her.

"But this doesn't mean you're going to be even more depressing, does it? Because that could be a real drag," Gabi added.

Rae's smile grew a little. It was good to know nothing else had really changed.

"It's going to take a lot for me to get over Jake, but I won't let it affect our guardian duties, and I'll try to keep my mood up. Alyssa can help. She's a pretty cheery person."

"I know. I wouldn't expect such a logical person to also be the sort of person who looks on the bright side, but Alyssa is," Gabi agreed.

"How did you two become friends? I mean, I guess I know how, you guys had a talk at the hospital. But how did you guys _remain_ friends?"

"Well, Alyssa's a painter and I'm a writer. We're both artists, so that helped. When she was still mad at you and Ellie, Alyssa's closest friend in the guardians was Caty, and she my closest friend in the guardians too, so the three of us were kind of forced to hang out. I admire Alyssa's intelligence, and the way she doesn't flaunt it the way Caty does, and she says she likes my sense of humor. We don't have a lot in common, but we have known each other for our whole lives, so we can gossip about all the same people. Somehow it just got to the point where we really enjoyed each other's company."

Rae nodded slowly. She hated to admit it, but that sounded like a real friendship.

"Why New Girl, does it bother you?" Gabi smirked.

"I just don't see how she got over the seven years of torture you put her through," Rae replied, giving Gabi a light glare.

"I apologized for that. And I know one apology doesn't make up for it, but I think for Alyssa, it was enough that I felt bad about it. And it helped that she was starting to miss all her friends. She was willing to make up with Caty and I because she decided we had no real obligation to tell her about Josh's secret."

Rae nodded. She understood, even if she didn't want to.

Alyssa came in next. She gave Rae a sympathetic smile before squeezing in between her and Gabi. She sighed over exaggeratedly, making Gabi smile.

"Something wrong?" she asked, a laugh in her voice.

"No. Yes. Just...have I mentioned how much I _hate_ Princeton University?"

"Only about a million times," Gabi replied.

"Oh...well I do," Alyssa said, resting her head on Rae's shoulder, searching for comfort.

"Do what?" Caty asked as she joined them. She gave Rae an encouraging smile as she sat down in front of the trio.

"She hates Princeton," Gabi replied.

"Oh, right."

Alyssa had been telling everyone daily how much she hated Princeton since mid-April.

In December, James sent out applications for 16 colleges. By mid-March, he'd received acceptances from three safety schools, four fit schools, and one reach school. That made a total of eight acceptances. He also got waitlisted at Princeton, another reach school. The other acceptances were all at schools near Heatherfield, including Jagarrick University, right in Heatherfield. It was a very good school (the reach school James got into) and his first choice. But a week after James's birthday, he got accepted into Princeton, and wanted to go there. Needless to say, Alyssa was not happy, but she was not about to hold him back from going to one of the best schools in the country.

"It'll be okay," Rae said soothingly. "He'll come visit all the time. He loves you so much Lyss."

"Not as much as he'll love some Princeton girl he'll meet. She'll be studying exactly the same thing he is and they'll hit it off and fall in love and debate whether or not to invite me to their wedding."

"Okay, first of all," Rae said, Alyssa's imagination taking her mind of Jake, "James is going to be a government and poly sci major with a music theory minor. I guarantee you _no one_ will be studying the same things as him."

"And second, if you knew how lucky he considered himself to be dating you, you'd never be insecure again," Caty finished.

Alyssa smiled at that. "Really?"

"Trust me."

Alyssa sighed contently. "I really do love him."

"And he loves you too," Caty said.

_And I really did love Jake_, Rae thought. _But I guess he didn't love me back_.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

As the month of May went on, everyone grew busier. Guardian practice, which usually went on at least an hour longer than it was supposed to, got cut off at two hours exactly each day for everyone's various activities.

Caty was still studying hard for the SATs at the end of the month, and she and Rae were both trying to go to states for AcDec.

Classics was also at the end of the month, and Gabi (and Traci) were being slave drivers with practices. This wasn't easy for Sage who had to practice because she was on the Classics squad and rehearse because she was in the musical.

The musical was being performed at the end of the month, meaning not just Sage, but Ellie, was also super busy with extra rehearsals.

Alyssa, Josh, and Chris were frantically working on art projects, trying to get ready for the Student Art Show the first week of June. Not only did they have to present three new pieces along with two old ones just to be _considered_, but each artist also had to put in some volunteer hours setting up for the show, regardless of whether they were being showcased or not.

James had officially enrolled in Princeton University and was very excited to be part of the class of 2020. Now he was just making sure he kept up his grades and working on his end of the year composition for AP Music Theory. He had to perform it at the end of the year ball. He often worked on it in the art studio so he could keep Alyssa company, something she loved. Of course, his presence didn't sit well with Chris or Josh, who worked at the same time as her.

Cara, being in eighth grade, wasn't busy at all. She signed up to be part of the End of the Year Ball committee, but that wouldn't start for another couple of weeks. She took extra shifts at the restaurant to busy herself. Sometimes, she attended Classics practice, where Gabi would teach her some advanced moves during breaks so that Cara would be ensured to get on the freshman squad next year, and be a shoo in for JV in her sophomore year.

College were finishing off their semesters, so everyone was coming back home. Caty was excited to see Jake's sister Brittany, who she hadn't talked to since freshman year. Gabi was ecstatic to have Michael back at home, even if it was only for a little while. He and Ariel were staying at the Shays before going to LBI with Ariel's family (they had a house there) as they did every summer since they started dating, and starting their summer jobs. Ariel worked at an ice cream parlor, and Michael worked at Cool Beans, the most popular coffee shop. They both had through the semester internships so they could keep their summer plans the same.

Ellie also welcomed her brother back. He moved back home and kept Ellie and Jason updated on what Betty and Tim were up to, and whether or not they wanted to track Ellie and Jason down or not. So far, they didn't seem too interested or bothered by the fact that they were nowhere in sight. Every time he could, he grabbed something from Ellie or Jason's room that they needed but forgot to pack in their haste. So far, Taranee, only too happy to host Ellie, hadn't asked why she moved in with them, but Ellie knew it was only a matter of time. John, curious as ever, had already asked Ellie a few times, and she had stupidly made up a different lie each time.

Between all of that came the prom madness. Prom was the first Saturday of June for the juniors. They'd started a facebook page to post pictures of their dresses so no girls would have the same dress, and everywhere the students turned, they saw some really cute promposals. The first one came from Chris's friend Max. He asked Della Crane, who officially became his girlfriend after the Sadie Hawkins.

Max wore a white shirt which said, in magic marker, "Della, will you be my prom date?" Underneath it were two checkboxes, one that said 'yes' and one that said 'no.' Max wore a red marker around his neck. The checkboxes were blank when Max walked in that morning, but by second period, the 'yes' box was checked.

The next one came from Dalton, who asked Bree by getting to school early and holding up a poster that said "Every prince needs a princess. Will you be mine for prom?" when Bree arrived.

After that, the promposals really started picking up. Alyssa was the first of the guardians to get asked.

James had Chris help him with his ask. Chris still didn't much like James, but ever since he and Ellie started going out, he wasn't as jealous.

Chris wrote out a little poem James thought of in Disney calligraphy, adding a picture of a Mickey Mouse head in a few places on a poster. James was waiting at Alyssa's locker and held up the poster when she arrived.

The poster said, "Mickey needs Minnie, Tigger needs Pooh, and I need to go to prom with you! Will you go to prom with me Alyssa?"

Needless to say the answer was a yes that went along with Alyssa tackling James into a kiss.

Ellie got asked next, but her promposal came with some bad news mixed in.

It was mid-May, and the drama kids had their first dress rehearsal after school. Milly, Sage, and Ellie walked out of the locker rooms in their costumes to see most of the cast surrounding the stage, whispering, instead of sitting on it like they usually did as they waited for rehearsal to start.

"What's going on?" Ellie asked as she approached.

Jade, who was snapping pictures with her phone, turned around, excited. "El, you're gonna be _very_ happy!"

"Why?"

"Oh, Ellie, it's so romantic!" Sage breathed, her eyes sparkling as she saw what everyone was talking about.

Jade took a picture of Ellie and said, "I'll call this the before picture."

Ellie stepped forward and sucked a breath. On the stage, in rose petals, was spelled out, "Ellie, will you go to prom with me? -Chris."

"After picture," Jade said, taking another one.

"It's beautiful, huh?" Milly asked, nudging a frozen Ellie.

"I think it's a bit gushy and very cliche," Jade said, "but I thought you'd like it which is what I told Chris when he ran this idea by me."

"I love it!" Ellie squealed.

"Then you should go tell him yes. He's waiting for you backstage."

Ellie ran backstage to meet Chris. When she returned five minutes later, after she told him yes and made out with him until he insisted he had to go to basketball practice or else he'd be in trouble, she caught sight of Adam, who'd shown up late. Adam and Ellie hadn't said a word to each other since he ended their friendship, and barely looked at each other. The two of them, Milly, Jade, and Sage still hung out as a group in music and drama, as they always did when members of their group was fighting, but the first week was even more awkward than usual.

It got noticeably less awkward when, slowly, Jade and Adam began to make up.

Ellie heard from Milly that Adam was trying to get Jade back. She hated that idea, but didn't express her opinion because Jade seemed happy, and it was good to see her smiling after she had her heart broken.

Adam looked away quickly, looking instead, at the petals. His eyes blazed for a moment, but it passed so quickly, Ellie was sure she imagined it. She noticed he was holding a plastic container.

Adam walked toward Jade, who was chatting with Sage and Milly.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Jade replied with a smile.

"What's that?" Milly asked, alluding the box.

Ellie joined them. Adam avoided her eyes as he handed Jade the box. "For you," he said.

Jade gave him an amused look before opening the box and gasping.

In the box were M&amp;M brownies. Adam was pretty famous for them. It was ironic to think about, but the only reason Adam knew how to make those were because of Alyssa. Taranee taught Alyssa, Ellie, and Adam how to bake them during Christmas break in fifth grade, just a few weeks before Alyssa and Ellie's fight. To this day, Alyssa and Ellie tried to avoid the kitchen at all costs, but Adam really took to it, and used Taranee's recipe whenever he needed to make brownies for something.

The shocking part however, were not the brownies. At least, not all of them. There were five brownies on the top, and a letter clearly drawn on each in M&amp;Ms. They spelled PROM?

Jade stared at them for a long moment before shrieking, "Yes! Oh my God! Yes, I'll go prom with you!"

Adam gave her one of those "oh so rare" smiles and she hugged him.

Ellie bit her lip. Chris asked her to prom in the sweetest way ever, and she was ecstatic. So why did Adam's promposal put such a damper on Ellie's mood? Was it because she was worried about Jade getting hurt again? She and Adam broke up once already, and that was at a dance, and how was it that Adam, who told Ellie just a week and half earlier that he loved her, suddenly interested in Jade again?

Or maybe she was upset because promposal ideas were normally something Adam would talk to Ellie about (not that he'd ever asked a girl to go anywhere with him before), and if he could think of such a cute idea by himself, what did he need her for?

Or, as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, maybe she was a little bit jealous.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty got her promposal the next day, and like Ellie, it came with some bad news. In fact, her promposal came with more bad news than Ellie's.

In the morning, Nina and Misha were chatting excitedly outside the Mock Trial classroom. When Caty arrived, they started giggling madly, pushing her into the classroom. Misha and Nina only acted that way when Brian or Tony or any other boy (not that there were many other boys besides Brian and Tony) were doing something sweet and romantic.

Prom had not been on Caty's mind at all, her thoughts consumed by the SATs and AcDec, so she was really surprised to see a pretty glass vase of peach irises on her usual desk. Next to it was a strawberry smoothie with her name on it. Strawberry smoothies were her favorite drink. As she started hanging out more at The Silver Dragon, Chris's Shirley Temples became her favorite drink, but no one really knew that. She grabbed the smoothie, took a sip, and pulled out her chair.

On her chair was the biggest surprise of all. A brand new, fully inflated soccer ball was sitting there. Caty had already accidentally destroyed the new ball Tony got her for her birthday, so she felt a thrill shoot through her when she saw the ball.

She quickly saw the ball had letters on it. One of the white spaces had her name spelled in out in all caps: CATY

Another of the white spaces spelled out "PROM?"

Finally, a note attached to the ball said, "It would be my GOAL to go to PROM with you."

For one quick moment, Caty let herself believe it was Brian who had done all this. But Tony appeared in front of her, and she knew it had been him.

"Do you like it?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh Tony, it's really sweet, and cute, and I'm not worth all this trouble."

"Sure you are," Tony said. "I was trying to be clever with the soccer stuff. I couldn't really think of much though. It's a wonder I'm on the soccer team at all."

Caty laughed. Tony was actually really good. He was on Varsity, and he was captain of JV last year. "It's clever. I like it," she said.

"So what do you say?" he asked. "Will you go prom with me?"

"Oh, um…" Caty wanted to go with Brian. She'd given him a few days to cool off, and was hoping he'd give her another chance.

She looked over at Brian, and to her surprise, saw him standing with Sheila. Brian hated Sheila Breslin almost as much as Caty did, so why was he standing with her, watching her do...was that a puzzle?

"Oh, wow, how cute!" Mona exclaimed as Sheila finished the puzzle.

"Wow Brian, how did you do this?" Sheila asked.

"I didn't draw it or anything," Brian said with that endearingly shy smile of his. "Some of the studio kids helped me. I asked Alyssa Ashcroft and Josh Hart first, but they refused, so I asked someone else. But the idea was mine."

"It's gorgeous!" Sheila said.

Caty, unable to curb her curiosity, moved closer, despite the fact that Tony was waiting for an answer. Ralph was standing with Sheila and Mona, looking put out.

"What's wrong?" Caty asked him quietly.

"I wanted to ask her," Ralph replied.

Caty didn't understand what that meant until she looked at the puzzle. Then, not only did Ralph's comment make sense, but it also gave light to why Alyssa and Josh refused to help Brian.

The finished puzzle was a picture of Brian drawn by whatever studio kid he asked for help. The puzzle Brian was holding a poster that read, "Sheila, will you go to prom with me?"

Caty almost dropped her smoothie in shock. She could feel her heart _literally_ break. She couldn't breath. She wanted to curl up in a corner and cry forever. Brian, the boy she loved, was asking her least favorite person in the world to go to prom with him?

"Uh, that's a nice puzzle and all, but Caty, I'm still kind of waiting for an answer to the same question," Tony broke in.

Caty looked at him, startled. She hadn't realized he had followed her. "Huh? Oh yeah, sorry Tony. Um…"

She was hyper aware of the fact Brian was watching them. When she turned her head slightly to look at him, he looked right and Sheila and said, "So what do you think Sheila? Prom?"

"Of course Brian. Who could say no to this?" Sheila replied. She was talking to Brian, but she was looking at Caty triumphantly. Brian was also looking at his ex-girlfriend.

Caty turned back to Tony, feeling Brian's eyes follow her. "Of course Tony. I'd love to go to prom with you!"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty was burning with jealousy all day over Brian asking _Sheila Breslin_ of all people to prom, and no matter how hard they tried, none of her friends could get her excited about going with Tony. And they did try hard.

Misha kept going on and on about how hot he was, Alyssa reminded Caty that since Tony and James were friends, it'd be easy for the two of them to join Alyssa and James's prom party and table, Nina talked about how Tony was one of Caty's oldest friends, and she knew he'd treat her right, plus he clearly adored her, and Rae, in her own depressing way (because despite Gabi's hope and Rae's pseudo-promise, she had been depressed since her break up), told her that at least she _has_ prom date.

However, once practice started, Caty forgot all about Brian and Sheila, because they got terrifying news at practice-and that was considering all the terrifying information the guardians already had to deal with.

It started with sparring practice. Hay Lin wanted to see how good they were getting at controlling their new powers. Caty and Rae were first to spar, and though Rae was doing much better with her powers, she couldn't do as much as Caty could (like seizing control of the vines Gabi liked to play with), so while Caty usually won her battles with Gabi, Rae couldn't win.

Gabi and Alyssa were up next. For their battle, Hay Lin told Alyssa to use air as a defensive power as much as she could, so Alyssa would use air to blow out Gabi's flames. Then, Eric called. There was an emergency at the restaurant, so Hay Lin rushed back, telling Gabi and Alyssa to spar anyway, putting Rae in charge of stopping them when she saw fit,, and planning the next exercise if Hay Lin was not back.

Gabi and Alyssa began their fight right after Hay Lin left. That's when something surprising happened.

First, Alyssa began to get a headache. She quickly realized each guardian had one as well, but knew it wasn't a physical link doing it this time. They all had their own headaches.

The pain got worse and worse, and though both were in severe pain, Gabi and Alyssa pushed through. For a while, it was a normal battle of fire against air. They were both flying. Then Gabi let out a steady stream of fireballs. Alyssa shot her hands out to launch a large gale at them and ended up shooting lightning instead.

Gabi squealed and dove to the left to avoid the lightning bolts, and Alyssa shot up to avoid the fireballs. Sage used a force field to block the rest of the group from the fireballs and extinguished the flames from inside the force field.

Gabi and Alyssa were rapidly falling, the headaches too much for them. Cara used her super speed in the air to catch both girls and put them on the ground.

James immediately rushed to Alyssa's side. She was _shaking_. He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.

"I love you," he said. "You're going to be okay. You're strong and I love you and I'm right here, I promise."

Josh looked at his sister, and deciding she was in good hands (as much as he wished he didn't have to admit James was good for her), went over to Gabi to see how she was. She seemed to dealing a little better than the others because she actually managed to look up at him and smile, although the smile was more of a grimace of pain. Josh tried to console her best he could, telling her it would all be okay and she'd get through this.

The other girls weren't doing much better. They were all on their knees, clutching their heads, and moaning. They all sweat on their foreheads and looked ready to die.

Chris knelt down next to Ellie, holding her hand. She squeezed it harder and harder as the pain worsened. Chris grit his teeth, knowing he couldn't show his pain because Ellie was the one really suffering now.

Sage was trying to calm Rae down, and Cara was doing the same with Caty. The pain was getting worse. Ellie began to cry, squeezing Chris's hand so hard he thought she might break it. Alyssa moaned louder and Caty started screaming. Good thing they were in a secluded clearing or someone would've heard them.

Rae felt like a hand reached into her chest and was squeezing her heart. She started gasping for her. Her gasps didn't make any sounds. She couldn't _breathe_.

"Rae!" Sage cried, panicked.

"What's going on?" Chris asked.

"Their power is draining," Sage replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Probably not the best time big brother," Cara said as Caty's screaming worsened.

Gabi was doing worse now as well, shaking the way Alyssa was. Josh hugged her tightly, trying to help.

It was a minute or two after that when the screaming and shaking died down. As the sounds stopped, so did the pain. Their faces relaxed. Rae began to breathe again. The girls stopped clutching their heads. Alyssa and Gabi broke out of James and Josh's embraces and breathed sighs of relief. Ellie all but let go of Chris's hand. Slowly, they began to relax, trying to get past both the residual pain and the scare they had. They thought they were about to die!

Alyssa gave James a kiss and looked over to Rae to make sure she was alright. Gabi thanked Josh and had him help her stand up. Ellie refused to let go of Chris. In a few minutes, the entire team agreed practice should be over, and Rae changed the girls back. Hay Lin returned at the same time.

She didn't understand why the girls weren't in guardian form anymore, but Chris explained what happened. Hay Lin had no idea what was going on, but Sage did, and suggested they all head back to The Silver Dragon so she could explain.

"Okay, what's going on?" Rae demanded as soon as they were back. Hay Lin was standing next to Sage. Eric was in the basement with them. The others sat down in front of them. Hay Lin and Eric were looking at Sage curiously as well, not having any idea what was going on.

"Okay, so you all know how I went to Meridian a little while ago?" Sage asked.

Everyone nodded. She and Josh had gone together to visit his parents.

"Well, while I was there, I grabbed a book that I kept at Josh's house. I was hoping it could tell me why your powers switched."

"Did it?" Caty asked.

Sage nodded.

"So why didn't you tell us?" Rae asked. "You went to Meridian a _week_ ago."

"I wasn't sure if what I found in the book applied to you or not...until today. I didn't want to worry you if I was wrong."

"But you weren't?" Alyssa asked.

"No."

"So...what's going on?" Gabi asked.

"You're powers are being drained."

"Drained?" Rae repeated.

"By who?" Ellie asked.

"I don't know. Kasson maybe. Or the enemy in the prophecy. Or anyone else with access to magic."

"So even like...Angel?" Gabi asked.

"It's _not_ Angel!" Rae insisted.

"Look, the truth it, it doesn't matter who it is. What matters is, we have to find a solution."

"I don't understand," Alyssa said, shocking everyone. "You said someone is _draining_ our powers. But we didn't _lose_ them. We just...switched."

"I know. When you drain the power of anyone magical, whether it be the queen of any land, regents of anything, or guardians, you need to drain the power of the Heart they get their power from. The Heart is always the root of the magic. For you guys, you get power from the Heart of Kandrakar. Kandrakar is the most powerful world, making the Heart of Kandrakar the most powerful Heart. It's not as easy to drain its magic as it is to drain, say, the Heart of Meridian or Earth."

"What does this have to do with our switched power?" Caty asked.

"Well, since our enemy can't drain the Heart of Kandrakar directly, what he's doing is using a spell that makes you switch powers. When you guys got head aches today, that was the spell working on its second stage. Stage one was the first switch. Stage two is the second switch."

"Second switch?" Ellie asked.

"Right. I tried to use air against Gabi and ended up shooting lightning," Alyssa realized. "So I switched powers again, and now I have quintessence."

"So what powers do we have?" Rae asked.

"There's really only one way to find out," Sage said. "Let's go back to the clearing."

The team, plus Hay Lin and Eric, went back to the clearing. On the way, Chris asked, "What was with the headaches?"

"That's how they know they're powers are about to switch," Sage replied.

"Yeah, obviously," James said slowly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "But why headaches?"

"It wasn't a headache," Rae said. "It felt like my body was failing me. Like my inside were being liquidated."

"It _started_ as a headache," Alyssa added. "But it got worse as time passed. I was cold, it was hard to breathe, and I _wanted_ to pass out so I wouldn't have to feel the pain anymore, but I couldn't."

"The pain was too much for our bodies to take _without_ passing out," Caty piped up. "But we were _unable_ to lose consciousness, forced to endure the pain that we thought was going to kill us."

"And they have to go through that every time they switch?" Chris asked, angry with the whole situation.

Ellie looked at him fearfully. Chris grabbed her hand to reassure her. Josh bit his lip worriedly, clearly concerned. James put his arm around Alyssa protectively.

"We're going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't get to that point again," Hay Lin assured them.

"That's right," Eric backed up. "We will find a solution before you switch powers again."

The guardians weren't sure whether they could believe that, but didn't have a chance to respond. They arrived at the clearing, where Gabi, Rae, Caty, and Ellie tested out their powers. Ellie ended up with fire, Rae got Earth, Caty had air, leaving Gabi with water.

"How is this supposed to drain our powers?" Alyssa asked.

"Well, according to the book, you guys will keep periodically switch powers until each of you ends up with an element you're unable to control."

"Unable to control?" Gabi asked.

"Typically, it would be your element's opposite. So when Caty gets fire, Alyssa gets water, Gabi gets air, and Ellie gets Earth."

"But that gives me quintessence, which is _my_ element," Rae said, confused.

Sage sighed, clearly not wanting to explain the next part.

"When the four of you control the element opposite of your own, it'll be too much for your body to take, and you'll...die."

Alyssa, Gabi, Caty, and Ellie exchanged horrified looks.

"What about Rae?" Cara asked.

"The Heart of Kandrakar gets weaker with the death of a guardian. With four of them death, it'll be child's play for your enemy to drain the Heart of Kandrakar's power. The minute you guys became guardians, your powers, and your lives, depend on the Heart of Kandrakar. Once it's drained of power, it'll be destroyed, killing Rae as well."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

After Sage's big explanation, and revelation, the guardians decided to focus on mastering their newer new elements and forget about what could happen. While GRACE worked on mastering their new powers, the rest of the team, plus Hay Lin and Eric, were trying to find a solution.

They had the other former guardians on it as well. Because of Josh and Sage, Caleb started spending his days pouring over all the files, scrolls, and books his father owned. He had all of them moved from the palace's library to Julian's old house when he died, so he was able to safely look through them.

Taranee was spending her time going through all her magical objects as well the scrolls and books the Oracle gave her. After seeing the worried looks Taranee gave Alyssa every single time she looked at her, Rae decided not to loop Silena in. She and Alyssa did stop by Lainey's house to tell Irma and Joel what was going on (they asked to be kept in the loop), so they were researching any way they could. The Council was also trying to help as best they could between their other duties. With that many people on it, GRACE was trying to stay optimistic that a solution would be found before they switched again. So they focused on their new powers during practice and regular life the rest of the time. Prom was still coming up, and promposals were still happening.

It was a few days later when the next guardian got an ask. It was Gabi's turn. Bree was sick that day, so Gabi and Josh were the only ones at school when they arrived. Josh took that moment to ask Gabi to prom.

"So Gabi, would you like to go to prom with me?" he asked casually.

"Prom? Us?"

"Um...yeah?"

"But why?"

Josh was confused. "Why not? We like each other, this is supposed to be a huge deal...just because I'm not ready to be in a relationship with you doesn't mean I can't take you to a dance. We had fun the last time."

Gabi smiled a little. "Yeah, we did."

"So, why not? Look, I know it's not a big, glorified ask or anything, but I think that's just silly. But if you want me to use a huge gesture, I will. I just...I thought we had kind of an unofficial thing going."

"You did? I didn't, but I kind of like that. And it's not that I need a huge gesture or anything. I mean, I'd like one, but I wouldn't really expect one out of you. I'd like to go with you...I'd love it actually. It's just...I already have a date."

Josh looked at her shocked. "What? Who?" He looked mad.

"Don't freak out Josh, it's not like it's a real date. We're just going as friends."

"Who?" Josh repeated, a tiny bit calmer.

"If I tell you...you can't tell _anyone_. Especially not Rae...or Alyssa."

Josh was so bewildered by the fact that Gabi used Rae's name that he didn't bother to point out that eventually, everyone would know. To use Rae's name, she must really want to keep it from her.

Josh nodded, agreeing to keep it a secret.

"I'm going with Jake."

Josh couldn't believe his ears. "Jake...Saunders?"

"Yes. What other Jake do you know?"

Josh didn't like this at all. He'd never been more jealous, even when he was competing with Jake for Rae's attention. Jake and Gabi had already been a couple once, and he knew that Gabi had never loved anyone besides him. What if the prom brought up those old feelings?

"Josh, please don't be jealous. We're just going as friends, I swear!"

"How did he ask you? Did he just talk to you?"

"Um, well…" Gabi didn't particularly want to tell Josh about the cute promposal Jake had used to ask her to prom the previous day, but she also knew he needed to hear it.

_ Gabi normally didn't stay late for newspaper. But Gabi also normally didn't miss deadlines. She's been so busy practicing for Classics, she forgot the deadline for her next article was tonight at 8pm, so she decided to stay in the newsroom until she was finished. The girls didn't have practice til late anyway, and she didn't have work._

_ There were still plenty of people in the school for various reasons. The studio kids were staying for a couple of hours after school working on their pieces for the art show or setting up in the gym. The Glee Club and Music Theory kids were working on their performance pieces for the prom, the drama kids had rehearsal, and Student Council was there that day to have the last prom planning meeting before official set up began, right after the meeting._

_ Rae and Cara were both at work, but with all the events going on, the rest of Team GRACE was around. Alyssa, Chris, and Josh had all been accepted into the art show, James was working on his Music Theory piece (and had, as of a few days ago, officially moved into one of the music rooms with other theory kids), Sage and Ellie were at rehearsal, and Caty was part of Student Council, though for how long, Gabi wasn't sure. She already had one strike against her, and if she missed one more meeting, she'd be demoted from VP to a general body member._

_ Still, even with all the life outside the newsroom, the inside was like a ghost town, and it was creepy. The lights went out that day and wouldn't be fixed until the next day, so Gabi was all alone and in the dark, except for the dull glow of the computer screen before her. She sighed and typed faster, not caring if she made any mistakes, just wanting to get out of there fast. Caty said she'd stop by the newsroom after Student Council anyway, before prom set up, so she could look it over before Gabi sent it in. It was her job anyway. _

_ It was an hour before Gabi finished. Caty came in at the same time. Gabi let her sit in front of the computer. Caty made more changes and fixed more mistakes than she usually did with Gabi's articles, but didn't say anything, knowing why Gabi went faster than usual._

_ "Okay, it should be good now. Send it to me. If you send it to the Editor's account, Misha will think she has to read it, but the story is accepted."_

_ Gabi nodded._

_ "Oh, and since you're here, can you take care of the last ask?" Caty asked._

_ "It's just one?"_

_ "Yeah."_

_ "Okay."_

_ Casty smiled and left. Gabi emailed her article to Caty, then logged onto the newspaper's shared email. Every staff member had to look at all the asks they got sent, and each member had to answer at least one. They were all different things. Some were for the advice column Sheila Breslin wrote, some were articles non-staff writers contributed, some were notes to the editor, which automatically got forwarded to the editor's email Caty and Misha used, and some were general questions about the paper. The notes to the editor and advice column asks got put in the paper, but the other asks were responded to with a reply email._

_ Gabi clicked on the only unopened email. The email said:_

_**Sheffiled News Team,**_

_**It would be a great honor for me to take Gabrielle Shay to prom. My question is this: will she say yes?**_

_**Thank you,**_

_**Jake Saunders**_

_Gabi blushed slightly at that. That was actually a perfect promposal for someone like Gabi. And Caty must've been in on it. She smiled, wondering if she should respond or just go talk to Jake._

"_Will she say yes?" a voice asked teasingly._

_Gabi jumped and saw Jake come in, grinning._

"_Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said._

_Gabi rolled her eyes and deleted the ask._

"_I don't know Jake."_

"_What, not a good enough invitation?" he asked feigning hurt._

"_It's not that. This was actually really sweet. But you _just_ got out of a relationship, and I know it's easy to fall back into old habits or think you're in love again, but I'm not in love with you anymore."_

_Gabi felt horrible saying it, but relaxed when Jake chuckled._

"_That's good because I'm not in love with you either. But we're friends. We used to be pretty close, and we haven't been lately, and I think we could be again if we just spent a fun night at a dance together. I don't want to rob you of a real prom date or anything, but it doesn't look like anyone else has asked you, so if you're not otherwise engaged, I thought we could go...as _friends_."_

_Gabi smiled at that. "It sounds like fun, but you were dating New Girl. She and I aren't friends or anything, but would it really be right?"_

"_Rae and I broke up," Jake said, not emphasizing Rae's name to Gabi for the first time. "She has no bearing on who I date or go to prom with. Like you said, you're not friends. And like I said, this is not a date."_

_Gabi nodded slowly. She saw his logic. "And you don't want a real prom date?"_

"_Like you told me, I just got out of a relationship. I don't want to be with another girl now. Or fall into old habits."_

_Gabi blushed. "By old habits, I meant me, not...like your…"_

"_My being a player?" Jake asked good naturedly. "It's okay, I knew what you meant. It was just a joke."_

_Gabi sighed in relief._

"_So I'll ask again. Will she say yes?"_

_Gabi smiled. "Yes. Prom, as friends, sounds like a lot of fun."_

Josh looked unimpressed. "I don't want you going to prom with him."

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Well, too bad."

"No, I mean, you _can't_ go to prom with him. I won't let you."

"You won't _let_ me?" Gabi repeated. "And how are you going to stop me?"

Josh realized his mistake. "I didn't mean-"

Gabi didn't let him finish. "We're not in a relationship, and _that's on you_. You have no right to be jealous or tell me not to go with another guy, especially one who is _just a friend_. Jake and I were friends for years before we went out. I _want_ to go with him. Ask one of your friends to go. Ask Sage."

She glared at him, and Josh felt his anger flare up. He had _every_ right to be jealous. He wanted to show Gabi how that felt, so he hatched a plan.

Normally, he would've gone with Sae. Josh figured he and Sage would go together if Gabi said no and Sage didn't have a date, which she didn't. But Sage wouldn't make Gabi jealous. He knew of one girl who would.

"Okay, I'll go to prom with _just a friend_ too."

"Good. I'm sure Sage will be very happy," Gabi replied in her 'You're dismissed, go away now' voice.

Josh started up the steps. When he reached the door, he turned back around. "Oh, I'm not going with Sage. I'm going to ask Rae."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Yes."

"But she _hates_ tennis."

"Not anymore. Besides, she'll love this. It's a cute idea, relax."

"But-"

"Josh, who knows her better, me or you?"

"You," Josh sighed.

"So _trust_ me," Alyssa said. Then both siblings winced. Trust was still an uneasy subject with the two of them.

It was the next day. Josh decided that he would not only ask Rae, but give her the cute "promposal" all the girls seemed to like so much. But since he had no idea what to do, her asked Alyssa for her help, and she was only too happy to share what she thought was the perfect idea. She was going to tell Jake to do this when he inevitably came to her for help, back when Alyssa thought they'd still be together come prom time.

"How come you're helping me anyway?" Josh asked, changing the subject. "I thought you were a supporter or me and Gabi."

"I _am_," Alyssa said, wanting to, but not, correcting his grammar. "But she has a date, and Rae doesn't, and she deserves one, and you guys are just friends. She didn't even want to come to prom without Jake, but James and I convinced her. We want Rae to go with _us_, like always, but she won't have any fun if she feels like a third wheel."

"So instead, you'll make both of us feel like a third and fourth wheel?" Josh asked, knowing that, ever since they said 'I love you' anyone, whether they were single or in a couple, would feel like an extra wheel with Alyssa and James.

Alyssa giggled. "How did you know?"

Josh rolled his eyes. He loved Alyssa, but she could be _annoyingly_ childish sometimes. He was about to tell her so, but he saw Rae approaching. He and Alyssa, who were peering into hallway where Alyssa and Rae's shared locker was, ducked back into the hidden hallway. Then they peered in again as Rae began to put in the combination.

When Rae opened the locker, she put a hand to her mouth in surprise. In her locker were five tennis balls, dyed guardian pink. Each had a letter on it in gold, Rae's favorite color. The last ball had a question mark on it. Together the tennis balls said "PROM?"

Alyssa helped him with this. She used some of her old, barely used tennis balls and dyed them pink, then wrote on them with gold glitter glue. Then she helped Josh set them up in her locker. Rae did hate tennis, but she'd started to get more into it after she made the team during tryouts in mid-March.

The Sheffield team took the sport as seriously as Rae's dad did, but also kept practices light and fun, and the coach was Ivan Margheriti, a half Russian, half Italian retired player who won a Grand Slam for America. In addition, Rae immediately saw the Sheffield team was better than any other team she'd ever seen, even the tennis team she saw at the tennis based private school Rae and her friend Kayla attended before Rae moved to Sheffield. Still, Rae made the team, reaffirming to her how good she actually was. All of this got Rae so excited about the sport that she was considering applying for a tennis scholarship at Yale after all.

Rae looked around, trying to find out who did it.

Alyssa gave Josh a push, and he stumbled out of the hidden hallway and walked towards Rae.

"This what your doing?" she asked, a smile playing on her lips.

"Well, Alyssa helped."

"How cute! I don't know what to say."

"Say yes!" Alyssa called, showing herself.

Rae rolled her eyes playfully giggled. She looked at the Meridianite. "Yes."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that. I need to get through prom and Classics, and then the story will really pick up and start going by the prophecy, so bear with me til then!**


	47. Classics

**A/N: Okay guys, here's the next chapter. This is mostly about Classics, but also a little about friendship. I hope you enjoy it. It might be boring for some of you, but I had fun writing it.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**SilvenArrow: Chris and Ellie are one my favorite couples too, and one that I didn't imagine existing at first. I hate Misha too. But you can't just let go of a friend who's been a part of your life for that long. Though, I guess it wasn't too hard for Adam. I should put a line like that in the story lol. More people, including Jake, will find out soon. But not before what happened in the last chapter. Rae wanted to protect Jake. She was trying to be a bad girlfriend. Just the opposite actually. It was a lot of fun writing about Riley and Hope, so I'm glad my readers enjoyed it too. Here's your update. Hope you enjoy!**

**Shay: I agree Misha is a bitch, but she and Caty have been friends for over six years. And the support Misha gave her after finding out about GRACE probably helped. I had a friend who walked out of my life. I was in a similar situation to Ellie's. It's sad, but it happens. But Adam and Ellie won't be separated for long. Gabi is an amazing fighter, and she has some really impressive powers. There's so much to explore with her telekinesis, which I hope to be able to do soon. And yeah, as soon as Hope and Riley mentioned taking Eva, her protective instinct kicked in, one she didn't know she had around Eva. I want them to be on better terms. Hope you like these two chapters.**

**Misa: I replied to all of that when I replied to your PM. You know why. So I'll just say once more you were right. Good catch! Hope you enjoy these chapters. **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty yawned as she took what was probably her hundredth practice test in the last month and half.

"Caty, go to sleep!" Ellie cried from next to her. "This whole nonstop studying thing is unhealthy."

"Says the girl that never studies for anything."

"And I turned out fine."

"You're ranked number 230...out of 390."

"But that only matters once a year. I live in the moment."

"It'll matter a lot more come college applications time," Caty said. "As will this test that I have to take in a week."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "You're on a bus. Just take a nap. You could clearly use one. The ride will take at least two hours."

"Two and half exactly," Caty corrected, yawning again. "Though I guess a nap couldn't hurt."

The bus driver started the engine, and when the bus began to move, Caty put her practice book back in her overnight bag, leaned her head against the window, and drifted off.

It was the third weekend in May, meaning it was time for Classics. All the basketball players were on one bus, and all the cheerleaders were on another. The extra guests got put wherever there was room. Ellie and Caty, along with some of the other extra guests were put on the cheerleader bus, but the rest of the team was on the basketball bus. Needless to say, Ellie wasn't very happy she wouldn't get to spend the ride with her boyfriend and Rae was upset that she had to spend the ride on the same vehicle as they ex-boyfriend, who was going to prom with another girl (though only Jake himself, his date, and unknowingly to the team, Josh, knew who Jake's date actually was).

The guardians' busy schedules seemed to be winding down. Caty and Rae didn't get chosen for states for AcDec. Instead, two of the seniors were going, but this meant AcDec meetings were over for the year. Now Caty was even more razor focused on the SATs next week. The musical performances were next week and the week after, meaning rehearsals would be over soon. Cheerleading would calm down after Classics was over. The Art Show would be over next week, meaning the studio kids would have a break, and the music kids, including James and Ellie, would have it a little easier after prom. Finals were going to be an issue since they always made Ellie nervous, Caty neurotic, and everyone else a little crazy, but summer vacation was coming, and Ellie couldn't be more excited. She knew guardian training would last longer once summer started, but she could also take more shifts at work, make time for Community Theater's summer production, go on _lots _of dates with Chris, and, hopefully, make up with Adam.

The students were loud and obnoxious as the buses pulled into the parking lot of the hotel. The basketball boys were singing some sort of fight song they made up. The cheerleaders were squealing with delight. Those who had been to Classics before were bursting with excitement. Those who had not were restless with nervous energy. It was sure to be an eventful weekend.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Why is he mad at _me_? _He's_ the one who's taking _my_ ex-girlfriend to prom," Jake grumbled.

Josh had been a jerk to Jake ever since he found out he was taking Gabi to prom. At the last minute, the coach had switched around roommates, so instead of Jake and James sharing like they were supposed to, James was sharing with Chris, and Jake was sharing with Josh. Right now, Josh was hanging out with Chris in Chris's room, and Alyssa and James were keeping Jake company in his room.

"He's very good at being petty," Alyssa said as James, who was playing with his girlfriend's hair, chuckled. "And clearly so are you."

"How's trying to move past it working out for you?" Jake asked bitingly, making James raise his eyebrows protectively.

"Just because I agree he's petty doesn't mean I'm not moving past it. We're good. I was the one who helped him ask Rae."

Jake stared at her incredulously. "You helped Josh ask Rae to prom?" he choked out.

"She didn't have a date. He wanted to ask her. He only did it to make Gabi jealous."

"Why does he want to make Gabi jealous?"

"For the same reason he hates that you asked her to prom," James said. He looked at Alyssa, who was resting her head against his chest. "Do you think Josh will make Rae want to come to prom more?"

"I hope so. She's been _so _upset that her boyfriend broke up with her."

Jake glared at both of them, then asked, "But why does Josh hate that I asked Gabi? What does she have to do with anything?"

"Wait, you don't know?" Alyssa asked sitting up.

"Know…?"

"Gabi and Josh will be in a relationship."

"They _will_ be?" Jake asked, confused. "Is this like, a _scheduled_ thing?"

"No, just...they will be once Josh is ready."

"Ready to…?"

"Take the leap," James answered for Alyssa.

"The...oh!" Jake said, suddenly getting it. "Oh, I didn't…"

"Yeah. And I think he was more ready than he wants to admit because he asked Gabi to prom, but she said no because you'd already asked her," Alyssa said. "So he asked Rae, to piss both of you off. I think you both have a right to be angry, but him more than you. Rae, as you said, is you _ex-_girlfriend."

"But I never would've asked her if I'd known. He should've just told me!"

"I thought guys don't do that," Alyssa said.

"They don't," James confirmed.

"You know what guys actually do? Ask a girl's friends before they ask a girl to prom if the they're not dating the girl they want to ask," Alyssa said pointedly. "If you would've asked _any _of Gabi's friends, they would've told you about Josh."

"But I asked Caty to help me, and she didn't mention anything."

"You asked Caty to help with the ask. What you should've asked Caty is if she would want to go to prom with you. Other guys did that. Adam asked Milly before he asked Jade. Tony asked Nina and Misha before he asked Caty. Brian asked Mona before asking Sheila."

Jake sighed, knowing she was right.

Alyssa wasn't sure if she should continue a friendship with Jake once he and Rae broke up, but, though she never expected to, she found she enjoyed Jake's company. And, though she'd never say so to Rae, she thought Jake had every right to break up with Rae. Alyssa always thought Rae should just tell Jake about GRACE, and was horrified to hear she decided to erase his memory. She understood why Gabi would want to do it to Eva, but she couldn't understand how Rae, who fervently agreed with Alyssa that Taranee was wrong to erase her daughter's memories, would use the same trick on her own boyfriend, who she heard reacted extremely well to the revelation.

Besides, this break up was exactly what she and Josh wanted, to relieve Rae of the stress that was consuming her. If she couldn't tell Jake, this was the next best thing. And, besides the first few days during which Rae vented to her until she decided she didn't want to talk about it anymore, the breakup had nothing to do with Alyssa. So she continued a friendship with Jake, which made it easier for James to continue a friendship with him as well. And although Jake tried to be the optimistic person he always was, they could both see the break up was taking as much a toll on him as it did on Rae.

Just as Jake was about to switch topics, a buzzing noise was heard, and Gabi walked in.

"Aaargh!" she screamed as she stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

"Well that was...something," James commented.

"How did she get in here?" Alyssa asked, because this was Josh and Jake's room, and only they were supposed to be able to get in.

"We were supposed to hang out, but her cheerleaders had an emergency. She said she'd meet me in my room when she was done so I gave her my key card," Jake replied. Josh had opened up the door for both of them before he put his bags on what he claimed as his bed and walked out.

They heard a bump in the bathroom followed by Gabi screaming, "Ow!"

"She kicked the wall," Jake said. "She's clearly not using the bathroom. She's just mad."

"About what?" Alyssa asked.

"Who knows?"

Gabi came back out of the bathroom, a glare on her face. She tossed Jake's keycard back over to him. There was a knock on the door. Gabi rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, but opened it.

Caty and Ellie walked in.

"Hey Gabi," Caty said, failing to notice the Earth/fire/water guardian's foul mood.

Gabi didn't say anything.

"Are you not going to respond?" Ellie asked.

"Hay is for horses. If you want some, go find a stable somewhere!" Gabi snapped.

"What?" Alyssa asked softly, resisting the urge to laugh.

Caty and Ellie looked flabbergasted.

"Was that a…comeback?" Ellie asked.

"No one said anything. She didn't need to deliver a comeback. I think it was supposed to be an insult," Caty replied.

"How?" Ellie asked.

Gabi growled under her breath.

"What's wrong with _her_?" Ellie asked, turning to the others.

"We don't know," James replied.

"Gabi, what's wrong?" Jake asked.

"We might have to drop _out_ of Classics!"

"What? Why?" Alyssa asked, feeling really bad. She knew how much this competition meant to Gabi. Sheffield always won the basketball games, but lost the cheerleading competition every year, usually to the Crawford High Cougars. Gabi had high hopes of winning this year with the "perfect" routine she and Traci had crafted.

"We had a _perfect _routine built for 15 girls," Gabi said. "_Three _of them had to drop out."

"Why?" Jake asked.

"Carla got chicken pox. Her parents are coming to get her. The rest of us are either vaccinated or already had chickenpox, but Beverly managed to sprain her ankle in the ten minutes between the bus ride and check in, and Dierdre's too sick to get out of bed. I _told_ her she was sick and that she should stay home and we'd take Janis instead, but she insisted she'd be fine."

"In her defense, Classics is a big deal for you guys. She wouldn't want to be replaced," Caty said gently. "But I'm really sorry this is happening. Isn't there anything you can do?"

"Traci and I have to re-choreograph the routine for 12 girls, and we can't do the pyramid we wanted to for our big finish without leaving out two of the girls. Beverly is a flyer, and we _need_ a third flyer. We're going to have a horrible routine, and it's better if we drop out then humiliate ourselves."

"There are lots of girls not on the squad but want to be on this trip," Alyssa pointed out. "Can't you get someone to replace the three you lost?"

"Oh, pick me!" Ellie cried.

"What?"

"You need more girls, I'm a dancer. I can totally pick up the moves, and I've always wanted to be a cheerleader. I just didn't have time for it along with rehearsals, Glee Club, and work."

"Not to mention, before we became friends, we would've never let you on the team," Gabi snickered. Then her eyes lit up. "You do make a good point though. You _are_ a dancer, so you'll probably pick it up really quickly. You're in."

"Yay!" Ellie cried, jumping up and down excitedly.

"Now, who else is here?" Gabi mentally went over the list of non-cheerleader girls who came on the trip.

"So what are you guys doing here anyway?" Alyssa asked the girls.

"I was hoping you could quiz me," Caty said, taking out a purple and orange box from the large purse she'd brought on the trip. SAT in a Box flashcards.

"And I wanted to have dinner with your boyfriend," Ellie said. "Since you're having dinner with mine."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. After all the art teachers at Sheffield, including some Alyssa and Chris never had, reviewed the pieces Alyssa and Chris chose to put on display for the Art Show, they chose the two of them to represent the school in the statewide student Art Exhibition, even though they were only juniors. Two students from every Connecticut high school got to enter to represent their school, and prizes would be awarded for the best pieces. Usually it was seniors that got picked, but the teachers decided Alyssa and Chris were the best candidates.

They fulfilled all the other requirements (they'd been at Sheffield since sixth grade, in Studio Art since freshman year, in Art Honors Society since sophomore year, they were in the senior art class, and they over a 95% in every art class they took at Sheffield). Alyssa and Chris decided to grab pizza and look over the pictures they'd each taken of their best pieces to help each other pick what they should submit for the Exhibition.

Because Alyssa was having dinner with Chris, Ellie chose to have dinner with James, even though both of them were invited to join Alyssa and Chris. Neither understood art like the rest of them. Caty, Rae, and Josh were going to join Ellie and James.

"Fine, but no funny business," Alyssa said teasingly.

"Back at you," Ellie replied with a smile.

"I have to go to dinner with Chris at 6, so I can quiz you for half an hour," Alyssa said, looking at Caty. It was 5:30.

"Before you start, I have an announcement to make," Gabi said. "I've chosen the other two girls to replace my sick cheerleaders."

Everyone looked at Gabi even though, besides Ellie, they couldn't care less who Gabi had chosen.

Gabi looked at Caty, then Alyssa. "You two!" she cried.

"_What_?!" the pair cried together.

"You're the only ones who I trust to work hard at this. Alyssa, you're light enough to act as a flyer. And thanks to guardian training, you're a lot more coordinated than you were."

"Gabi, I'm _not_ a klutz. I tripped _one time_ in sixth grade and you branded me a klutz for life," Alyssa reminded.

"Oh whatever. That makes you an even better candidate. If nothing else, you two are more coordinated and know me better than any of the other girls here."

"Oh come on, do it, please! It'll be so fun!" Ellie begged.

"No," both girls said flatly.

"But-" Ellie started.

"No!"

"Please?" Gabi asked, sounding desperate. "This is Traci's last year, so she should get a win. _And_ it's my biggest test to be Varsity captain next year. With guardian training basically getting in the way, Traci thinks I'm not committed, and wants to let Lana and Kelli back on the squad and have Lana co-captain with Bree. If we can win this, I'll be back in Traci's favor for the five weeks we have left of school, and three weeks we have left of cheerleading for the year. Please, please, _please_ say yes, I need this!"

Alyssa bit her lip, considering. Since cheerleading practice was right after school (and on Saturday mornings as Classics got closer), guardian practice didn't affect Gabi as much as it affected the others, but she still had some trouble keeping up. Cheerleading meant to Gabi what art meant to Alyssa. She understood. If Alyssa did do this, it would only be this once. What could be the harm?

"Alright," she conceded. "I'll do it."

James looked surprised, but smiled at her.

Caty took a lot more convincing, but she finally agreed if Gabi would stop begging long enough for her to get quizzed by Alyssa. Alyssa quizzed Caty until 6:20, at which point she said she _had_ to go before Chris got mad at her lateness.

Jake and Gabi had already left to have dinner with Sage, Bree, Trey, and Axton. When Alyssa insisted she was done, Caty and Ellie headed out as well. Caty and Ellie told James they'd wait for him downstairs.

Alyssa gave James a kiss which he deepened. Before either of them knew it, ten minutes had passed, and the door, which Ellie didn't properly close behind her, burst open.

"Hey Lyssa, I thought we had-" Chris started, but stopped when he saw Alyssa and James making out.

Alyssa and James broke apart.

"I...I'm sorry, I thought we had plans," Chris said, looking upset. He left.

"We did!" Alyssa cried. She made a move to go after him, but James held her back.

"Maybe you should let him cool off," he said, both because he did think Chris would be mad and would need to cool off and because he was tired of Chris (and Josh) always trying to do everything in their power to lessen his time with Alyssa.

Alyssa just broke free and ran after her friend. They're original plan was to go over their pieces on the bus, but Alyssa had bailed on that plan so she could sit with James. She couldn't bail on dinner too.

"Chris! Chris, wait!"

Chris stopped and turned back around.

"We _do_ have plans."

"It's alright Alyssa, go be with your boyfriend."

"No, we had plans."

"It's fine. Just...do your thing."

Alyssa frowned. Eating and discussing art with Chris was _part_ of her thing. But Chris didn't seem into the idea anymore. And even though Alyssa knew she wasn't doing anything wrong by being with her boyfriend, she still felt incredibly bad about it.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi thanked Hunter Davis with a smile, then turned to Traci with a distressed look on their face. That was all they needed!

The cheerleaders, including the replacements, were all in the hotel's music lounge, suing the stage to practice, after hours. Needless to say Gabi needed to _drag_ Alyssa there because "it's against the rules to be out of our rooms after lights out."

Gabi had all the girls stretch while she and Traci discussed what to do. They needed to figure out what the easiest move for a flyer to do was so they could teach it to Alyssa, an untrained, replacement flyer.

Then, they had to decide what to do about the routine. If they decided to rework, or even re-choreograph, the routine with simpler moves so that Alyssa and Caty could keep up and look in sync but since the girls would only have two days to learn it, minus the time it took for Gabi and Traci to come up with it, it'd would be really choppy. If they kept the original routine, then at least most of the girls would know it, and Ellie would pick it up in no time, but then they'd have to pray Alyssa and Caty could do it properly, which they admitted they probably couldn't when Gabi showed them the video.

Finally, there was the music. Hunter Davis, Traci's younger, sophomore brother, agreed to come to Classics and play spy for the squad if Traci promised to hook him up with Colleen Lowry, a pretty sophomore flyer. Traci said yes because Colleen already liked Hunter. She was smiling at him flirtatiously right now.

Hunter had gotten a few video clips of each of the teams. As usual, most of the teams looked terrible compared to the Sheffield and Crawford teams. And as usual, Crawford seemed to be a million times better than Sheffield. Hunter also told them three other teams were using Geronimo by Sheppard as their music, the song Sheffield planned to use. Thanks to Hunter, they had a full list of the songs every school is using so they could pick an original song, but new music almost guaranteed the need for a new routine.

Gabi was already worried about their replacements not being able to cut it. Luckily, the other girls managed to get past the fact that a drama freak, a nerd, and Classless-a Klutzcroft were going to perform with them quick enough to start teaching them some basic moves. Ellie was a big hit with the girls, picking up every move on her first time, and Alyssa amazed them by showing them she was _not_ actually a klutz, but she and Caty were having a hard time being comfortable enough to make themselves do the moves the girls showed them.

Gabi looked through the music the other teams were using and finally, something made her smile.

"Listen to this," Gabi said to everyone. "River Valley High is planning to use Hey Mickey as their song."

The other cheerleaders snickered.

"Why is that so funny? That's like a perfect cheerleading song," Alyssa pointed out.

"It's unoriginal and overdone," Traci said, rolling her eyes. "Almost as bad as Bear Creek High using Move Your Feet by Junior Senior. I wouldn't expect you to know that though, Klutzcroft."

Gabi grimaced and gave Alyssa an apologetic look. She'd already warned the African American that while she could control the juniors and sophomores, she had no authority over the seniors when Traci was around, and Traci and the five other seniors would probably call her Classless-a Klutzcroft and tease her.

"Just I wouldn't expect you to know how to _spell_ unoriginal or overdone. We all have our weaknesses," Alyssa said so casually that all the other girls burst out laughing.

Traci glared at her. "I am _editor-in-chief_ of the school newspaper!"

"I think you mean _ex_-editor-in-chief," Caty reminded. "That's my job now. It's been months. Has it not sunk in yet?"

Traci growled and turned to Gabi. "_Why_ are _they_ our replacements?"

"We didn't have a whole bunch of options. Plus, Alyssa is light enough to move easily and act as a flyer, Ellie is a great dancer, and Caty...she's, uh...pretty."

"Wow, thanks for making me sound like a total airhead," Caty broke in. "Anyway, I'm a neurotic control freak which is to your benefit. My neurosis will boost my determination to execute whatever routine you have us do perfectly."

"Do you have to talk like that?" Bree asked.

"What is your brain too small to understand?" Caty mocked.

"Caty," Gabi protested. She'd stand up for Caty against a lot of people, but Bree always came first. "Leave your soccer rivalry on the field. This is cheerleading. We don't have a lot of time."

Caty didn't say anything, but did turn away from Bree.

"Bree, come check out the videos Hunter got," Gabi said. "You're the best choreographer. We need your help."

Bree walked over to the laptop Gabi and Traci were using to view the videos. Ellie followed.

The other squads had lots of stunts and jumps, backed up by quick beat of the songs. One squad was using a Pentatonix mix, which was really cool.

"Bree, do you remember that summer we started gymnastics together?" Ellie asked her cousin.

Bree nodded. When they were little, they were forced to do everything together. They started gymnastics together when they were four, back when they were friends, and enjoyed doing everything together. Ellie eventually quit to focus on ballet, which was the activity Bree quit to focus on gymnastics. That's what eventually what led them on different paths, Ellie to acting, and Bree to cheerleading.

"Do you remember my last lesson?" Ellie went on. "When we saw those level 8 girls doing their floor routines for their meet?"

Ellie lasted in gymnastics for two years, a year less than Bree lasted in ballet.

"Yeah. So?"

"What if we do something like that? All the other squads are doing stunts and power moves, which is a good strategy, but, as Traci said, unoriginal. If we pick a different kind of song, we could focus on the beauty and the moves and do more of a dance routine. We can still do a couple of the stunts you were going to do with the flyers, and finish with the pyramid Gabi wants to do, but if we focus more on cheers and simple moves rather than jumps and stuff, we'll have a totally unique routine."

Bree started to nod. "That's actually a really good idea. I'll go run it by Traci and Gabi."

Traci and Gabi ended up loving the idea, but only Gabi gave Ellie credit, while Traci pretended to be too busy to acknowledge the fact that the "drama freak" might've saved their cheer routine.

Ellie figured that would be the end. Traci didn't want to admit Ellie helped them, so no one would know. She was okay with it. Her cousin surprised her.

"Girls, isn't this amazing idea for a routine?" Bree asked.

Everyone nodded vigorously. It really was a good idea.

"Traci, why don't you tell everyone who gave you the idea to do more of dance routine?" Bree went on, looking right at the co-captain.

Gabi hid a smile, proud of Bree. Bree was always sort of meek and wishy washy, especially compared to Gabi. To make Traci acknowledge Ellie was really brave.

Traci glared at her and sighed. "We should all be thanking the Drama-"

Bree cleared her throat pointedly.

"-_Ellie Kramer_ for coming up with this idea," she relented.

All the girls looked at Ellie appreciatively, and she even got a "good idea" and a "Wow, fantastic!" from the sophomores.

Ellie beamed at them.

"Next step is to pick a song," Traci broke in. "If we keep with the unique theme, we should pick a song no other squad has ever done. Any ideas?"

"How about a rap song?" Hunter suggested. He was doing something on his phone, so Gabi figured he was kidding, especially when Traci rolled her eyes, but Ellie's face lit up.

"Hey yeah! That would so cool. We could use one that sounds like the artist is rapping and singing at the same time. It'll be perfect for the routine we want to do!" she cried.

Traci shook her head. "That's stupid," she said flatly.

Bree glared at her and said, "_I _like that idea. Anyone have a song suggestions?"

The girls were reluctant to defy Traci, so Gabi started them off, suggesting Written in the Stars. Bree went next, and pretty soon all the girls were joining in. At one point, one of the sophomores, Danielle, suggested Kanye West's Monster which gave Colleen the idea of Blazin' by Nicki Minaj, which everyone agreed with.

"Okay guys, you go get some rest. We've got the music and we'll work on the routine tonight and teach it to you tomorrow," Gabi said. "Bree, Ellie, it'd be awesome if you both stayed."

Both girls agreed and started working on a new perfect routine with Gabi and Traci. This could work.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Tonight, after lights out, meet in the lobby. We're gonna go clubbing," Gabe Preston said when Bree, Ellie, Caty, Alyssa, Danielle, Colleen, and Gabi got to breakfast the next morning.

"Sounds like fun!" Bree exclaimed.

"Gabe. Stay away from my girls," Gabi said with her famous, 'I may be smiling but you're so dead' look.

Gabe gave Gabi his most charming smile before walking away, his way of apologizing.

"Gabs!" Bree complained.

"We have a cheerleading competition _tomorrow_, and in case you forgot, we have to learn a whole new routine by then."

Bree, Colleen, and Danielle rolled their eyes and grumbled.

"Guess we won't get the crazy Classics experience," Ellie muttered.

"Good. Breaking rules is never a good thing," Alyssa said diplomatically.

"We still have to practice after hours," Gabi reminded. "_All_ night."

"All night? But Gabi-" Bree started.

"No buts! Today we have to cheer for the boys as they practice and do a dry run of tomorrow. We don't have time to teach everyone the new routine during the day, so it'll have to be tonight. We need to get it perfect."

Colleen and Danielle, a bit scared by Gabi's attitude, inched away from the group, going to talk to some of the non-basketball player or cheerleader sophomores that tagged along.

The rest of the girls tried to placate Gabi. They knew how much this meant to her. Her authority and captain position was riding on a Classics win, or at least a Classics placing, since Sheffield hadn't won Classics in five years.

That night, after lights out at 10pm, all the boys snuck out, taking some of the girls with them. Rae went with the boys. She knew Alyssa wouldn't come because sneaking out was against the rules, and Caty probably wanted to study, but she was surprised Ellie said no as well. She had no idea all three of her friends had become cheerleaders.

At the same time the boys went out, the cheerleaders gathered at the stage again, to practice.

"Okay, so I've decided each of you is going to show off a simple stunt and a cool freestyle dance move," Traci announced. "We'll start with some simple steps and go into a stunt with the flyers before we step up the dancing. Danielle, Colleen, show Classless-a a flyer's job. Do the stunt we did at the Invitationals in October."

Danielle and Colleen got on the stage with six other girls. Three girls lifted Colleen and the other three lifted Danielle.

"Now!" Traci cried.

The girls threw the sophomores in the air. Colleen and Danielle did a move that that, thanks to Ellie, Alyssa knew was called a birdie, in midair, then stretched out their legs so they were almost in a sitting position, making it easier for the girls to catch them.

"No," Alyssa said immediately. "I'm afraid of heights. I'm not doing that!"

"You won't be _able_ to do that," Traci replied, rolling her eyes

"Trace, come on," Gabi said.

"What?" Traci asked, too innocent. "I just mean, she hasn't been trained to do that."

Gabi rolled her eyes. She knew that's not what Traci was saying, but they didn't have enough time to hash this out now. The less she fought with Traci, the less the others would fight with each other, and no fighting was what Gabi was going for.

They taught Alyssa a move in which she was thrown up in the air and she folded her legs back so the girls could catch her. She would be in the middle of Danielle and Colleen so their impressive moves would catch the judges' eyes, but they'd still have three flyers, which was one of the Classics rules. It took Alyssa over 10 tries to stop screaming every time she was thrust into the air.

Ellie picked up the dance moves pretty quickly, doing better than most of the cheerleaders. Caty picked it up pretty quickly as well, but was uncomfortable with some of the moves, like the hip swivel the girls went into after the flyers came down. Alyssa was a slow learner when it came to dance. The crippling shyness that came along with seeing a stage didn't help.

Four hours and two ten minute breaks later, the girls were exhausted and still going.

"No Kenzie, it's a _clockwise_ spin and left leg kick," Gabi snapped.

"Bree, you're one of the centers with Gabi. You two are doing _backflips_. Everyone _else_ is doing a front flip," Traci sighed.

Alyssa and Caty, who were on either side of the long line when the cheerleaders were doing flips were supposed to do cartwheels in opposite directions. Caty however, had never learned how to do a cartwheel and kept falling.

"Why didn't we give _her_ a name like Klutzcroft?" Traci wondered out loud.

"You gave me _five_ other demeaning nicknames. That was enough," Caty snapped.

"Keep at it Ice Queen, you'll get it," Gabi said encouragingly.

"Gabi, we need to stop. We're all exhausted," Bree begged.

"We can't _stop_. Caty needs to get her cartwheel perfect, you need to stop messing up the steps before the right diagnol, and Gerrie still can't do a split."

"I won't be able to do a split before we go on tomorrow," Gerrie complained

"Just let me do it," Ellie said, as she had been saying since the beginning. They wanted to finish the same way they started, with all the girls doing a high V position. For the end though, they wanted one girl doing a split in the middle. Ellie was the only one who could do a perfect split, but the girl who did the split also had do a back walkover before going into the split, which all the cheerleaders besides Ellie could do.

"I guess we could change the move to a double floor flip. Think you can do that?" Gabi asked.

Ellie nodded and demonstrated to make sure.

"Okay, new plan. Bree and I will do the back walkovers just before Ellie does her flips. Then we all do high Vs while she goes into a split. Got it?" Gabi asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Okay girls, one more run through. Gabi and I will join you on this one," Traci said.

The girls all got into position. Traci motioned for Hunter, who had been yawning and rubbing his eyes for the past 40 minutes, to start the music. It was another hour of run throughs before Traci and Gabi were satisfied.

"Okay, girls, that was perfect!" Traci cried happily. "If we can do it just like that tomorrow, we'll have second place in the bag. Maybe we can even beat Crawford and snag first."

The girls all smiled.

"Now, I know it's late, and if you want to go to bed, you can, but I think we all deserve a little hot tub therapy!"

The girls all cheered and ran to their rooms to get their suits.

"I'm not doing that. It's time to go back to our rooms. We broke enough rules," Alyssa said to Ellie and Caty.

"Not so fast. You don't have to come in the hot tub with us, but there's something I need all three of you to do before you go back to your rooms," Gabi said, smirking happily.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"How'd you get the guy to open up the hot tub anyway Trace?" Lola asked as the girls enjoyed the heated water. Hunter was in there too, right next to Colleen.

"A little sweet talk and 50 bucks can go a long way," Traci replied smugly.

Kelsi giggled happily.

Gabi walked out of the dressing room in her bikini. "Presenting," she announced, "the newest Sheffield cheerleaders, Alyssa Ashcroft, Caty Lewis, and Ellie Kramer!"

Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie stepped out of the dressing rooms in the cheerleading uniforms Gabi dug up for them. It was a little snug on Ellie and a little loose on Alyssa, but not enough for anyone to notice And Caty's uniform was perfect fit for her

Everyone started to clap.

"Now get in your suits and get in here, all of you," Traci said.

Before Alyssa could protest about breaking the curfew rule and the "the hot tub is _closed_ for the day" rule, all the kids that went out that night poured in.

"Yo Trace, Darren delivered! I've got tons of beer in my room!" Gabe Preston said as he led the group.

"Naturally," Traci replied.

"Hey, allow me to join you in the hot tub," Gabe added slyly, trying to come in.

"Stay out loser," Traci said, pushing him away lightly. Unfortunately, she didn't know her own strength and ended up pushing Gabe into the pool.

"Whoa!" he cried. He landed in the pool, drenching the guys near the edge. He came up spluttering.

"Omigod, I'm sorry!" Traci cried, trying not to laugh.

"Don't worry about it. The water's great!" Gabe said good naturedly.

Alyssa always liked Gabe. He was sweet and funny and never got mad.

"Sweet," one boy said, jumping into the pool.

Ronnie, who'd come along for the trip after Alyssa and Rae asked her to, laughed and jumped in as well.

The others looked at each other and all joined them. The girls in the hot tub scrambled out and also went into the pool.

Caty and Ellie exchanged looks, shrugged, and jumped into the pool.

"Not in your uniforms!" Gabi cried, looking like her world had just ended.

"You need to relax," Ellie replied. She swam to the edge of the pool, grabbed Gabi's arm, and pulled her in.

Gabi shrieked, but laughed when she came back up, splashing both her friends.

Chris, James, Rae, Jake, and Josh came in last. Josh and Chris were having a friendly argument having to do with a sword, James and Rae were laughing their heads off, and Jake was trailing behind them, staring at the back of Rae's head.

Rae gaped at Alyssa. "What happened to _you_?"

"Look who's talking Miss. Face Tattoo," Alyssa replied. "What the hell?"

Rae had a crazy tattoo on her cheek.

"It's temporary," Rae defended. "It's the Chinese symbol for peace."

"Peace?" Alyssa repeated dubiously.

"_It's supposed to help me be at peace over my break up_."

"_Neither of you are going to be at peace about that for a _long _time_," Alyssa replied.

Rae glared at her, then said, "Are you gonna explain what you're wearing now?"

"It's a cheerleading uniform," Alyssa said cheekily.

"No kidding," Rae said.

"Gabi needed a couple of extras. I said I'd do it."

"Why?" Rae asked.

"She begged."

"Is that all it takes?"

"Apparently."

Rae finally cracked a smile before Ronnie coaxed her into the pool.

"I think you look great," Jake said before he joined everyone else in the pool.

"So what, you're a cheerleader now?" Josh asked.

"Not forever. Just for tomorrow," Alyssa said. "And surprisingly enough, learning the moves and perfecting the routine was actually kind of fun, even if we _were_ breaking the rules by being out after hours."

"What a rebel," James joked, putting his arm around his girlfriend.

"What do you guys think?" Alyssa asked.

"About your short skirt and that revealing top? I hate it," Josh said flatly. He smiled. "But I'm glad you had fun."

"And I have a thing for cheerleaders," James said.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Well...no. But I do have a big thing for a girl named Alyssa Ashcroft, and if she happens to be a cheerleader, it doesn't change how I feel."

Alyssa was glowing, and gave James a kiss.

"Josh!" Rae cried from the pool "Ronnie's trying to drown me! Help!"

Then the Keeper shrieked with laughter as Ronnie splashed her.

Josh jumped into the pool.

"Hey, stop tormenting my prom date!" he demanded.

"Come here and make me!" Ronnie taunted.

James laughed. "Come on," he said to Alyssa.

"Give a minute," Alyssa said. The pool was not supposed to be open, but it looked like a lot of fun, and Alyssa already broke a rule that night. What was one more?

James nodded, then joined everyone else.

Alyssa looked at Chris. They were the only two not in the pool. He didn't look happy. Alyssa wondered if he was mad at her. That morning at breakfast, he asked if they could finally talk about their paintings. She said sure, but Rae and James joined them and created hilarious commentary about every piece they shared. Alyssa laughed a lot, but Chris didn't seem happy. Then she ditched him for dinner a second time in favor of eating with Josh, Sage, James, Rae, and Ronnie. But he wasn't that needy, right? Chris was popular. He had lots of other friends, plus he hung out with Ellie most of the day, and Alyssa had never seen Chris smile as much as he had since he and Ellie started a relationship.

"You're pretty quiet. What do you think?" Alyssa asked, playfully twirling around.

"I think...I think you look ridiculous."

Alyssa looked like she was just slapped in the face. Chris didn't regret the comment.

"What?"

"Come on Alyssa, dressing like a cheerleader? Becoming one? What's with that?"

"What's wrong with being a cheerleader? You do realize two of your former girlfriends were cheerleaders, right? Oh, but, I guess I'm not allowed to have any fun."

Chris looked confused. "That's not it."

"Yeah, Chris, it is. You're trying to control my whole weekend. Classics is _supposed_ to be fun. I want to be with my boyfriend, I want my friends to keep me laughing while I talk about art. I'm having a good time Chris. I'm happy. You'd think one of my best friends would be happy for me."

"I _am_. Or I would be, if you were acting like yourself. But you're not. And you haven't been for a long time. You're not being you. And it's all because of _him_!" Chris looked over at James.

"Oh? And when exactly did you become the expert on who _I_ am?" Alyssa asked hotly. "Because in case it slipped her memory Chris, we haven't been actual, real friends for _years_. I don't know what you think saying hi in the halls or spending an afternoon in the art studio together or having a conversation while my family eats in your restaurant means, but that's not friendship. We only just became friends again a few months ago. I changed, yes, and it was because of James, yes, but it's better this way. _I'm_ better this way. I like myself and my life and I'm _happy_, so get used to it."

With that, Alyssa jumped into the pool.

"Well look who suddenly doesn't care about the rules," Rae teased.

"Not you too!" Gabi cried mournfully. "Couldn't _one_ of you decide to keep your uniform dry?"

"Chill Gabs, they'll be fine by tomorrow," Traci said.

"Why is she so cheerful all of a sudden?" Gabi grumbled.

"Because we got our routine perfect. Why _aren't_ you cheerful?" Bree asked as she joined them.

"Is it because of that girl we ran into while we changed?" Alyssa asked.

"What girl?" Rae asked.

"It was this girl from a rival school," Ellie explained. "She was tall and blond and pretty. She and Gabi were arguing when we came out of the bathroom in our uniforms and I guess they finished their fight because she walked away."

Bree's mouth dropped open. "You saw Claire Owens?"

"Yup. And she was just as bitchy as ever," Gabi muttered.

"Who is Claire Owens?" Caty asked.

"Captain of the Crawford cheer squad," Bree answered. "She got held back on purpose last year just so she could still be the Varsity captain the same year Traci became Varsity captain. They've been rivals for a long time. It's Claire's goal to beat Traci in Classics this year."

"They've got a great routine," Gabi groaned.

"So do we," Caty said.

"All three of you, cheerleaders. I really can't wait to see this," Rae muttered.

"We're damn good cheerleaders," Alyssa declared. She looked back over at Chris who looked put out. He looked away from her.

"By the way, you're boyfriend's a jerk," Alyssa told Ellie.

Ellie was about to ask what that meant when they all heard a deep male voice bellow, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Everyone looked to see the Varsity basketball coach, Coach Burnham, standing behind Chris, his face red with anger.

Everyone stopped laughing, splashing, and moving.

"Everyone not on the basketball team," Burnham said, his voice dangerously quiet, "get back to your rooms, _now_. As for my players...dry yourselves of and meet me in the lobby in five minutes."

For a moment, no one moved.

"GO!" Burnahm yelled.

Everyone scrambled out of the pool and ran to where they needed to go. It didn't seem like they were going to have any of the beer in Gabe Preston's room, but Classics was turning out to be just as fun as always, even though, for the first time in years, they were caught.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Chris opened his eyes to look at the clock. It displayed 4:28. Chris groaned and turned on the light.

"Dude. Seriously?" he asked.

James was playing a handheld video game and it kept making annoying beeping noises, waking Chris up.

"Sorry," James shrugged. "If I go to sleep now, I have no chance of waking up for the game tomorrow."

Chris groaned again and went to turn off the light.

"Wait," James said.

Chris did and looked at the senior boy.

"Why are you being such a jerk to Alyssa?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You were mean to her all weekend, and she doesn't deserve to be treated that way."

Chris sighed and sat up. "You know, I've known Alyssa all my life. Ellie likes to say she met her first, but they didn't meet until kindergarten. We were in the same playgroup when we were two and we went to Pre-K together. And for as long as I've known her, she's always been so unique. This totally original Alyssa. And then you came along."

"And as far as I can tell, she's still the same person she's always been," James replied. "She's not any less intelligent or any less creative or any less talented. You don't like me. I know that. But she's not any less of the amazing person she's always been from being with me. But yeah, she is a little different now. She's added to her personality. She's bolder, lighter, freer. That's a good thing. She's happier. It's not her fault that you don't like the Alyssa she is now, so don't take it out on her."

"I lo-" Chris stopped. Was he about to say he loved Alyssa? No. He liked _Ellie_ now. "I like Alyssa just as much as I always have. She's one of my best friends."

James clearly knew Chris was about to say he loved Alyssa, but ignored it. "She is. But are you one of hers? Because if you were, you wouldn't be a dick to her for finally being happy."

"There's a problem now," Chris muttered.

"Yeah, there is. But the problem's not with her," James continued. "It's with you."

Chris turned off the light and turned away from James, but he couldn't get back to sleep. And it had nothing to do with the beeps coming from the game.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Alyssa took a deep breath as she surveyed all the faces watching her. Of course, they were watching all of them, but Alyssa felt her breath hitch. She was so nervous! Why did she agree to do this? She could barely get through his presentation on Prehistoric Art and Fauvism for her Art History class. How on _Earth_ did she think she could be a _cheerleader_ for a day?

"You okay?" Caty asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm starting to rethink this whole thing."

"It's a little late for that," Gabi snapped.

Caty glared at Gabi for being short, even though she knew Gabi was probably the most nervous. Traci was feeling pretty confident, shooting Claire Owens triumphant looks every chance she got.

"I'm sure once we get out there and start the routine, the nervousness will wash away," Caty soothed.

"Yeah! I always feel a little nervous before a performance or a scene, but once I get into it, I forget about everyone watching and just have fun," Ellie said.

"Because singing and acting _is_ fun for you. Cheerleading is _not_ fun."

"Speak for yourself Classless-a," Traci muttered.

"I _am_," Alyssa said. "Stay out of this."

"Guys, we only have a few minutes before we go on. Let's not fight," Bree cautioned.

"Next up," the emcee announced, "from Star City, the Crawford High Cougars!"

Several people from the stands cheered. The Crawford high girls, dressed in red and white with red and black pom poms ran to the mat.

Alyssa's breath caught again. Sheffield was right after Crawford High. She couldn't understand how, just two hours ago, she was watching her incredibly hot and talented boyfriend making baskets, and now she was waiting to _cheer_. She wished she was watching the game again. It was great. The tournament included six teams, and Sheffield won the whole thing in the end, as they did every year. The basketball team always did better than the cheerleaders.

Crawford High started out with a cheer. Then the music started. They were using the song Turn Up the Music by Rihanna and Chris Brown. It was a very fun, dance inducing song. A great choice.

Cheers erupted as the Crawford pulled off stunt after stunt. Cartwheels, floor flips, flips in midair from the flyers, walkovers. The three flyers did a heel stretch while being lifted into the air, and the squad finished by flipping on and off a pyramid.

Gabi let out a breath. "No toe touches," she said, which was another word for birdie. "No artistry, no cohesion. They had some impressive moves, but it didn't flow like a performance should. We may have a chance at this."

After the cheering and clapping for Crawford died down, the emcee said, "And our final performance comes from Sheffield Institute in Heatherfield! Give it up for the Eagles!"

Cheers came from the cloud. The girls ran onto the mat, waving their pom poms, dressed in gray tank tops and skirts, 'Sheffield Institute' written on the tops in lavender lettering. Alyssa caught sight of James, who grinned at her. Alyssa grinned back and felt a million times less nervous. James always had that effect on her. She took a deep breath and took her place in the middle, where she started off.

They started with a cheer, just like the other squads. It was a simple cheer with simple arm movements. The ended with a high V, the same way their routine started.

The music started, and Nicki Minaj started. They did some more simple arm movements until they heard, "Fly/I fly high/I'm blazin'"

As the singing continued, the flyers made their moves. Alyssa shrieked when the girls tossed her into the air, but, thanks to the music, only the other cheerleaders heard her, and she managed to pull off her simple stunt. She only had to do that one more time.

As the rap started, cheers erupted. The routine went _perfectly_. No one messed up and the Sheffield section of the audience kept cheering every time someone did a flip or cartwheel.

Alyssa somersaulted to the middle of the mat with Caty, Ellie, and two other girls. They got up to form the bottom level of the pyramid. The girls on their squad didn't flip onto the pyramid like the Crawford girls, but each level did an attractive, cheer inducing move before climbing onto the pyramid. Bree did an impressive backflip before climbing to the top. As the best on the team, she was always the top of the pyramid. Unlike with most of the girls, there was almost no chance of her falling.

Bree did a high front flip off the pyramid, and the other girls followed suit. The five girls at the bottom somersaulted again. As the rap came to an end and Nicki started singing again, the flyers made their move again. Alyssa did a heel stretch while being lifted, just like the Crawford girls, but Colleen and Danielle did their heel stretches in mid-air, which was more impressive. When they came down, the girls were thrown into the air again. Alyssa didn't shriek this time. She did the same move as before. Colleen and Danielle did a flip before coming down. Once all three girls were put back on the ground, Alyssa and Caty danced their way to either end of the line of girls. Half of them did backflips while Caty and Alyssa cartwheeled in opposite directions. They all lined up as Bree and Gabi did back walkovers. Ellie did her double front floor flip and went into the split at the perfect time. The other girls went into the high V just as the song ended.

The cheering was thunderous, and all the girls had huge smiles on their faces.

All the students from Sheffield went down to the gym floor to congratulate them.

"Alyssa," Chris said as he walked towards her.

Alyssa didn't mean to, but she ignored Chris. The only guy she could see was James.

"Did you see me?" she squealed as she flew into his arms.

"That was awesome," James said. "You were so good!"

"It was so much fun!" Alyssa cried before kissing him.

Chris let out a frustrated sigh before catching sight of Ellie. He smiled at her and walked over, giving her a kiss. "That was great El, you did amazing!"

"Thanks! I'm thinking about trying out for real next year."

"You should, you looked like you were having a blast."

"I was! I've always been too busy for cheerleading because I had to work so much, but I can quit my job next year. I don't need it anymore. I'm going to be a Varsity cheerleader!"

"Oh, is that so?" Bree asked as she and Dalton passed by them. She was using an obnoxious tone and Ellie braced herself for a rude comment, but then Bree smiled. "Good. You're amazing. You should make the squad no problem. It'll be fun, cheering with you."

"Wow," Chris said as Bree and Dalton went to join Gabi, who was standing with Traci, Jake, and Traci's boyfriend Rudy. "That might've been the nicest thing Bree's said to you...ever."

Ellie smiled. "Yeah. Looks like things are changing."

Chris nodded as he looked at Alyssa who was now talking to Rae and Josh, with James' arm around her. Things were changing alright. And so were people.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"In third place," the emcee announced as the judge handed him a card. "The Bear Creek Raiders!"

The girls dressed in maroon and white cheered and ran up to get their trophy.

"Second place," the emcee went on, "the Heatherfield Eagles.

Gabi and Traci exchanged disappointed looks. They weren't sure who won first place, but if Crawford did, that meant they hadn't beaten Claire, and Traci's last year was a waste. However, all the other girls were cheering, so the co-captains put on smiles for the crowd as they accepted their trophy.

"And if first place, for the fifth year in a row-"

Crawford started cheering before the emcee could even finish saying "The Star City Cougars!" They'd won it again.

After Crawford got their trophy, the emcee gave out the last three special awards.

"Best uniforms go to the River Valley Warriors!"

Those girls did look great in their heavily sequined blue tank tops and just as heavily sequined gold skirts.

"Best music goes to Ashwood Academy!"

The captain of Ashwood collected her trophy. They used the song Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding, which was a very good choice. It went perfectly with their daring routine.

"And finally," the emcee said, "the trophy for best choreography goes to…"

Gabi winced. Claire Owens won this every year and she prided herself on this because unlike winning first place, this specific award was all hers. She could beat Traci again.

"Traci Davis and Gabrielle Shay of Sheffield Institute!"

For a minute, no one knew what happened. Claire knew she didn't hear her name, and Traci and Gabi knew they heard their names, but no one could believe it. But then Bree nudged Gabi and Traci's best friend Rina pushed Traci forward and the two girls snapped out of their trace, got their trophy and gave Claire the biggest of triumphant smiles while the blond looked ready to throw a tantrum.

The choreography award was all their own, and Traci finally beat Claire. Gabi was holding the trophy, but Traci took it from her and said, "I know we came up with the moves, but the idea was what really started it all."

Then, to the immense surprise of everyone, Traci handed the trophy to Ellie whose entire face lit up as she took it.

"Really?" she asked.

"Unfortunately," Traci replied with a playful smile.

Gabi smiled as well. She'd never agreed with Traci more than she did at this moment.

"You deserve it El," Gabi said. "And you're definitely on the squad next year, if you want to be."

Ellie squealed and gave Gabi a hug.

Gabi laughed and looked at Alyssa and Caty. "You guys did great. So much better than I expected. There will be room on squad for you two if you-"

"HA!" Alyssa and Caty yelled together.

"Okay, okay, just thought I'd offer," Gabi said, putting her hands up in surrender. "Now come on. Everyone's leaving the gym, and I heard Gabe is trying to get rid of all the beer we were supposed to have last night."

"Ew," Ellie said. "You're actually proposing we drink day old, warm beer?"

"I'm suggesting that the beer Darren got us was different flavors of Mike's Hard that was chilling in Gabe's fridge from the moment it arrived at this hotel," Gabi replied.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ellie asked, leading the girls to Gabe's room. Most of the other Sheffield students were already there. This was gonna be fun!

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"I believe this is yours," Rae said, tossing Alyssa a periwinkle cotton shirt.

"Yeah, and this is yours," Alyssa replied, throwing Rae a teal tank top.

"How did we get our clothes mixed up?" Rae wondered.

"Because we decided to do laundry together," Alyssa answered.

It was Sunday evening and Alyssa and Rae were finishing up their packing before Sheffield headed home. Just as they zipped up their matching duffel bags (they'd bought them as a pair last week), there was a knock at their open door. They looked up to see Chris.

Alyssa had told Rae everything that had been going on between herself and Chris, and though Rae agreed he was being a jerk, her agreement was halfhearted. Alyssa had a feeling Rae realized something she didn't, but she had no idea what that was.

Rae grabbed her duffel bag. "So I'm going to go join the others. You guys have fifteen minutes before the bus leaves."

She headed out the door, leaving them alone.

Chris walked into the room. Alyssa looked down at her suitcase, sighed softly, then looked up. "Hey," she said lamely.

"Hey," he replied. "You...you were really amazing out there."

"Thanks," Alyssa replied, her voice not betraying any emotion. "So were you. The winning shot. Pretty impressive."

Chris smiled slightly. "Thanks. Honestly, it was luck. I didn't think I was going to make that shot."

Alyssa nodded, not really wanting to respond.

"But you...you definitely have skill. And you looked great."

"Yeah? Cuz I thought maybe I looked ridiculous."

Chris sighed and sat down on Rae's bed. "Look, I'm sorry I said that. It's just...every difference I see is because of someone else. You're more sarcastic because of Rae's influence, you're bolder because of James, you're happier because of the whole team. You have more friends and you're a part of something. And I am happy for you, and I do like the changes in you. But when this whole thing first started, the initial change was _us_. We weren't really friends for a while, I know that. And I should've done better, tried to include you...that was my bad. But then you became a guardian, and as much as you hung out with Rae...you hung out with me almost as much. We did art and homework together, you tried to come to practice early or stay late so we could catch each other up on our days. And when you lost your powers, I got to teach you to fight. But then you and James became official and then we all got in that huge fight, and even when you rejoined the group...it wasn't the same anymore. You still spent most of your time with him."

"I don't spend any more time with James than you do with Ellie."

"I know, and he's your boyfriend, of course you want to be with him. I want to be with Ellie too. But it took almost four months after you came back for Ellie and I to get together. And in those four months, it seemed the friendship we forged just went away. You were always with James and Rae and Jake, and you got better your relationship with Caty, Gabi, and Ellie got, the more our relationship seemed to disappear. The only time we ever hang out anymore is in the art studio, and we didn't spend much time in there until the art show came around, and at that time, you and Josh were good again, so it was never the two of us, it was always the three of us. I guess I just...missed my friend."

Alyssa smiled. "Chris, I miss you too! But have you thought about how hard this is? Here I am, dating a guy I love, and one of my best friends hates him. I mean, I wanted to hang out with you or double with you and Ellie, but you don't like James, and I didn't want to put either of you in that position. Look, you're really important to me, but so is James. If you want to be a part of my life, you're going to have to be a part of his too."

"You're right, I know. And honestly, I don't _hate_ him. Not the way Josh does. And...he was the one who made me realize I was being a jerk. He's the one who made me realize that I was making it seem like I didn't like the new you, even though I do. He's a good guy Lyssa. I'm glad you have him."

Alyssa smiled. She knew it would Josh a long time to accept James, maybe longer that her relationship would last (even though, right now she wanted it to last forever), but she hoped Chris would come around.

"And I am glad you changed because I want you to be happy. That's always been the most important thing. You will always be one of my best friends."

"And you'll always be one of mine," Alyssa replied, giving him a hug. When she pulled back she said, "And you're right, we don't spend a lot of time together and I've missed you. We _will_ hang out more, I promise."

"Why don't we start right now? Over Rae and James's commentary, we didn't really choose our pieces for the exhibition. Want to sit with me and the bus and go over it?"

Alyssa grinned. "Try and stop me."

The pair walked outside and climbed on the bus. Since it was the same buses as last time, Ellie took a while to say bye to Chris. Alyssa took that time to tell James she was going to sit with Chris.

"Alright, that's fine. This one will keep me company," he said, pointing at Rae. She was sitting with Ronnie and a friend of Ronnie's, but hearing James, she immediately sat next to him.

"Yeah, I can see that," Alyssa said, feigning jealousy.

"Window," Rae demanded.

James chuckled and leaned back so Rae could squeeze through and sit by the window.

Alyssa laughed. Then she sobered. "James...thank you."

"For what?"

"For always looking out for me. Chris told me you talked some sense into him."

James shrugged modestly. "Anything for you."

"And you really mean anything, don't you?"

"Of course."

Alyssa smiled and kissed him. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Aww," Ronnie cooed. "You guys are literally the cutest couple. And you know since James is a senior, you guys could get voted class couple for senior superlatives. At least, according to Brooke. She says if one half of the couple is a senior, you're in contention."

"I definitely wouldn't mind winning that."

"James, you'll probably win nicest eyes, nicest smile, and most musical as well," Alyssa said. "How many times do you need your picture in the yearbook?"

"A million. I'm quite narcissistic," James joked. "And anyway, none of those pictures would compare to one standing next to you for winning class couple."

Alyssa blushed. "I have to agree with that Mr. Mason."

"Glad to see we're on the same page Miss. Ashcroft."

Chris climbed onto the bus. Alyssa smiled at him and took a seat next to him after kissing James one more time.

The pair pulled out their phones and talked art for the entire ride back to Sheffield. Alyssa felt content. Not only had she had a lot of fun this weekend, but nothing bad had happened. Classics was a wonderful trip even for the Guardians of the Veil.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: That's the end. The next update will deal with prom, a pretty big guardian related event, and more people finding out about GRACE as well as another prophesized event occurring. I'll try to get it out as fast as I possibly can. Thank for all your reviews guys, hope you liked it! **


	48. Prom

**A/N: Hey everyone! I got a really positive response on the triple update, but because I posted three chapters, and because everyone really liked those chapters, even though I didn't much like them. This is another triple update, and I hope it makes up for the wait. This chapter is one of my longer ones, but the next two are on the shorter side, but busy. Anyway, this update has a little something for everyone, so I hope you enjoy! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Taylor: Caty and Brian ****_had_**** to break up. It would be pretty crazy if Brian was willing to forgive Caty for everything she did. And Adam loves Ellie, so having the girl who is both his best friend and the girl he loves lying to him day in and day out is not something most people can take. The same is true for Jake and Rae, who started out as best friends, and not only is Rae the girl Jake loves, but also his girlfriend of several months. They haven't said I love you to each other yet, but both love each other and are pretty sure of the other's feelings. Rae is supposed to love Jake back, but she keeps a huge part of herself a secret, and he's let it go for so long. James' promposal was the way my best friend asked me to prom. We'd agreed to go as friends, but he wanted to ask me anyway, so my friends gave him that idea. A lot of people are commenting on the Chris/Ellie/Alyssa triangle. You'll just have to keep reading to find out what happens. Hope you enjoy!**

**Emily: I don't HATE you…much. Lol. You didn't even LIKE Rae and Jake all that much. I told you, I have a plan for the Alyssa/James/Chris/Ellie square. It's a better plan than my original plan, which is why I didn't share that one with you. It'll all work out. I love you too! I'll love you more if you beta'd this well!**

**WaterAmulet: I'm sorry, I knew you'd hate that, but how long did you think they'd honestly last when Rae keeps lying to him? There's a fix for it though, in the next chapter. Sort of…you'll see. Ellie and Chris ARE super cute. I like them together. But they're teenagers, and my characters are like ****_my_**** teenagers, they don't listen to me, they go where they want to go and do what they want to do. I can't keep them in check! Plus, I have plans, and I can't let go of them. Well prom is this chapters, so I hope it meets your expectations!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Feel free to love and adore me forever," Gabi said as she and Josh entered the basement the two days later. Since Classics prevented the team from practicing for three days, Hay Lin demanded they practice for double the time for the next three days. It was brutal and they didn't want to do it again.

Everyone looked up. Before anyone could ask why, hoping it was because Gabi had convinced their guardian teacher to back off, she handed Cara a stack of papers. "For you."

Cara looked at it, and her eyes lit up. "Oh awesome Gabi!"

"What is that?" Caty asked.

"It's my critical analysis paper for _The Great Gatsby_ that we did last year. Cara's English final is to pick any book and write a paper on it, and she chose Gatsby, so I offered her mine as a guideline. She could just copy it since her eighth grade teacher and my tenth grade teacher have nothing to do with each other, but she's nervous she'll get caught."

"And also, this paper is way too advanced to sound like my writing. What the hell is 'immature ennui?'"

"It means childish boredom," Gabi replied.

"So why didn't you say that?"

"Because that phrase is far too juvenile for _my_ writing."

"Can we talk about the fact that you asked Gabi for help over me?" Caty asked. "I mean, why would you _not_ ask me?"

"_The Great Gatsby_ is one of Gabi's favorite books. She told me during one of our shifts together," Cara said. "So I know she'd have a good paper. And I'm sure you had a good paper too, but Gabi's definitely sounds more passionate since she loves the book so much."

Caty sighed. She understood that. She and her friends hated _The Great Gatsby._

"So does this mean you can help me with my essay too?" Ellie asked.

"Sure. What's it on?" Gabi asked.

"_In Cold Blood_. We get to choose any topic that relates and write a paper on it. It's our last assignment of the year."

"I never read that book," Gabi said.

"I did. I'll help you," Alyssa said. "When is it due?"

"Yesterday."

Everyone laughed.

"You Ellie Kramer, are one of a kind," Caty declared.

"And you should be proud," Alyssa added.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Keep it up Josh. Don't let him get away!" Hay Lin called.

Josh grunted in reply as he continued to pursue Chris. He jumped over the dumpster, grabbing onto a rung on the ladder attached to the building behind the dumpster. He climbed up. When he reached the roof, he jumped off, trying to land on Chris's back.

Alyssa and Rae gasped, Ellie and Caty screamed, and Gabi couldn't even look (though she'd never admit she hid her face because she didn't want to see Josh getting hurt since they were still in a fight).

Gabi uncovered her face when she heard Chris grunt in his Shagon voice. Josh landed safely, and Chris lost a little altitude from the weight. Now it looked more like Josh was riding a bull.

Josh pulled out his sword while trying to make sure he didn't fall off. He tried to put it against Chris's throat, but Chris managed to shake him off.

Sage was ready to catch him with her magic, but Josh didn't need her to. He grabbed onto a window sill from the closest building and hoisted himself up to the roof. Chris landed on the same roof and started blasting lasers.

Josh dodged them all, grabbed Chris's shoulder and used it to flip over him. When he was behind Chris, he used his sword to make a slashing motion near Chris's wings, as if he were going to cut them off.

"Wings out!" Hay Lin called. "No more flying."

Chris knew that, if in a real battle, someone slashed off his wings, he'd be writhing in pain, not continue fighting, but for the exercise, he was still supposed to fight.

Chris started using hand to hand combat, but Josh was a better fighter, and he pushed Chris to the ground easily, even though Chris was in his strong Shagon form. Chris used his lasers again. Josh jumped from one rooftop to the next. Chris followed him.

This went on for a while, GRACE impressed with both boys for being able to jump rooftops as if they were Batman or something.

"Cara, now!" Hay Lin called.

Cara looked for the building Josh and Chris were on, and ran up it with her super speed. She landed lightly so Josh, who was engaged in battle with Chris, wouldn't hear her. She aimed kick at his feet, but Josh had heard her after all, and jumped, dodging. He ducked to avoid Chris's laser, which would've hit Cara if she didn't have super speed.

Cara started zipping around Josh, making him work to try and see where she was. While he was distracted, Chris shot more lasers at him.

Josh had sweat dripping down his face. He dodged the first few lasers, but then got hit three times.

"No, stop!" Alyssa shrieked.

"Battle over," Hay Lin agreed.

Josh's shoulder, side, and stomach were all bleeding severely. If Chris was using his lasers full force, he'd probably be dead. Chris carried Josh down to the ground and Sage used her healing powers on him. Josh looked and felt 100% in just a few seconds. Chris and Cara changed back into human form.

"Learn that," Gabi said to Caty who bit her lip.

Apparently, the water guardian had healing powers, but Caty had yet to unlock them, leaving the healing to Sage's powers and Hay Lin's magical antidotes.

"That was intense," Rae said.

"Yeah, and so cool! I wish I could jump from building to building," Ellie added.

"Ellie, why would you need to be able to do that? You can fly," Cara pointed out.

"Oh yeah."

Everyone laughed as Hay Lin gave Chris and Cara half an energy bar. It was a magical energy bar, designed to give them back the strength and energy they lost while fighting. It didn't heal injuries, but they didn't really have any.

It was the day before prom. After guardian training, Hay Lin said there was a new power she wanted to teach the guardians, but they needed to wait til it was dark out. Since it was Friday, the girls were able to spend all day at training without worrying about anything else they had to do. Alyssa, Caty, and Rae worked on some homework after training, but that only kept them occupied for so long, so while they waited, they watched Josh spar against the regents.

Josh felt like he was losing his edge since he hadn't been a serious fight in a while, so Hay Lin created a real battle between him the regents so he could practice. He wasn't rusty at all and everyone was seriously impressed with his moves.

"I thought you were amazing," Ellie said, giving Chris a kiss.

"Thanks," Chris replied grinning. "But I'd only ever be able to beat Josh as Shagon."

"I believe that. You were awesome Josh," Alyssa complimented. "Who taught you all that?"

"My dad of course. He's a much better fighter than I am."

"Better than _that_? I wish I was his daughter so he could teach me," Ellie said wistfully.

"I'm his real daughter. Maybe I got his fighting ability."

"Fighting ability is _not_ genetic," Caty said.

"Oh yeah?" Alyssa challenged. "Watch!" She aimed a kick at Josh and ended up missing and falling.

Everyone roared with laughter. Even James, who helped Alyssa up, couldn't help chuckling.

"Har, har," Alyssa grumbled.

"Nice going Klutzcroft," Gabi joked.

"Not a klutz. Just one little slip," Alyssa insisted.

"Hey look, the sun is setting," Rae pointed out.

"Does that mean we get to learn about this power soon?" Ellie asked excitedly.

"Yes. Go ahead and get into guardian form again," Hay Lin advised.

"Practice doing it without the Heart," Rae said as she and Gabi transformed. When the girls transformed, they still said the name of their original element, but still had the powers of a different guardian.

The others tried, but by the time it got dark, they still couldn't do it.

"Okay, okay," Rae relented. "Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Air!"

After the glows from the Heart and the girls died down, it was pitch black. The team could barely make out the outlines of one another.

"What are we doing anyway? Because it's so dark, I can't see," Gabi said.

"El, give us some light," Caty suggested.

"No. Light would be counterproductive," Hay Lin warned.

"Color me curious," Alyssa commented.

"What does counterproductive mean?" Ellie asked at the same time.

The old air guardian ignored the actress as she began the lesson.

"Sage can use her magic to give her senses a boost," Hay Lin started.

"It's called the Senses skill set," Sage piped up. "It gives me enhanced hearing, enhanced sight including infrared vision, stuff like that."

"Now Sage can do a lot, like infrared vision or night vision. You guys, as guardians, also have night vision."

"We do?" Ellie breathed.

Hay Lin didn't say anything for a while. "Oh sorry!" she said after a minute. "I was nodding. I forgot you couldn't see me."

Everyone giggled before Rae asked, "So how do we like...activate it?"

"It's easy," Hay Lin replied. "You have to focus on a spot of little light, like the moon. Focus for as long as you can, blinking as little as you can. When it starts to hurt looking at that spot of light, switch your gaze over to the darkness and you should be able to see what's going on. Once you do this the first time, it'll get easier and easier until it's second nature for you to essentially _switch_ your eyes over to night vision."

To Rae, this seemed a little weird, but she supposed it could be a useful skill. It would've been easier to fight Riley and Hope that day if they had been able to see more than what the light of moon showed them.

"Okay guys, let's focus on the moon I guess," she said.

The other girls looked towards the moon while the regents, the Meridianites, and James just hung back talking.

Gabi felt the pain first. It started as a dull sting in the back of her eyes. It started to burn as it got stronger.

"Ow," she moaned, blinking rapidly.

"Look to the right," Hay Lin commanded when she heard.

Gabi did, and tried to stop blinking. To her surprise, she saw more than just the outline of the building to her right, like she did when it first got dark. Instead, she saw the building as clear as she would if it was day. Taking in her surroundings, she realized everything looked as if it were still light out.

"Whoa," she breathed.

"Whoa," Alyssa echoed. She'd begun to feel the pain as well, and was now looking around.

"But I thought night vision made everything appear green," Gabi said.

"The goggles do that," Hay Lin said. "Night vision in the magical world makes everything appear as if it were day."

Rae, Caty, and Ellie were bursting with curiosity, but hadn't felt the pain yet. It was another ten minutes before Caty's eyes began to hurt as well and she awakened the ability. Rae got it next, and Ellie got it last.

The girls were all delighted with their new power. Ellie suggested they celebrate with those "cool new blue drinks" Gabi made. Chris agreed to make them for everyone, stating Gabi shouldn't be doing it because she was celebrating too. Rae changed the girls back, and the group followed Hay Lin back to The Silver Dragon.

Rae looked up at the sky once more, trying to see if she could switch from her regular vision to night vision as easily as Hay Lin said. To her delight, she realized she could. She was about to follow the rest of the team when something caught her eye.

There was a figure flying near the moon. Rae couldn't see the figure's face, but the figure's wings were shockingly white. Cara's wings in her regent form were white, but considering this figure was taller and Cara was with the rest of the team, Rae knew it was Angel. What was Angel doing?

Before she could overthink it, or talk herself out of it, Rae changed into guardian form.

"Quintessence!"

Rae shot up into the air. When she got close enough to see Angel side profile, Angel turned towards Rae. Rae froze.

She wasn't sure what to expect. Would Angel ignore her and continue flying? Would she fly towards Rae? Would she be angry that Rae was trying to follow her? Would she tell the Keeper _why_ she was there?

At first Angel looked confused. She gave a Rae a look as if to say, 'Can you see me?'

Rae nodded, startled. Why did Angel care about _that_?"

Angel smiled, as if she were satisfied, maybe even proud. Then, she turned back and went on her way.

Rae hovered, wondering if she should try to follow her again, but then decided there was no point. Angel would surely know she was being followed, and she wouldn't tell Rae anything she wasn't ready to.

Rae sighed and landed. She changed back and ran to catch up with the team. Alyssa had realized she was missing, but Rae didn't even tell her what she was doing. She couldn't explain it, but for some reason, that smile felt like a private moment between Angel and herself-a moment she wanted to be all her own.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"This feels a little uncomfortable. I mean, it's too revealing, right?" Caty asked as she surveyed herself in Alyssa's mirror the next day.

"Caty, spaghetti straps aren't a big deal," Alyssa replied debating which of her pink eyeshadows to put on. "My dress is strapless and I'm fine.

"The darkest one," Gabi said, knowing exactly what she was doing.

"It goes with the dress," Alyssa agreed. "But the light rose one is really pretty."

"It'll lighten up throughout the night and end up looking white. Trust me," Gabi replied.

"Trust _you_?" Rae asked nastily. "Yeah, that can happen."

Gabi glared back at her. Ellie, who had no idea that Gabi going to prom with Jake was supposed to be a secret, blurted it out to Rae two days ago. Rae had been kind of a bitch to Gabi ever since. She thought Gabi understood how much she _didn't_ want to be broken up with Jake and couldn't understand how someone who put so much importance on girl code could go to prom with her ex. Gabi hadn't been any nicer, reminding Rae that Jake wasn't her boyfriend anymore, meaning she really had no right to be territorial, but Gabi and Josh were _something_, even if the two of them were fighting right now, so Rae shouldn't have said yes to him.

"You know, I wouldn't have suggested we all get ready together if I knew there was going to be so much tension," Alyssa said. She looked over at Nina, who was adjusting her hair. "Cute clip."

"Thanks," Nina replied, sliding the gold rose clip into place.

Just like the night of the Halloween Dance, everyone was getting ready together. The differences were, they were at Alyssa's house instead of Rae's, Lili, Cara, Misha, and Nina joined the girls, and Tony, Jake, Carter Hall (who had finally won permission to take Cara to prom) and Thomas Smith (Lili's new boyfriend) were in another room with the boys. Alyssa made James and Chris promise to keep an eye on Josh and Jake. She didn't want any fights breaking out.

All the girls were running out of money (except for Rae, who didn't have to buy any of her dresses thanks to her mom designing and making all her dresses), so Hay Lin made all the girls their dresses and had a lot of fun doing it. When Caty asked if she could make Misha and Nina dresses as well, she was only too happy to.

The end results were great. Hay Lin did an amazing job. Alyssa's dress was different shades of pink. The base was a dark pink with patches of different shades all over. She called it strapless, but actually, it had a necklace strap, and was tight around the waist. Caty's dress was similar to Alyssa's. The base however, was lime green, and instead of patches of different shades of green, it had patches of teal, light blue, and purple. It was loose and comfortable with spaghetti straps.

Rae's dress really was strapless. It was blue all over, the lower half of the dress a lighter shade than the top. The top of dress was covered in sparkles. There were three layers on the top, and the layers lessened as you got to the bottom. The bottom didn't have sparkles, but shined just as brightly. Ellie wore a similar dress. It was also a strapless blue number. The top was covered in sequins. It was tight around the waist with a little rhinestone studded circle plate at the side. The bottom of the dress had a light blue base with patches of other shades of blue all over. The bottom was under with a rough, netlike layer.

Sage was wearing a black and grey dress. Like most of the girls, the top was covered with sequins. The bottom puffed out, a shiny black layer under a netlike gray layer similar to Ellie's. Gabi's dress was red. It was tight filling until it reached her knees, at which point it puffed out minimally. It had spaghetti straps and was shiny all over. Gabi thought sequins and sparkles on a prom dress was tacky, so it had no decoration at all except the maroon strap at the tight waist.

Nina and Misha both chose gold dresses. Nina's had one thick strap to the left. There was no strap for the other side. Like Gabi's dress, it was tight up until the knees, where it puffed out minimally. The top of the strap was covered in rhinestones, but other than that, it was plain. She wore a gold rose pin in her hair to finish off the look. Misha's dress was strapless, with sparkles in patches everywhere, giving the dress a gorgeous shine.

Since it was not _her_ prom, Hay Lin didn't make Cara an ultra-gorgeous prom gown. Instead, Cara's dress was short. It was sleeveless but not strapless. It had a cream base with patches of black everywhere. It stopped just above her knees, and Cara opted to where short, high heeled boots instead of pumps like the other girls. Lili, taking a page from Gabi's book, borrowed and altered her mother's old junior prom dress. It was also kind of short, not like Cara's, but it only reached halfway down the legs. It was goldenrod yellow, and skin tight all the way.

"Are we the only ones flying solo?" Misha asked as she put on sparkly gold eyeshadow. She was pretty sure she and Nina were the only ones without a date.

"No, Milly's going by herself," Ellie said.

"Cuz that helps," Misha replied. She and Nina weren't really friends with Milly.

"So is Sage," Gabi added.

"No I'm not. Sam asked me," Sage said.

"Sam like the senior basketball player who was supposed to take you to James' birthday dinner?" Ellie asked.

"I didn't know that. Does Josh know?" Gabi asked.

"Because you know he'll hate him," Alyssa added. Josh hated every guy who showed the slightest interest in Sage.

"Sam is the worst possible guy for her to go with. Josh already hates him, without knowing that he's Sage's date," Rae said.

"Well Josh can't dictate who I date," Sage said, and even that decisive declaration sounded sweet coming from her.

"You're right, he can't," Gabi agreed. Sage gave Gabi permission to go out with Josh, so she was going to stick up for Sage against Josh if he said anything about it. Anyway, since they were in a fight, she enjoyed yelling at Josh.

There was a knock at the door. "Everyone good?" James asked jokingly.

Alyssa looked around the room. Everyone nodded, so she let him in. She leaned forward to give him a kiss when she caught sight of him and sucked in a breath. Since James wore everyday clothes to the Halloween Dance, and only suit jackets when they went to fancy places, she'd never seen him in a full tux before.

"Wow. You look amazing!" she cried.

"Hey, that's my line," James joked.

"Oh yeah?" Alyssa grinned, spinning around.

"Definitely. Beautiful as always."

"As always," Alyssa sighed dreamily, giggling.

James laughed and gave her a kiss. Rae made a face.

"Do I even have to go?" she sighed.

"Uh, yes," Alyssa said. "You promised. I won't have any fun if you don't go!"

"Hey. Not cool," James said. Before Alyssa could answer he went on, "And remember, you have a date. You can't just leave Josh hanging."

"Yeah. You hurt my brother, I hurt you," Alyssa piped up, sounding so silly Rae just laughed.

"Really?"

"Nah, he can take care of himself," Alyssa replied. "But I don't think Sage will be too happy with you. And you don't want to make a princess mad."

"Princess! I _still_ can't get over that," Nina declared. "We're in the presence of a _princess_."

"I get enough of that worship stuff on Meridian. Here, I'm just Sage Martin, regular Earth girl," Sage said.

"Except there's nothing regular or Earth-like about you," Cara pointed out. "Princess or not, you'll always be a Meridianite."

"Oh, is that the name for people from Meridian? I didn't know that," Lili said.

"What's the name for people from Earth?" Nina wondered.

"Earthlings, right?" Gabi asked.

"I don't like that," Alyssa complained.

"Well, how do you like Earthian?" James suggested.

"That sounds weird. What about like...Terran?"

"Oh, I like that," Cara said.

"What are we?" Ellie asked. "We're from Earth, but now we're guardians."

"Well Hay Lin said only life powder from Kandrakar can save our lives, so maybe we're Kandrakaran," Alyssa said.

"But I want to be Terran!" Ellie complained.

"Be what you want to be. Maybe you need life powder from Candyland-"

"_Kandrakar_," Caty corrected Lili while Ellie giggled. 'Candyland' was how Ellie first thought of Kandrakar too, because the clouds seemed like they were made from cotton candy.

"-but you were still born on Earth," Lili finished.

"Yeah! Then we're all Terran!" Ellie cheered.

"As opposed to what?" Jake asked from behind her.

Ellie's eyes widened as she turned around. The others realized they didn't close the door when James came in.

"What?" the air/quintessence/fire guardian squeaked.

"Terran means 'from Earth.' So what else would you be?"

"Um...an alien?" Ellie asked, as if _she_ were the one with the question.

"Or an Orbital," Alyssa said, trying to distract him.

"What's that?" Ellie asked.

"Someone who lives in space," Caty replied.

Ellie's eyes grew wide. "People live up in space?"

"In the International Space Station," Misha said in a 'duh' voice.

"There's an International Space Station? What's that?" Ellie asked.

"Ellie, have you ever thought about _paying attention_ in class?" Caty asked.

"I have other things to do," Ellie replied. "_Or at least I did_," she continued in Caty's head. "_I had to make grocery lists and schedule work around Mom. Now that I'm living with Alyssa, it's a little easier for me to pay attention."_

_ "And do you?"_

_ "I've gotten used to not…"_

Caty rolled her eyes and looked at Jake. "Are the others ready?"

"Oh, yeah. Um, we want to do the whole corsage thing before we leave," Jake said.

"Oooh, yay!" Ellie cried excitedly, making the others laugh.

Chris and Josh, being art people, did the best job matching the corsages to their dates' dresses, but ultimately, all the boys did a good job. When they got to the hotel prom was being held at, where Sage met Sam, everyone had to agree he did the best job with the corsage.

"Sam must really like you," Gabi whispered to Sage. "That corsage is made from black orchids."

"I know. They're my favorite flower. But why does that mean he likes me?"

"It's not easy to find corsages with black orchids as it is to find the ones with roses or lilies or even irises. You have to _special order_ black orchids."

Sage blushed happily before taking Sam's arm as they entered the banquet hall. Gabi smiled to herself. Maybe Sage had found the guy that would get her over Josh.

Prom was supposed to be a beautiful, magical night, even if it was just junior prom. Gabi, Ellie, and though she was reluctant to admit it, Rae, had dreamt about this night for _years_. But the whole thing was awkward.

First were prom pictures. Ellie was insanely happy, practically giddy, taking pictures with Chris, who looked so handsome it was unreal. Alyssa was just as giddy taking pictures with James. Gabi was uncomfortable taking pictures with Jake.

It wasn't really Jake's fault though. Gabi and Jake had been friends for years, and she was happy to be at prom with him if she couldn't go with Josh. But it wasn't the best experience taking pictures when she was hyper aware of the murderous glare she was getting from the Keeper the whole time. Rae's experience wasn't much better. Gabi took a page from the leader's book and gave _her_ a murderous glare as she and Josh took pictures.

Caty knew her pictures turned out horrible because she was supposed to be looking into the camera, but the entire time, even while Tony was holding her, her eyes were fixed on Brian, who'd just come in with Sheila, and was waiting in line for pictures. She wasn't aware, but five minutes later, when it was Brian's turn, his eyes were on Caty, who was dancing with Tony.

Twenty minutes into prom, the first slow song came on. As Rae and Josh watched Jake and Gabi move closer together, both sighed and walked off the dance floor. Alyssa rolled her eyes when she saw Josh pouting by the refreshments table. He was really grouchy when he was annoyed by something and she didn't really want to talk to him right at that moment. But when she saw Rae sitting on one of the chairs looking sad, she immediately grew worried.

"You think we should go check on Rae?" James asked just as Alyssa was about to ask if they could go check on Rae.

Alyssa smiled. One of her favorite things about James was that he cared about Rae as much as Alyssa did. It made it easy to spend time with both her best friend and boyfriend and not make one feel left out or neglected.

Alyssa nodded and they both went over to the chairs, and sat on either side of Rae.

"You okay?" Alyssa asked sympathetically.

"I miss him so much," Rae sighed.

"He misses you too. You're all he talks about," James said.

"You know what he told me? That if you changed your mind about your silence and told him your secret, he'd take you back," Alyssa said. "I mean, he said he'd decide depending on the secret-he has to understand why you kept it from him. But once he hears about GRACE and all we've been through, he'll definitely understand why you hid it."

"I don't _want_ him to take me back. At least, I don't if the cost of having him is him knowing about GRACE. The minute he figures it out, he'll be dead."

"What if I tell him? Cuz he's my friend too, and I hate keeping it from him. That way, he'll know the secret, and you don't have to feel guilty for telling him. There's no worry with him about whether he's going to freak out or tell someone. He already found out once, and he was so good about it."

"If you tell him, then you're responsible for killing him," Rae said bluntly.

Alyssa flinched, so Rae explained.

"Jake isn't like Jason or Lili or Misha and Nina...each of them are only connected to one of us. Jake is connected to _all_ of us. _Heavily_ connected. He's basically best friends with you, Gabi, _and _Caty, he's close to Ellie, he's gotten close to James, he and Sage are friends, he's the one who, upon Gabi's request, convinced Chris to not play overprotective brother and let Carter take Cara to prom so she's a big fan of his now, and up until recently, he was my boyfriend. He's perfect for bait to lure us into a trap or force our surrender, or whatever else the enemy would want to use him for. Someone connected to over half the team. It's too dangerous."

Alyssa and James both mulled this over, realizing she was right. Rae had never explained it so thoroughly before, but what she said made perfect sense. Would anyone besides Caty surrender for Lili? Would anyone besides Ellie lay down their life for Jason? Probably not. But for Jake? More than half the team would do something to save him. It was extremely dangerous for him. And Rae realized that. That's why she was leader.

"He's still a friend to most of you, but hasn't been hanging around us nearly as much as he did when we were dating. And not be conceited or anything, but the boyfriend of the Keeper is a big deal. When he broke up with me, he broke ties with the Keeper. That means he has a friendship with every guardian except the one who unites them all and is the source of their power. He's not nearly as important anymore. It's better this way, at least until we defeat Kasson and the guy in the prophecy. After that, assuming we're still alive, I can reassess the situation. If it seems safer, maybe I'll tell him then. Though considering the stories Hay Lin and your mom told us, I doubt it will be until new guardians are chosen."

James and Alyssa exchanged frowns. They've never thought about it that way before. More than ever they realized how lucky they were. James knew about all things GRACE. He was part of the team.

Josh walked up to the group. "Rae, want to dance?"

Rae actually smiled at this. As surprising as it was, it was no secret that Josh was a great dancer.

"Sure," she said, taking his hand.

"Us too!" Alyssa playfully demanded. James was only too happy to oblige.

It was seven minutes and two songs later when Chris tapped James on the shoulder and asked to cut in.

"Me too," Ellie said from her place behind Chris. She smiled at James.

"So because your boyfriend wants to dance with me, you get mine?" Alyssa asked teasingly.

"Well, duh!" Ellie replied, a silly expression on her face. Everyone laughed.

"Okay, but not too close," Alyssa warned since a slow song was on.

"Same goes for you," Ellie replied before she led James to a different part of the dance floor.

Chris moved a little closer to Alyssa, putting his hands on her waist. "Remember the last time we danced?"

"Eighth grade. The dinner dance that you _dragged_ me to," Alyssa replied with a smile.

"Oh, I dragged you, did I? If I recall, you weren't exactly kicking and screaming."

"But I didn't _want_ to go."

"But you still said yes."

That was true. Alyssa wasn't sure what possessed her to say yes. Of course Chris was a friend, and spending a night with him sounded fun, but the dinner dance did not. That was a school event, and gave the Sheffield student body more chances to torment her. She never went to any school sanctioned events (except the annual Art Show) because of her treatment. But she went to the dinner dance, and she ended up having a good time.

"So how are things with James?"

Alyssa bit her lip to keep from smiling wide and tried not to say "Wonderful" in a dreamy voice, because what guy wanted to hear that?

Instead, she calmed herself down and said, "Good. How are things with Ellie?"

"Good," Chris replied. "She's really something. And not the girl I thought I'd end up dating."

"You guys make a cute couple though."

"Thanks," Chris said, his hands tightening around Alyssa's waist as a glare settled on his face.

"Chris, ow!"

"Sorry," Chris said immediately, loosening up.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa turned around, looking in the direction of Chris's gaze and saw Cara and Carter dancing together.

"How on Earth did Saunders convince me _that_ would be a good idea?" Chris wondered aloud.

Jake convinced Chris that Carter was a good guy, and Cara really wanted to go to prom, and since Chris was going to be at prom as well, he could make sure Cara was okay, so what was really the harm? Of course Ellie was present for that conversation, got really excited and considering he was finding it harder and harder to disappoint her in anyway, he agreed with Jake and told Cara that if Carter wanted to take her to prom, he wouldn't say anything.

Carter asked her the next day. Chris had a feeling Ellie had texted him, telling him it was okay for him to ask Cara. He asked her by walking into her homeroom and handing her a stuffed monkey holding an index card saying 'Cara, will you go to prom with me?' Most of Cara's stuffed animals resided on shelves in her room since she had too many to sleep with them, but the monkey had a permanent place on her bed.

"Carter's a good guy. Remember, he dated Ellie once and she says he's the best boyfriend she ever had."

"You know exactly what to say to make me feel better don't you?" Chris asked dryly.

Alyssa blushed, remembering Chris probably didn't want to talk how awesome his girlfriend's ex was.

"He's got nothing on you though. Really."

Chris gave Alyssa a wry smile. They danced in silence for a while. Another slow song came on. Alyssa looked in the direction of James and Ellie. They were still dancing and talking animatedly. They probably hadn't even noticed the first song had ended, so Alyssa kept dancing with Chris. Anyway, she wanted James and Ellie to get closer. She wanted James to care about Ellie as much as he cared about Rae.

After a minute, Chris got angry again.

"Ow! Chris seriously, you're a hazard!" Alyssa cried.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Chris cried, letting Alyssa go. He slowly, gently, put his hands back on her waist while Alyssa looked for what made Chris angry this time.

She saw Adam standing in a corner, staring at Ellie. Jade was beside him, trying to have a conversation (or trying to get him to dance), but he was being very noncommittal.

"What a jerk! Why did he bring Jade if he was just going to ignore her all night?" Alyssa wondered out loud.

"Maybe so he'd have an excuse to come," Chris said darkly. Guys didn't go to junior prom stag. It wasn't important to them. Unless of course, they wanted to spy on their crush.

Alyssa knew exactly what Chris was thinking and had to smile. "Aww, you're _jealous_!" she cooed.

"Of course I am! Adam's liked Ellie since we were five. Remember how he used to buy everyone a regular old valentine for Valentine's Day but made Ellie a super special, huge card every year in elementary school?"

"Oh, with those _ridiculous_ poems!" Alyssa laughed. "I offered to help him write better poems, but he was determined to Valentine's Day stuff on his own."

"I keep going back to when Adam and Jade first starting dating and how mad and jealous she was. What if she likes him and she just doesn't know it?"

"I used to think that maybe she did have a crush on him, subconsciously, but if she ever did, it's gone now. She's _crazy_ about you. You're all she talks about."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. I'm getting pretty sick of you being the topic of all our conversations," Alyssa said teasingly.

"Sorry," Chris said with a smile.

"You should be," Alyssa laughed. "But seriously though, you have nothing to worry about with her."

Chris gave her a relieved smile.

Alyssa grew serious. "Does she have anything to worry about with you?"

"No, absolutely not," Chris said.

"Good. Because you know how protective I am of Rae, right? Well, I'm just as protective of Ellie. Maybe more so. Rae's a lot tougher than Ellie."

"Ellie's stronger than you think. And I'd never hurt her. I like her so much."

Alyssa smiled at Chris, but it was strained. Of course she was happy Chris was treating her best friend well, but she felt a little twinge of annoyance when he said he liked her. She tried to ignore it as Chris continued to stare at Adam with a glare on his face.

"Chris, there's cute jealous, and then there's creepy jealous."

"It's not just jealousy Lyssa. It's also anger."

"Anger?"

"At him for walking away from her. How could he do that? Ellie misses him so much. At first, all our conversations were about him, and she's stopped talking about it, but that doesn't mean she stopped missing him.

Alyssa nodded. She knew from experience that there was only so much you could talk about a topic before it gets boring for everyone. She did the same thing with the James-Princeton topic. She had finally stopped talking about it after two months, and had to rehash it less than two days later because James had gotten into Princeton. She knew Ellie probably sensed Chris was growing bored of the Adam topic, though he'd never say it the way Rae, Caty, Gabi, and Ellie did when Alyssa beat the topic of James going to Princeton to death.

"Yeah, that was a pretty terrible thing to do. But it's not like we don't know Adam is that kind of person," Alyssa said, referring to him abandoning her.

Chris frowned. "You know how mad I am at him for that, but you guys were only friends for a little over five years when he cut off ties with you. And he did that _for_ Ellie. And now he abandons her?"

Alyssa frowned as well. He was so quick to come to Alyssa's defense before. But now it sounded like he was saying Adam abandoning Ellie was worse than him abandoning Alyssa, and technically, it was, but how could he say that? However, it was clear Chris needed to vent, so she didn't interrupt.

"I mean, think about it this way. He and Ellie were friends for 11 years. Caty and Misha were only friends for six. Misha did a horrible thing to Caty, but they're still friends. Why? Because you can't just let go of a friend that was a part of your life for that long. Though, I guess it wasn't too hard for Adam."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying...I understand why Ellie misses Adam. My best friend is Max, and if he and I ended our friendship, I'd miss him too. But what use does she have for someone who'll abandon her?"

Alyssa was surprised to say the least at Chris's words. "You think they shouldn't be friends again?"

"No, I don't. But I also know Ellie needs him, so if they make up, I'm not going to stand in the way. This is just my opinion."

"Wow," Alyssa said. She wanted Ellie to be happy, and that meant getting her best friend back. But in the back of her mind, Alyssa agreed with Chris. Adam walked out on her, and six years later, he turned his back on Ellie, the girl he supposedly loved. What kind of person did that make him? Probably not one Ellie needed in her life.

The song ended, and Alyssa, missing James, led Chris over to where James and Ellie had basically stopped moving and were just talking and laughing.

"I'm pretty sure it's hazard to stay still on a dance floor," Alyssa joked.

"Then we should fix that," James replied, grabbing his girlfriend and dipping her deeply.

Alyssa let out a delighted shriek and laughed. Ellie and Chris wordlessly grabbed each other's hands and moved away to resume dancing themselves. It may have been awkward prom for some members of their group, but for Alyssa, James, Ellie, and Chris, it was the perfect evening.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Tony probably wanted to impress Caty, which was sweet, but the way he kept spinning and dipping Caty as they danced was making her feel sort of light headed and a little dizzy. After two slow songs in a row in which he calmed down, another fast song came on. Caty was a little worried Tony would go crazy again, and she had kind of a bad headache, so she used it as an excuse and asked Tony if they could just sit down.

He led her over to the chairs and they talked a little, catching up. Caty realized how long it had been since she and Tony had a real conversation. Not since her birthday. She felt bad about that. She was always so happy with the fact that she and Tony managed to keep the close friendship they had even after they dated and broke up. But she realized that friendship was fading. She basically ignored him. She promised herself she'd rectify this. She didn't like him as much as he liked her, but she was determined not to lose his friendship.

"You hungry?" Tony asked almost an hour later.

"No, but I could use a drink," Caty admitted. Her headache had just gotten worse. She told Tony this every time he asked her to dance.

"I'll go grab us some punch."

"Actually, do you think you could get me some water instead? I think that'll be better for me."

"Sure," Tony said. "No problem." He gave her dazzling smile that made her blush, more out of nervousness than being charmed, and walked towards the refreshments table.

Two figures approached her. Brian and Sheila. Holding hands.

"Oh, uh, hey," Caty said lamely.

"Hi Caty. Aren't you having a wonderful time?" Sheila trilled triumphantly. "I know _we_ are. Brian is just _so_ sweet. Oh, but where's your date? Did he ditch you already?"

"He's just getting us drinks," Caty replied.

The song Stressed Out started to play. It wasn't really a dance song, and it looked like many of the students weren't sure whether this counted as a fast song or if they should slow dance to it, so they tried to do a mix. As confusing as it was, the song still made Caty blush.

Brian looked her dead in the eye when he and Sheila first walked over, but now he was looked anywhere else. He remembered! This song was a mutual favorite of theirs, one they never made fun of. They pretty much declared it their song, and were supposed to request it and dance to it tonight.

"Well isn't that nice of him? Want to know the sweet thing Brian did for me?"

'Not particularly,' Caty thought.

She wasn't sure how to reply when she realized that Sheila should be giving her a nasty smirk, but was looking over her shoulder. Caty turned her head and followed her gaze and saw Ralph standing in a corner, sulking. He looked pretty good in the suit he was wearing.

Sheila looked almost wistful. Caty remembered Ralph saying he wanted to ask Sheila to prom. Maybe she wanted him to ask her too?

"You should go ask him to dance," Caty said, hardly believing that she was saying something to _help_ her enemy. "Ralph I mean. He'll say yes."

"You think?"

Confidence was Sheila's best and most prevalent quality. She was nothing if not confident. It's what made her act so high and mighty all the time, and it's what made her high and mighty act better than Caty's. Her confidence made her the opposite of the water/Earth/air guardian. But for the first time, Caty saw insecurity in Sheila's blue eyes.

"Yeah. I don't think I'm supposed to tell you this, so if it comes up, you didn't hear it from me, but he wanted to be the one to ask you to prom. I guess Brian just beat him to it."

Sheila looked positively giddy as she let go of Brian's hand, and started walking towards Ralph. She stopped, walked back, and said, "Thanks Caty. You look great by the way."

Caty was surprised at how genuine Sheila was, but smiled and said. "Thanks. So do you."

Sheila smiled back and left. Caty hadn't realized it til now, but helping Sheila also got her away from Brian. Brian didn't look too happy though.

"Well thanks a lot for chasing away my date. You don't see me doing that to Tony."

"I didn't do it on purpose. Ralph likes Sheila, and it seemed like she likes him too."

"Let me guess. That's the first genuinely kind thing you ever did in your life, right? Or was there some ulterior motive to this act too?"

Caty cringed. The words hurt, but she deserved them. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how terrible what she did was. She played and betrayed a sweet boy who loved her and just wanted to make her happy. How could she have been so horrible?

Caty craned her neck to see where Tony was. There was a crowd at the refreshments table, so it made sense he was getting a little held up. She couldn't even see him.

Her feet began to hurt, so she pulled off her pumps like many others already had. She couldn't understand why Gabi insisted on her wearing these shoes when she'd already told Caty that she wouldn't be wearing them for long.

Tony made his way back over with orange colored punch for himself and water for her.

"Thanks," she said gratefully, taking a sip. She winced, hoping Tony didn't notice. The water was ice cold, which only made her head hurt worse.

"Is your head okay?" Tony asked.

"No, even worse than when you left," Caty moaned. Her headache kept getting worse and worse.

Tony patted her arm sympathetically, then looked up, noticing Brian for the first time.

"Uh, hey," he said.

Brian nodded in acknowledgement. Nodding was not a very Brian move, but he never liked Tony, even before he liked Caty.

"Where did your date go?" Tony asked.

"She's with Ralph."

"Oh." Tony didn't seem to know what else to say.

Brian was quiet for a few seconds before looking at Caty and saying, "You want to dance?"

Caty looked up, surprised. He wanted to dance with her? But why? Didn't he hate her? He'd just said something nasty a minute ago. But Caty couldn't resist. She told Tony her head hurt worse, which it did, and that's why she didn't want to dance, which it was, but still she said, "Sure, I'd love-I mean, yeah."

Brian offered Caty his hand. She handed her water to Tony without even thinking about how accepting Brian's invitation would affect him, grabbed Brian's hand and let him lead her to dance floor. To their embarrassment, Stressed Out ended just as they were ready to start moving, and another slow song came on.

"Don't you love this song?" Brian asked as they both blushed.

Caty nodded. It was Only Hope by Mandy Moore, the song Brian tried to serenade her with. They moved closer together.

For a moment, they didn't speak. They just danced. Then Brian cleared his throat and Caty braced herself for a biting remark or an impossible to answer question. He didn't disappoint.

"I just want to know why."

"Why what?"

"Why did you play me? It couldn't have just been because of the recommendation, could it?"

"It _was_ though. I didn't really want anything else. I wanted Ms. Mandel to recommend me, and I wanted a good character eval."

"And…?"

"And…" Was there more? Wait, yes! Caty bit her lip nervously. "And I was thinking, before I started to like you, that maybe I'd write you a...not a _bad_ eval, but a not so great one anyway."

Brian's eyes filled with hurt, making Caty want to cry.

"But it was only because I wanted this internship so much. It was going to help my future career. But you just wanted it because it would look good on college applications, right?"

Brian sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I didn't want it as much you. But it wasn't just for college. It was for you. I wanted to compete with you. I mean, we compete at everything, but this was so specific. It would be just the two of us. I know you're competitive, but I thought it could be something we could bond over. Something that would get your attention. I worked so hard Caty. I tried everything to get you to notice me, and when you finally did, I was happier than ever before, and then I found out…" he trailed off.

"I'm _so_ sorry. And I know no apology can ever be enough, and I know what I did was horrible, and you have every right to hate me, but can you really blame me after everything?"

Brian looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you were terrible to me all my life. You tormented me, hurt me, destroyed my projects, lowered my chances for things, tried to poison me, tried to make me break my leg, stole things from me, tried to get me in huge trouble, and even once locked me in a bathroom so I couldn't play soccer. I kept justifying it to myself by reminding myself of all the horrible things you did to me."

"So you broke my heart?"

"I know it doesn't seem right because you didn't always succeed, but how do you think I would've felt if I couldn't take the IB test because you sent me to the hospital or couldn't play one of the most important soccer games of the season because you locked me in the bathroom? We were _competitors_ Brian, not _mortal enemies_. But the way you acted, you'd never know that. And through all of that, I never retaliated. This felt like my chance."

Brian considered this. "I don't think I could ever _forgive _you for this. But I do sort of see where you're coming from."

Caty wasn't sure whether to feel happy or sad about that. He understood, but he didn't forgive her. What did that mean exactly? Where did that leave them? Should she just ask?

Caty didn't see any other option, so she geared up to ask Brian what their status was when her headache suddenly got way worse.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Meanwhile, Gabi was laughing her head off as Jake twirled her around.

"You know what? I'm really glad I said yes to you. I'm having a great time," Gabi said honestly. Seeing Josh with Rae wasn't the best thing in the world, but she also knew neither had real feelings for each other, and Josh did like Gabi, so it was easier than she expected.

"Good. Because I'm having a great time too," Jake replied with a smile.

Josh came up behind Jake, Rae by his side.

"May I cut in?" he asked formally.

Jake frowned, not knowing what Gabi would want. "Uh…"

Josh turned to Gabi and held out his hand, a hopeful smile on his face, and even though she was supposed to be mad at him, Gabi nearly melted. She looked at Jake, making sure he wouldn't mind. He put his hands up in a surrender motion and took a couple steps back. Gabi took Josh's hand and he led her away.

Jake and Rae looked at each other for a moment before Jake rushed off to grab a drink and Rae went to join James and Alyssa at the other end of the gym.

Gabi rolled her eyes at the pair as she and Josh staked out a space on the dance floor. The song Only Hope started playing and Gabi smiled as she and Josh moved closer.

"I'm sorry I asked Rae to prom," Josh blurted out immediately. "That was a really stupid move. I was pissed that you were going with Jake and wanted to piss you off too."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out. Why are you so threatened by Jake?"

"Because he the one guy who could take you away from me. The only guy you ever loved."

Gabi was blushing. She never expected Josh to be insecure. "Yes, _loved_. In past tense. Because now, I'm all about you and only you."

"And I should've known that."

"It's okay. We both got jealous. I didn't like Kelli asking you out and you didn't like Jake asking me to prom."

"Difference being, you got back at Kelli by kicking off the cheerleaders. Do I get to get back at Jake?"

"By doing what exactly?"

"My mom was just as mean to people as you used to be. I can take a page from her book to run him out of school."

Gabi laughed. "Right. You let me know how that works out for you."

"You don't think I'll do it?"

"I don't think you'll _succeed_."

Josh was about to protest, but then thought better of it. "Yeah, that's probably a safe bet."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty moaned and sank down to the ground. "Ow," she whimpered.

"Caty?" Brian asked uncertainly.

Caty let out a yell of pain, but thanks to the music, only people around her could hear it. Some people looked concerned, but no one did anything.

"Caty! What's wrong?" Brian asked, kneeling in front of her. If Caty was feeling better, a little thrill would've gone through her because Brian looked genuinely concerned, but she was in too much pain to care, or even take notice.

"Hurts," she whimpered.

"What hurts?"

"Head," was all she could say.

In the next second, Tony was by her side. "What's wrong with her?" he asked.

"She said her head hurts. I think she has a pretty bad migraine," Brian replied.

"Yeah, she mentioned she had a headache. She shouldn't have danced with you," Tony growled.

"You were the one twirling her around and going crazy. Maybe that's what caused it on the first place!"

'Are they really doing this now?' Caty thought as another moan escaped her lips.

"Where are her friends? They might know what to do. I have a feeling this isn't the first time she's had this kind of headache, or else she'd be freaking out," Brian reasoned.

'I'm freaking out on the inside,' Caty thought.

Tony looked up and caught Nina's eye. She started to smile at him, but noticed Caty on the ground. She grabbed Misha's arm and dragged her over.

"Caty, oh my God!" Misha cried.

"Are you okay? What's going on?" Nina asked.

Caty had a pretty good idea of what was happening. "Switch," she managed to croak out, hoping her friends would get it. They didn't disappoint.

Caty kept her friends well informed and updated. They not only knew about the power switch, but about the draining of the Heart of Kandrakar, and the headaches the girls got before their powers switched again.

Sure enough, as they looked around, they saw the other guardians were also down on their knees. This was bad.

"Thank you boys, but we've got it from here," Nina said.

"But what's wrong? This seems worse than a run of the mill headache," Brian said.

"We don't have time to explain. Just...help us get her up."

Tony and Brian picked Caty up off the ground. Nina and Misha draped their arms around her and led her out of the gym, motioning for the other members of Team GRACE to follow them.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"El," Chris laughed as they danced, "you're staring at me."

Ellie blushed. "Sorry. It's just...you look_ amazing_."

"Had to match up to you," Chris replied, making Ellie blush deeper.

Ellie was about to reply when she felt a sharp pain in her head. She let go of Chris's hand and clutched her head.

"Is your headache worse?" Chris asked worriedly.

Ellie nodded, unable to speak. She sank down to the ground, crying out.

"Ellie! Talk to me, what's wrong?" Chris asked, panic lacing his voice as he sat down in front of her.

Ellie grabbed his hand and squeezed. They both realized at the same time what was happening. Ellie only felt this kind of headache once before and Chris knew what it meant when she gripped his hand the way she did.

Through her pain, Ellie tried to use her enhanced hearing to zero in on the other guardians and make sure she was right.

_"Are you okay? What's going on?" Nina asked, next to Caty on the dance floor._

_ "Switch," Caty croaked._

_"Lyssa, what's wrong?" James asked as Alyssa dropped the drink she was holding and fell to her knees in the corner of the gym they'd been hanging out at. Rae and Jake were with them, and Rae dropped to her knees as well._

_ "My head," Alyssa whimpered. "I think our powers…"_

_"Gabs, is it the power switch headache?" Josh asked, also on the dance floor. _

_ Gabi began to cry from the pain._

_ "Yeah. I can't handle it. I can't, I can't!" she sobbed._

_"Rae!" Jake cried in concern, her name feeling foreign on his lips._

_ "I think our powers…" Alyssa was saying, but trailed off from the pain._

_ "Powers?" Jake asked, confused. Rae cried out and he focused on his ex-girlfriend. _

_"What can I do? Let me help!" he begged._

Ellie stopped, the effort taking too much of a toll on her. Like Gabi, she was crying.

Chris saw Nina and Misha helping Caty out of the gym. Chris helped Ellie up and let her crush his hand as he followed them. James and Alyssa as well as Josh and Gabi were right behind them. Cara and Sage had thankfully noticed what was going on and followed them with Rae after making up what was surely a lackluster, dissatisfying excuse to Jake about what was going on.

Walking through the hallways, the girls were all crying and screaming, though they managed to cover their mouths so no one would hear them. By the time they got to the parking lot however, their cries died down and they were calmer. They group stayed in the parking for twenty minutes while the girls relaxed and caught their breath. When they finally agreed they were okay, Nina suggested they try to find out which element they had now.

GRACE was reluctant at first, expecting the worst. What if they found out they had the opposite elements? But Rae pointed out they had to do it sometime and it was better to know now than later, and there were still other combinations they could get than the opposite one, so they tested it out.

This time, Caty got quintessence, Rae got fire, Alyssa got Earth, Gabi got air, and Ellie wound up with water.

"Two weeks," Caty declared after the girls tested their powers.

"Two weeks what?" Chris asked.

"Til we switch powers again," Alyssa said. "We switched in the beginning of May, then again two weeks later, and now it's the beginning of June, and two weeks since last time. If this trend sticks, we have two weeks until we switch again."

"Two weeks," James said gravelly, taking Alyssa's hand, "until you go through that torture again."

"I got a whole bunch of books from Cornelia and Caleb's house as well as the libraries in Meridian and Kandrakar," Sage said. "I even snuck into the palace library and grabbed some books."

"Sage, are you aware of how crazy dangerous that is?" Josh cried. "Never ever do that again!"

"But-"

"_Ever! _Promise me."

"I promise," Sage said quickly. "But anyway, the point is, all the books I got are in the basement and they haven't been opened yet. What if we look through them all tonight? That's why I got them. So that we could figure this out. Otherwise, your next switch could be your last."

Ellie bit her lip and Caty looked frightened, but everyone else had a newfound sense of resolve as they agreed.

"It could take a while. I've seen the pile of books. You guys should all just sleepover," Chris said.

"I'll get Harley to pick us up," Rae said. "He can drop us off at our houses so we can grab overnight stuff and tell our parents."

Everyone nodded. Rae made the call.

"Okay, so I know this is really last minute, but try your best to convince your parents to let you sleepover. Lyssa, you can tell your mom the truth. Sage, don't mention anything to my mom because she still doesn't know anything about this power switch thing."

Sage and Alyssa nodded.

"Should we come too?" Nina asked timidly.

"Do you want to?" Caty asked hopefully.

"Of course we do Caty! This could potentially _kill_ you. We want to help," Misha insisted.

Caty smiled. "Okay. Well let me go inside and tell Tony I'm okay."

"I'll come. I should tell Sam I'm leaving," Sage added.

"You don't have to Sage. You can stay if you want," Rae said.

"No, I want to go with you guys," Sage insisted as she followed Caty back inside.

Sage headed to Sam instantly while Caty went towards Tony, who, to her surprise, was still with Brian. At least twenty minutes had passed since Nina and Misha practically dragged Caty out of the gym. Why were they still talking?

"Tony?" Caty asked.

Both boys turned their head and looked immensely relived. Caty looked a little worse for wear, but okay.

"Caty! Are you alright?" Tony asked.

"What happened?" Brian added.

"Oh, um, I'm fine Tony. And it was like you said Brian, migraine."

Both boys regarded her with suspicious looks.

"No simple migraine can do all that damage," Brian said. "Something else is going on."

"Does this have to do with the secret you're hiding?" Tony asked.

"Secret?" Caty squeaked.

"You know, the one that's got Jake on edge. The one that he's mad at you, Alyssa Ashcroft, and James for keeping? The one that made him break up with Rae Dylan?"

Caty inwardly cringed. Tony was so smart that it was easy to forget he was a jock, and good friends with Jake. Of course Jake would vent to Tony.

"What other secret are you keeping? And how could you possibly keep a second secret with the one about me so big?" Brian asked, his eyes hard.

"Um…"

"Brian told me about what you did," Tony said. "Actually, he yelled at me about it. He assumed I knew."

Caty blushed under their gazes, Brian's angry, and Tony's disappointed.

Before she could say anything though, Lili interrupted. For the first time, Caty was so glad Lili never read a situation before she entered it.

"Caty, omigod!" she cried, looking bewildered.

"Lili!"

"Are you okay? Sage just told me what happened!" Lili cried. By the way she was looking at Caty, Sage had clearly told her what kind of headache it was. Caty was keeping Lili well informed and updated as well.

Caty, in a sudden burst of emotion and affection, hugged her cousin.

"I was so scared," she whispered.

"I know," Lili said gently. "But we're going to figure this out."

Caty pulled back and looked at Lili questioningly.

"Sage told me what you guys are doing tonight," Lili said in a low voice. "I'm coming too, of course!"

Caty gave her a smile and another hug before turning back to the boys, both of who were regarding her with suspicion again, clearly picking up on the fact that Lili was in on whatever secret Caty was hiding.

"I have to go," Caty said, unable to go through trying to think of a suitable excuse to appease Brian and Tony.

She saw Sage hurrying out. Sam was talking to a few of his friends. He didn't look too upset, so she probably gave him a good excuse. Lili and Caty made their way out. With Caty's luck, she should've known they'd get stopped.

"Caty!" Jake cried when he saw her. "I saw you…uh, go down I guess? Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine now."

"What about uh...everyone else?"

"They're all okay too. And yes that includes Rae."

Jake went red. "I was worried about all of them," he protested. "And you."

"I know. But mostly Rae. It's okay. It's to be expected actually."

Jake went a little redder and smiled wryly. "I miss her."

"She misses you too. But that's all I'm going to say about the topic. I am _not_ getting in the middle of this. And it's not like you don't have Alyssa whispering in your ear anyway."

Jake laughed. "Fair enough. And yes, I do. So...what happened?"

"Migraine."

"_All_ of you?"

Caty realized that didn't make much sense. "Rae's mom tried out a new cookie recipe. We all had one, so it must be from that."

Jake frowned. "You're blushing Caty, which means you're lying."

"Uh…"

"This goes back to The Basement Gang secret, doesn't it?"

"Hey Golden Boy, in case you forgot, my cousin was in so much pain she almost exploded, so maybe you want to get out of our way?" Lili burst out.

Jake looked surprised. Lili was in Gabi's group, but she and Jake never directly interacted like he had with most to her cheerleaders. She had only started Sheffield that year. He didn't know her too well. He stepped aside, defeated. Lili smirked.

"Thanks," Caty said as she and Lili joined the others. She quickly explained why it had taken her so long and that Lili was going along with them. She was planning on sleeping over at Caty's house that night anyway, so her overnight stuff was already there.

"This is good," Rae said. "With all thirteen of us, we should be able to figure out how to fix this in no time."

Everyone agreed except Ellie. She didn't want to mention it, but her superstitious side was screaming that thirteen was an unlucky number.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: That was a drama infused prom! The next chapter will be sort of the aftermath of the headaches, and something that I think a lot of you will like, so please click that delightful little 'Next' button below and keep reading!**


	49. The Assembly

**A/N: Okay, next batch of shout-outs, and then more of the story! This was one of my favorite chapters to write, and I think it'll turn out to be a lot of your favorite chapters to read, so enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**caramelcookie: What Caty did was terrible. The fact that people hope they get back together means I did a really good job of making them a likable couple, so I'm happy about that. As you said, Alyssa is his first love. Those feelings don't just go away. That doesn't necessarily mean he isn't into Ellie. They've only been going out officially for a couple of months. And anyway, you can pretty much see he's in love with the Alyssa he used to know, the pre-James Alyssa. And James is great for knowing how Chris used to feel about his girlfriend, but still trying to get them to be friends again, because a lot of other guys would just leave it alone, thinking it would be better if their girlfriend was fighting with a guy who could possibly like her. The whole 'cheerleaders for a day' idea came out of nowhere, but I had a lot of fun writing that, and the scene in the beginning with James, Jake, and Alyssa. There will be more power switch stuff in this chapter. I personally believe Jake had every right to break up with Rae. He asked her time and time again what was going on. He gave her every opportunity to come clean, and when he found out the first time, she erased his memories. But there will be a fix for that soon. Gabi and Rae won't be getting along much in this chapter. I don't think they'll ever be friends, or even ****_really_**** get along, but they know how to work together when they need to. They don't even have real reasons to not like each other, but some people just can't seem to get along. Anyway, thank you for reading and leaving a review even though you were busy. I hope you like these chapters!**

**SilvenArrow: No, it's not weird at all, it makes sense for you to PM me with all the stuff you wanted to talk about, and it doesn't make sense for you to do both. And you're not as late as you thought, as you can see. I waited a couple of days anyway. I answered everything in your PM, so I'd just like to say thank you for reading, taking the time to PM me, and I hope you enjoy.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

The weekend went by in the blur. Nothing came of their research. They hadn't gone through all of the books, but everyone, even Rae and Alyssa, had enough of reading for a while.

Guardian training wasn't going very well either. Every two weeks, they needed to start over with a new power. On Saturday, they worked on their other powers instead. Alyssa lost the ability to shoot heatwaves, and Caty could no longer create ice, but they could both still manipulate the temperature, and Ellie could still manipulate sound.

They also found out they could still see visions through their original elements rather than their new ones. Alyssa saw a vision of the answers to the ten "extra hard" questions Mr. Kelvin planned to put on the honors biology final (and nearly cried because she counted it as cheating) in the fire Rae accidentally set off in the dumpster. Caty saw Misha getting asked out by her longtime crush Henry Hapstall in a puddle Ellie was trying to turn to ice, and Gabi saw herself kissing Josh on her bed in the ground. She turned very red and didn't tell anyone.

Rae was having more fun than everyone else. When they first switched powers, Hay Lin started training Rae on how to sense magic, which was within her abilities as Keeper. She was able to sense magical activity, abilities, and beings. With practice, she would be able to tell exactly where a portal is, what abilities a magical creature possessed, and pinpoint the exact location of any human or monster with magic, even if they were in a different world. She was getting pretty good at it, but none of the other guardian were pleased with their powers.

Sunday brought about some trouble. Daniel ordered Gabi to take Eva to Little Mistakes, the new candy store that opened next to Down the Rabbit Hole. Gabi didn't want to at first. Eva hadn't called Gabi and witch again since the night she fought off Hope and Riley, Gabi hadn't called Eva a "she-devil," and the girls weren't outright rude to each other, but they weren't friends either. But then Alyssa said she'd go with her (she wanted to hang out with Rae, Ronnie, and Brooke at Down the Rabbit Hole anyway), so Gabi grudgingly agreed.

When Rae, Alyssa, and Gabi decided to cut through an alley despite Eva's protests that she was scared, the last thing they expected was a portal to open up. However, they all heard the familiar sound and the Heart began to vibrate violently.

"Oh my God!" Eva cried shrilly as Gabi stepped in front of her protectively. "It's happening again! It's that door to a different world!"

"Gabi, get Eva _out_ of here," Alyssa said. "Let us take care of this!"

Gabi nodded, grabbed Eva's hand, and ran ahead as she heard Rae shout, "Guardians, unite!"

"Fire!"

"Quintessence!"

"More fairies?" Eva asked, trying to stop and turn around.

"Keep moving!" Gabi cried, dragging her along. "And no, _not_ fairies."

"Sorry," Eva sighed as they entered the candy store. "I just didn't know John's sister was a fa-uh, superhero, too."

John's sister?

"You know John Ashcroft?" Gabi asked, before realizing Luc and John were the same age, meaning that they were both in fifth grade. The fifth graders and third graders had recess and lunch together. Still, Gabi didn't know Eva knew any fifth graders.

"Uh, yeah, I know him," Eva replied, but didn't say anything else. She looked down at her shoes, but not before Gabi noticed her cheeks tinged pink.

Gabi held back a gasp. Eva had a crush on John? Alyssa had once mentioned in passing how she and Gabi would stay in touch if John and Eva got married, but no one thought they knew each other.

"You _like_ John Ashcroft?"

"No!"

"It's okay. I bet he's cool. I mean, I like Alyssa even though she's rule obsessed and loves to read, and I know John is nothing like that, so he must be cool. I heard he plays bass like his father. Did you know his father was in Wreck 55?"

"John mentioned that. I'm not even sure what that means."

Gabi bit back a laugh. "Wreck 55 is a band. I guess they were before your time. I mean, honestly they were before my time too, but they're like The Beatles...timeless. Maybe you'll get into them when you're older."

"If I listen to them now, do you think that'll give John and I something to talk about?" Eva ventured.

"Maybe. From Alyssa, I know John likes Spiderman, all kinds of music, and soccer. You guys could talk about that."

"I don't like soccer, I don't know as much music as him, and Spiderman is lame."

"Okay...well, he also likes art, like his sister, and Full House."

Eva brightened at that. Art was her favorite subject, and whenever she wasn't watching TV or doing her homework, she was painting or drawing. Michael got Eva a Full House Box Set for Christmas because no one had any idea what she liked, and though she'd never admit it, she ended up loving the show, just like Michael, Gabi, and Luc did.

"_Gabi, are you guys okay_?" Alyssa asked.

"_Yeah, we're fine. What about you?_"

"_We're good. We're still choppy with our powers since we just got them, but there was only one monster. We killed it and closed the portal. I doubt it was after Eva. If Kasson sent his two magical kids after her the first time, he'd send someone equally, if not more, powerful if he wants to try to get her again._"

Gabi frowned at that. She could barely defeat Hope without help from Rae, and that when they both still had their original element. How was she supposed to deal with someone _more_ powerful with her new element?

"_Well, what _was _it after? What kind of monster was it?_"

"_It was one of those green monsters that attacked Lyssa and James at Lange's, and attacked us all at Lyssa's house. One guess who he was after. He probably had back up, but I closed the portal before any more could get through," _Rae replied.

"_Good. With all this power switch stuff going on, we can't afford to get into any fire fights right now."_

_"__Agreed," _Alyssa and Rae said in unison before the African American broke the link.

That night, Sage found a way to reverse the drainage of the Heart, but only temporarily.

"It's a spell that will give you guys back your original powers for about a week. I can do this spell three times before it becomes obsolete. So, if we can find a solution in three weeks, everything should work out. Oh, and you can't use your elemental powers in human form, but at least it's something."

Sage used to the spell, and although it worked, it was not without it's own side effects. It caused the girls to have dizzy spells and balance issues for about an hour before they were able to safely use their original powers.

Other than those little incidents however, the weekend passed without a hitch, which was good after the scare at prom. Monday was another story.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Monday morning, Misha and Nina passed time in the Mock Trial room by trying to guess what vision Caty saw in the water because Gabi thought it would be funny to let it slip to the two girls that Caty saw something "_very_ interesting" at training.

Caty knew telling Misha about the kiss would be one of those 'don't mess with the future' things. She also knew she was a terrible liar, so she kept hoping for a distraction before either of them got close to the truth.

When she got her distraction however, she knew she should've been more careful what she wished for. At first, it was okay. It was Nick and Will, who cracked jokes, some that made Caty laugh, and others that made her glare because they were made at her expense. But then Brian and Tony walked over to where the group was sitting...together. There was only one reason why those two would be together.

"Morning Caty," Tony started.

"Good morning Tony. Good morning Brian," Caty responded coolly.

Tony had texted her all weekend, asking if she was alright. Each of those texts were accompanied by another asking a question she couldn't answer, like why did five girls get the same headache at the same time, why was it so bad, why did Caty start hanging out with all these new people she'd never shown the slightest interest in before? Since she wasn't able to answer those questions, she couldn't respond to Tony's texts.

Travis was behind Brian and Tony. He glared at Caty. He still hated her. After prom however, she was pretty sure Brian didn't.

Brian had also texted her a couple times over the weekend. Saturday, he asked if she was doing better. She replied that she was and they actually had a real conversation for an hour after, something they hadn't had since they broke up. Sunday he texted her again, saying they needed to talk. Caty was afraid Brian was going to ask the same kind of questions Tony was, so she ignored that text. She'd also ignored Jake the same way, who'd not only texted her, but also Alyssa, James, Ellie, and Gabi to try and find out what was going on.

He even texted Rae once, but her question was dialed down a bit (it was 'I'm not crazy for thinking five girls getting headaches at the same time is not a coincidence right) and started with an 'Are you alright? I was so worried about you last night.' Rae wanted to respond to assure him she was fine, but couldn't do that without answering his other question.

Nick and Will were staring, looking from Brian to Tony to Brian again, confused. Those two didn't like each other. Tony was a jock, and the only other times he was in this classroom was to give Caty her present on her birthday, and to ask her to prom. And Brian was supposed to hate Caty. So what had changed? Neither of them had been at prom. Travis hadn't either. She supposed none of the boys had any idea what had transpired.

"Are you doing alright?" Tony asked.

"She already told me she's doing fine," Brian said rudely.

"Why didn't you answer my texts all weekend? You answered his," Tony said, jerking his thumb toward Brian.

"Not all of them. I said we should talk and you totally ignored me. I wanted to ask you what was going on."

"Something I would like to know as well," Tony said.

Brian glared at him, as if that wasn't what he was going to say at all, but Caty barely registered it.

Caty groaned and put her head down.

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked.

"You didn't hear what happened at prom?" Brian asked. "Caty and some of her new friends were on the brink of death."

"What?!" Will and Travis cried together.

When Caty looked up, all the boys' eyes were on her, and they all, even Travis, looked concerned.

"It wasn't death. It was a headache," Caty snapped.

"It was more than just a headache," Brian argued. "She was screaming and crying, like she was going to die. Or explode."

"_And_ she's not mentioning the most important part," Tony put in. "That Alyssa Ashcroft, Gabi Shay, Rae Dylan, and Ellie Kramer all had the same exact, uh, _near death, _headaches she did."

"All at the same time. Like they were on drugs or something," Brian said.

"That's what it was! We were on drugs!" Caty cried.

"Nobody believes that Caty," Brian said.

Caty looked at Nina and Misha helplessly.

"Jake says you've been ignoring his texts all weekend too. He says all of you have," Tony added.

Caty cringed. "Jake needs to mind his own business," she said.

"Why are you hanging with all those new people anyway Caty?" Travis asked, his voice gentle for the first time since the breakup. "I heard all different reasons. Self-defense, something about cheerleading, a tutor circle, whatever that is."

"It _is_ tutor circle," Nina piped up. "Misha and I have seen it."

"Yeah. They all teach each other different subjects," Misha added.

Hearing it out loud, Caty finally realized why no one ever bought the tutor circle story. It was so _stupid_.

"What would _you_ need tutoring in?" Nick asked dubiously.

"Um...pre-calc?" Caty said, and felt herself blush.

"You're blushing, which means you're lying," Brian said. "Besides, you've beaten me in every pre-calc quiz or test or assignment we've had except that one in the beginning of the year, which means you'd have to be getting tutored on stuff you already know, which you wouldn't do, because that's waste of time."

"Plus, I know you were getting tutored in the beginning of the year," Tony added. "By Adam White, who isn't part of this group."

"I heard Adam ended his friendship with Ellie Kramer because she wouldn't tell him what she was doing with her new friends either," Nick said.

"I think that's the same reason Jake Saunders broke up with Rae Dylan," Will put in quietly.

He wasn't much for gossip like his best friend was, so Caty figured he only said it for Nick's benefit, but it made her situation worse.

"That's right," Tony said. "He said she'd been hiding this secret since they met, which was on the first day of school. He wanted to tell her he loved her, but he wanted to know this secret first and she refused to tell him, and he couldn't be in that kind of relationship."

"Shut _up_, all of you!" Caty cried, jumping out of her seat.

Some of the other kids turned to look at Caty, but she glared them into turning back around.

"I feel like I'm being attacked, but I did nothing wrong. I had a _headache._ And you two!" She looked specifically at Brian and Tony. "If you guys really believe that my headache was so traumatic and near death like, then why the hell are you interrogating me? God!"

She grabbed her stuff and stalked out of the room, not really seeing the problem in being early for her first class if it could get her away from all those boys.

"Caty, wait!" she heard a voice call.

Of course someone had followed her! But her annoyance waned when she saw it was Brian. Everything seemed better when Brian was involved, even if it was an interrogation.

"I'm sorry we pressured you in there. It's just...it's so apparent that you're hiding something big. I knew it when we were dating, but I figured you'd tell me when you were ready. I mean, we weren't even in love yet when I first realized you had a secret. And I know Nina and Misha didn't know either. You guys got in a fight about it, and that's why Misha told me about your plan, isn't it?"

Caty bit her lip and nodded. She looked down at the ground.

"But now they know?"

Caty nodded again, still not looking at him.

"Lili knows too. I'm wondering what kind of secret it would be that you'd tell your annoying cousin before you'd tell your best friends. Family has always been important to me, but I know between Lili becoming friends with Gabi and your parents having Rin, you leaned on your friends more. So why would you tell Lili first?"

"She found out," Caty said. "That's the only way we tell people. If they find out."

And even that wasn't completely true. Jake found out, but they erased his memory. Eva found out, and they tried to erase hers too, though it didn't take. Gavin found out and _wanted _to forget. Ellie's mother and uncle _had_ to forget. They _told_ Irma and Joel, although considering Irma was a former guardian and Joel was on the team, they almost had a right to know.

"That's going to ruin all your relationships."

"What does it matter? I have my two best friends, and this secret wasn't the one that ruined _our_ relationship."

"It might be," Brian replied. "If you don't tell me once I take you back."

Caty's head snapped up. "What?" she asked, shocked.

Brian suddenly grew shy. "I mean, if you want me to-I guess that sounded kind of misogynistic. I...do you _want_…" Brian took a deep breath. "I would like to get back together with you...if you want that."

"Yes, I do!" Caty cried. "Absolutely I do. But why? I mean, I thought you hated me."

"I couldn't hate you. I love you. I just said I hated you so you'd leave me alone because I thought that's what I wanted, but I don't. I still want to be with you."

"But I thought you couldn't forgive me!"

"I thought I couldn't either. And then you started screaming in pain and I nearly had a heart attack. And when I saw you were okay...I almost started crying. That's when I realized, I'm always going to love you. And I thought about it more and more. I _was_ awful to you. I tried to hurt you and poison you just to get ahead. I mean, who _does_ that? I must be a very sick person."

"Or ambitious," Caty said.

"Then you're ambitious too. Neither of us is perfect, but I think now, we're done with the 'beat each other at all costs' stuff. We can just be friendly rivals when it comes to academics, and boyfriend and girlfriend with everything else. Because I _do_ forgive you. _That's_ what I wanted to tell you when I texted you that we should talk. I wanted to ask what was going on with _us_ because I still love you and if you still love me, then…"

A huge smile broke out on Caty's face. She could hardly believe this was happening. She started to lean in to kiss him, but then sobered. Wait, what was she doing? She said she wanted to break up with him before Misha told her secret. And she hadn't actually wanted to, but wasn't it safer this way, for him? Maybe Misha telling was a blessing in disguise. It made Brian do what Caty wasn't strong enough to. If she took him back, that put him in danger again.

"I want to-" Caty started, but was interrupted.

"But Caty, first I need something from you," Brian said. "We're in love now. You said you love me. So you need to tell me your secret."

"What?"

"You heard me. Jake Saunders couldn't be in a relationship in which her girlfriend hid a big part of her life. I can't either. We need to be completely honest with each other from now on, and that doesn't just mean no lies. That means no secrets either. A lie of omission is still a lie."

Caty had said that herself at one point, but she never actually believed it. Still, she knew what Brian wanted was fair. But telling him would put him in even more danger, even if he wasn't dating her. Assuming he'd actually want to _keep _his memories. He might be scared and want to forget. Gavin did. Not everyone would take the news as well as Jake did. Nina was terrified at first. Misha was in shock when the girls demonstrated their powers. James was as well. Lili was frightened too, and thought they were going to hurt her. Eva thought Gabi was witch out to get her. Jason was quick to believe, but later admitted to Ellie he thought he was dreaming and went along with it. It took him a while to accept it as well.

"I know this has got to be a big deal for you. As you said, you only tell people when they find out. Rae Dylan didn't even tell the secret when she was being broken up with. Ellie Kramer didn't crack when her best friend of eleven years was ending their friendship. You didn't even tell Nina until recently, and she was your best friend for nearly fourteen years. She found out too, I'm guessing?"

Caty nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She wasn't even sure if she would blurt out the secret or tell Brian they couldn't be together. Neither was an option she was willing to deal with.

"So I'll let you think about it. You can get back to me," Brian said.

"Oh," was all Caty could say.

Brian smiled a little, then leaned in to kiss her. It was sweet and soft and perfect. It was the best kiss they'd ever shared. It turned Caty's brain into mush.

Brian pulled away just as the warning bell rang. "I need to go get my stuff," he said and went back to the classroom.

Caty headed for pre-calc without a single coherent thought. She had to get back together with Brian. But how could she tell him the secret and put him in danger? Was she really that selfish?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What is this thing for?" Rae asked that afternoon.

"Drugs I think," Alyssa replied.

"I heard a group of girls came to prom drunk, and eventually passed out," Caty said.

"Lana Oller and Kelli Chapman were in the group," Nick confirmed as he caught up to them. "And a few of those wannabe populars."

"They're the only ones that'll give Lana and Kelli the time of day anymore," Gabi said haughtily.

"Drugs too though," Brian said. "Remember this morning when I said it seemed like you guys were on drugs when you all got that headache? That didn't come from nowhere. People thought you were on drugs and coming down from a high or something."

"That is _so_ not how that works," Caty grumbled.

"And people are going to think this stupid assembly is our fault!" Gabi wailed.

"Doubtful," Misha said. "If it was about the drugs, they might've talked to you privately. You were in pain and it's unfair to assume drugs. The assembly is definitely about the drinking. I heard they were doing it on school property."

"Yeah, but whoever heard of school administrators being fair?" Gabi sighed.

"Caty, Alyssa, and Rae were three of the girls who had headaches," Nina pointed out. "They're all model students. They're not going to jump to conclusions about this, especially with Alyssa's mother being such an influential alum."

Gabi nodded slowly, hoping Nina was right. She could not afford to be blamed for a schoolwide PSA this late in the year.

The lunch period was over, and the entire school had to endure an assembly on "something" about prom as the principal put it that morning when he explained about the assembly.

The middle schoolers had to go through it as well. They started the day with the assembly. Freshmen and sophomores went through it after. Now it was time for the juniors and seniors to hear it. Miss. Taylor had dismissed them early from APUSH because the assembly was taking place over the span of their next two classes. Alyssa, Rae, Josh, Chris, Gabi, Caty, Nina, Misha, Brian, Travis, Nick, and Will were walking together. Tony was with them at first, but now he was a few paces ahead of them, talking with Jake as per Jake's request. Jake was officially not speaking to any of the members of Team GRACE.

After everyone was seated, Ellie, Sage, and James joining Team GRACE, they immediately started a telepathic conversation.

"_Anyone know what this is about?"_ Ellie asked.

"_Lana Oller and Kelli Chapman got drunk on school property, then showed their faces at prom,_" Alyssa replied. "_But Brian said a bunch of kids thought we were on drugs when we collapsed of those headaches, and that could be addressed too_."

"_God I hope not_," Ellie burst out. "_I spent enough time dodging today_."

"_Dodging_?" Rae asked.

"_Adam and Jade saw Ellie collapse, and Milly saw me going over to help you guys,"_ Sage explained. "_They all demanded to know what happened, and though we managed to placate Jade and Milly with a few lies, Adam wouldn't let it go. He kept cornering me every chance he got_."

"_He almost made Sage cry_," Ellie added.

"_What?!" _Josh cried, outraged. "_I'll kill him!"_

_ "__No you won't_," Sage said firmly.

"_I will_," James volunteered, also protective of Sage.

"_Or me_," Chris offered, mad at Adam on behalf of Sage, Ellie, and Alyssa.

"_No one's killing anyone. He didn't do it on purpose. I just got nervous and flustered. You know how I sensitive I can be_," Sage cautioned.

"_He backed off immediately,"_ Ellie agreed. "_And when he realized he was getting nowhere with Sage, he actually started to speak to me again to question me_."

"_What did you tell him?" _Rae asked.

"_To back off_," Ellie said sheepishly. "That's_ definitely going to fix our friendship_."

"_Can we talk about this later?"_ Gabi asked. "_Bree's watching you and getting freaked out."_

Lili and Bree joined Team GRACE as well, but sat near Gabi. Misha, Nina, and Lili knew what the team was doing, and Brian and the boys were engaged in their own conversation, but Bree definitely noticed her best friend, her cousin, and their friends were having a long, silent conversation.

They all heard someone clear his throat. The principal began to speak. To Gabi's great relief, the whole assembly was about the drinking. People kept shooting Lana, Kelli, and the wannabe populars who went along with them accusatory stares as the principal droned on. School was pretty much a joke at this point in the year, with all the teachers giving their students free periods or movie classes, and no one wanted to miss a chance to hang out with their friends or watch a movie for this stupid assembly, least of all the people who had gym class last, because they'd still be let out early enough to attend their last class, and the gym teachers didn't know the meaning of 'free period.' As the last day of school approached, every gym class was an opportunity to run the mile again and again.

Ellie heard it first. She had tuned out the principal and was using her enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on people's conversations. She couldn't help it. It was fun! But while she was doing it, she heard the familiar, dull buzz of a portal opening.

"Rae!" she whispered urgently.

Rae looked over at the air guardian and nudged Alyssa. She set up a link between the three of them.

"_Portal opened_," Ellie said in her head. "_Didn't you feel it_?"

"_The Heart is in my bag. Hold on, I can probably figure out where it opened_," she replied. She closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded and looked at Alyssa. The fire guardian re-established the link she had going with the entire team.

"_Portal opened_," Rae said in their heads. "_In the props closet next to the stage_."

The rest of the team tensed, wondering how they should proceed.

"_We need a distraction to get everyone out of the school. Gabi, use your telekinesis to pull the fire alarm. Alyssa, start a small, contained fire to give off the smell of smoke. Once everyone is out of the school, you can put it out. Caty, get ready to lock the doors."_

_ "__I can't use my elemental power in human form. It's one of the drawbacks of Sage's spell_," Alyssa reminded.

"_Set the fire in the kitchens. The door is always unlocked and they have matches in there_," Rae advised.

Gabi went first, telekinetically pulling down the glass encased fire alarm in the gym. The students and teachers got up and made their way to the fire exits. Alyssa got up with everyone else and took a detour to start a fire in the kitchens.

Caty quickly explained to Nina, Misha, and Lili what was going on so they could offer help from the outside, and make sure everyone got outside.

"_Sage, teleport yourself and Chris to the roof. Grab Cara on your way. Even though the supposed fire is here, they'll evacuate the middle school building as well_," Rae went on. "_I want the three of you to create a glamour zone around the school. In fact, better make it a five mile radius from the school. Once you're done, come back to join the fight unless we say we're good. Don't dispel the glamour zone unless I give the order-in person. Got it_?"

Sage and Chris nodded. They ran behind the stage to teleport, trying not to attract attention so people won't notice they were running the wrong way.

Rae started to smell smoke. Alyssa ran back into the gym. "_I put out the fire, but the smell should stay for a while. People are still evacuating_," she said as she walked up to Rae.

Rae looked around the gym. It was just Team GRACE now...and Jake...and Brian...and Adam.

"What are you guys still doing here?" Rae yelled at them as Alyssa walked over to the gym doors to see if there were people still in the halls. "There's a fire! Can't you smell the smoke! Go!"

Brian and Adam immediately went towards the fire exits. Jake did not follow.

"_Caty, we're all good. Once the boys are out, you can lock all the doors. You have your Student Council keys, right?_" Alyssa asked.

"_Yup."_

"Wait!" Jake said. "Why aren't _you_ guys leaving?"

That made Brian stop, which instinctively made Adam stop.

"We're right behind you," Gabi promised.

"You guys should leave first," Jake said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Are you _kidding_?" Alyssa cried.

"Just get out of here," James pleaded.

"No. There's no fire at all, is there? You guys tensed up right before the fire alarm went on. This has something to do with you secret."

"You're jumping to conclusions," Caty said, but now Brian was on board as well.

"Wait, really? Caty, what exactly _is_ this secret?" he asked.

Caty groaned softly.

"We don't have time for this," Rae moaned.

"When you had those headaches, Alyssa mentioned something about powers," Jake went on. "What did she mean?"

"Powers? El, what's going on?" Adam asked.

Alyssa cringed. How could this have happened? Weren't Misha, Nina, and Lili supposed to get everyone out?

Caty sighed and locked the side doors. Grunts were coming from the props closet.

"What's that?" Brian asked slowly.

"We have no choice now. Lock the back doors," Alyssa ordered.

Caty didn't hesitate.

"No choice in what?" Adam asked.

"Are you finally going to tell us?" Jake asked.

"It might be easier to show you," Gabi muttered as Rae, who'd forgotten that the Heart was in her bag, crept closer to the closet.

Monsters burst through, pouring out. They were the green ones that tried to kill Rae and Alyssa at Down the Rabbit Hole.

"Whoa!" Jake cried as the other boys cried out in fear.

"Weapons!" James cried because they had none, and in this form, the guardians couldn't use their powers thanks to Sage's spell.

"Keep them busy!" Rae ordered. She teletransported to her house. She grabbed the spare swords the boys kept at her house since it was their secondary base of operations and teletransported back to the school, materializing next to Jake.

He jumped, his eyes going wide. The monsters were trying to attack the guardians. Caty and Brian were trying to hold a few back with some chairs. Ellie and Adam were trying to dodge the attacks the monsters tried to launch at them with their scythes. Josh had broken off the leg of one of the chairs and was using it to defend himself and Gabi. James was also defending himself and Alyssa, using the mike stand.

"Gabi!" Rae called.

Gabi looked over and understood. She telekinetically grabbed one of the swords and gave it to Josh. Then she telekinetically flew the other one over to James.

James and Josh started slicing the heads off, which scared the boys even more. Monsters kept pouring out of the closet. Rae grabbed a chair to try and hold back the ones after her, knowing they would need to change soon.

"Jake, get away!" she cried.

The Sheffield Golden Boy's eyes showed fear, but he was right next to Rae, trying to fight off a monster with a broom.

"I want to help!" he cried.

"There are too many for us to keep going this way!" Caty said, clearly saying they needed to transform.

"Rae, the portal!" Alyssa cried.

"You want to help?" Rae asked. "There's a necklace in my bag. The chain is brown twine and the pendant is a large, pink, glowing jewel. I need it."

Jake nodded and immediately dug through Rae's backpack. When he found the Heart, he sat there awed for a moment before Rae called, "Jake!"

"Oh!" Jake threw the necklace to Rae. The throw was too wide, but the Heart, knowing where it's Keeper was, floated over to Rae.

"Spord lartsa!" Rae cried as she caught it. A doppleganger appeared. She posed no threat, but it stalled the monsters in front of her long enough for her to escape and close the portal.

"Astral drop," Rae said after the portal closed. The fake Rae disappeared, stalling the monsters again. Rae breathed a sigh of relief. At least she didn't give another one life.

Jake, who'd seen a duplicate of his ex appear and reappear, was frozen in shock.

"New Girl, it's now or death," Gabi said. "And I'd like to live!"

Rae nodded. "Get ready guys."

Josh and James walked closer to each other, back to back, so they could cover the girls.

"Brian, you might want to back up," Caty said, then decided to be the one to move back instead.

"You too Adam. But watch, this is cool," Ellie said.

Adam frowned, but took a few steps back.

Rae took a deep breath, hardly believing after everything, Jake was going to find out a second time.

"Guardians, unite!"

As usual, a pink light enveloped Rae and carried her into the air. The other girls followed. The pink light changed color to blue for Catty, orange for Alyssa, green for Gabi, and gray for Ellie. Rae's light remained pink.

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Air!"

"Quintessence!"

As the lights and glows died down, the reactions began

Jake's mouth dropped open as his eyes grew even wider. "Whoa," he breathed.

"Ahh!" Brian cried in fear, pressing against the wall.

Adam just kept shaking his head as if he wasn't seeing this, speechless.

It was the worst time for anything else surprising to happen, so of course Sage teleported herself and the Lyndons back in the gym at that point.

Jake just blinked, already seeing Rae disappear and appear again when she teletransported. The other boys cried out again.

"Why are they here?" Chris asked.

"Couldn't be helped," Rae replied.

Sage nodded and took out her dagger. "The glamour zone is good. People who know about the guardians, meaning Nina, Misha, and Lili, aren't affected, but everyone else is."

"Good. Let's finish this guys," Rae said.

The guardians took to the air. Chris and Cara both changed.

Caty started first, producing water. She smiled. It had been a long time since she'd been able to control water. She froze the water into an ice sword and ran three of the monsters through.

Gabi was having a blast fashioning the metal chairs into different weapons. Ellie was getting back into air, using tornadoes to trap the monsters and kill them. Alyssa knew fire was dangerous to use in an enclosed space with so many of her friends around, so she used her powers to make the monsters' scythes too hot to hold onto. Once they dropped them, James sliced off their heads. If Alyssa was close enough, she burned them alive.

Rae was flying straight through, using lighting to fry any of the monsters close to her. With Chris's lasers, Sage's dagger work, and Cara's ability to phase her hand into their bodies and pull out their hearts, they were making quick work of the monsters.

Jake was watching them in excited awe. Rae remembered he was pretty enthusiastic the first time he found out, but he hadn't really seen much that time. He honestly looked like a kid in a candy store.

Brian seemed pretty fearful, but every time he caught sight of Caty, he calmed down, and even began to smile as he kept his eyes on her and watched her fight fiercely. Rae remembered Caty saying her competitive spirit and determination were two things he loved most about her, two qualities that shined through when she was in battle.

Adam seemed to have a hard time adjusting. He frowned the entire time. His face was stoic when he looked at Ellie and he flinched every time there was movement beside him, even if it was just that of the hanging lights above his head.

"Ack!" she heard Alyssa cry. One of the monsters had a scythe pressed to her neck. James was too busy fighting off a few monsters of his own to go over to her, and the others didn't notice.

Jake got up to go to her. Rae flew over, beating him. She grabbed the monster and electrocuted it.

"Thanks," Alyssa said, relieved. "Not to sound ungrateful, but should you really be using that trick? You're the strongest of us all when you have your original element. That trick makes you tired."

"I couldn't shoot at it without accidentally hitting you. Besides, one time is not gonna kill me."

"Rae, let me do something to help," Jake said, walking over to the two of them.

"No way! You're not trained," Rae denied. "Anyway, we're almost done.

It was true. They started off with nearly a hundred monsters, but they were down to seven now.

Ellie trapped one in a hurricane. James and Josh each cut off the heads of two. Caty drowned one. Gabi took the last one down using one of the dropped scythes.

"Alright, everyone except Alyssa out of the way, crowd in a corner," Rae commanded.

The team did exactly what they were told. Adam, Brian, and Jake stayed where they were.

"Didn't you hear me? In the corner, _now_," Rae yelled, startling them.

The boys moved.

Alyssa smiled sheepishly. "She's the leader. Sometimes she forgets she only leads us," she explained to the disgruntled boys.

Rae ignored this, flew up in the air and said, "Lyssa, the bodies."

Alyssa nodded. Together they used their power to reduce to bodies to ash. Gabi telekinetically opened a trash can. Ellie used air to put the piles of ash in the trash can. Gabi closed it and returned it to it's original place in the room.

"Okay. Explanation?" Jake asked as the team separated.

"None," Rae said. "You shouldn't know this stuff. We're going to make it so you don't."

"How are you going to do that?" Jake asked.

"Rae, no!" Caty and Ellie cried at the same time.

"What do you mean?" Brian asked. "I want to know this."

"You don't understand. It's too dangerous for you guys, especially you," Rae said, looking at Jake at the last two words. "You just _had_ to befriend all of us!"

"Huh?" Jake asked, confused.

Caty looked at Brian, knowing what she had to do. "This is my secret. You asked me what I was hiding. Now you know. I love you Brian, and I want to be with you. Do you still want to be with me? Even though now you know I can spontaneously grow wings?"

"Your wings are beautiful. _You_ are beautiful, inside and out. This makes me love you more. I want to be with you," Brian replied earnestly, making Caty want to explode with pride.

The couple kissed. Ellie turned to Adam.

"And you. Now you know my secret. Are we best friends again?" she asked knowing what Caty was doing.

"W-what? El, that's really what you want to talk about now?" Adam asked, his voice coming out high pitched. His face was white as a sheet.

"I kind of need to. You need to decide if you want to remember what happened here today, and if you want to be best friends again."

"I have a choice?"

"You can forget."

"And if I do, would we go back to fighting?"

"We weren't fighting. You stopped being my friend," Ellie said, an edge in her voice. "And yeah, if you forgot, we wouldn't be friends."

Adam took a shaky breath. It was clear he wanted to forget, but he wanted Ellie's friendship more because he said, "I don't want to forget. And of course we're best friends again. I never stopped being yours, even though I said I did. If you needed me, I wouldn't have hesitated."

Ellie grinned and hugged him. When she pulled away, she looked at Rae sternly.

"Adam's my best friend again," she said.

"And Brian's my boyfriend again," Caty added.

Together the girls said, "Our choice."

"Fine, fine," Rae said. "Whatever." She looked at Jake.

"No," Alyssa said firmly. She was using Rae's leader tone, a tone she'd never used before.

"Alyssa," Rae started in the same tone.

"No!" Alyssa insisted. "I don't know _that_ Brian well, so I don't care what he knows, and I don't _like_ Adam, so I kind of wish he didn't know, but whatever. I _care_ what Jake knows. Rae, we decided whoever is closest to the person would decide. When you guys were dating, that was you. But now...it's not. It's the rest of us. You said it yourself: he befriended all of us. This is not just your choice anymore, it's all of ours."

"And we all want him to know," James said. "He's my best friend, Caty's best friend, Gabi's best friend. He's close with Ellie and like Alyssa's brother. This needs to be a unified decision."

"And you Keeper," Gabi said mockingly, "are outvoted."

Rae was backed into a corner. She looked ready to cry. But she knew there was nothing she could do, so instead of addressing it, she moved on. "Can you all teletransport?"

The girls didn't completely understand that Rae was changing the subject, but nodded just the same.

"Okay, let's do it. Teletransport to the alley where we found the first portal. Gabi, that's the one with the graffiti about the librarian Miss. Bentley," Rae said. "Sage, teleport. This the alley you saw when you came out of the portal to move here. Take Josh and James with you. Alyssa, Gabi, you bring Chris and Cara. Ellie, you bring Adam. Caty, take Brian. Jake, you're coming with me."

"Wait, wait. What is teletransporting?" Jake asked.

"You're about to find out," Rae replied, taking his arm. "Hold on tight. The last thing you want to be put inside a wall."

"What?!" Brian and Jake cried in unison as Adam turned paler (which Rae didn't know was possible). Before they could say anything more, everyone disappeared. To their immense relief, everyone arrived at the alley safely.

"I'm gonna be sick," Jake declared as Chris and Cara changed back to their human forms.

"Are you kidding, dude? That was so trippy!" Brian cried, seemingly excited.

Adam was now green, also looking like he was going to be sick. He staggered away from Ellie and leaned against a wall, taking deep breaths.

The guardians were also breathing hard, but out of fatigue rather than queasiness. That was the first time most of them tried to teletransport such a large distance, and taking someone else was a big deal as well. They wouldn't be able to do that again for a while.

Caty suddenly cried out. "My head," she gasped.

The other girls tensed before realizing they didn't have a headache.

"What's going on?" Alyssa asked. "She can't switch powers on her own, can she? And it's only been two days!"

"It's not that kind of headache!" Caty cried.

"It's a vision," Sage explained. "When one of you is having a vision but doesn't have the resources to see it, it causes a headache."

Caty created some water and threw it at the ground. A puddle formed and the headache disappeared. Caty breathed a sigh of relief before kneeling down to find out what her vision showed.

She watched for a few minutes, then gasped as the images disappeared.

"What? What did you see?" Alyssa asked as Brian gave her a concerned look.

"I'm not sure exactly," Caty said. "But what I _think_ I saw is Kasson."

"Really? What else happened?" Ellie asked.

"Um, well it was a really regal looking man and woman, so I figure it's Kasson and Cassandra. And in Kasson's hand was a piece of twine, like the twine of the Heart, but the jewel was sea green."

"The Heart of Meridian?" Sage asked.

Caty nodded. "And...and _inside_ the Heart was...um...Elyon...at least, I think so. It looked like the older version of the girl we saw pictures of."

Sage nodded sadly. "We knew it was only a matter of time."

Gabi put her arm around Sage, and Josh patted her arm comfortingly. She gave them both grateful smiles.

"In the next second," Caty said, "I saw some kind of blast. Almost like the blasts you emit with your lasers Chris. They hit both Kasson and Cassandra. I guess it was a surprise attack, because you know how powerful those two are supposed to be, to beat the Meridian royal family in battle. Kasson's grip on the Heart was lost, and it went flying, but it was caught by someone. A man I think, but I could only see his hand. Then I heard laughing. Like an evil laugh. And the voice...it was chilling. Like...like it was the epitome of evil."

"The epitome of evil? Isn't that how you described the voice of the man in Ellie's dream?" Rae asked Alyssa.

The African American nodded. "It must be the same man. We thought the man in Ellie's dream was the man that was trying to take over Kandrakar. And in Caty's vision, he took the Heart of Meridian. That makes sense. Kandrakar is hard to take over, but if he has the power of the Heart of Meridian, one of the most powerful Hearts in all the worlds, he'll have an easier time."

"Not the mention he probably has the Heart of his own land," Gabi added. "Two Hearts to our one."

"Not yet," Rae said. "Caty got a _vision_. Most likely, it's of something that _will _happen, not something that's _already _happened. I say we try to find this enemy and fight him _before_ he gets his hands on the Heart of Meridian. One Heart to one, and ours is more powerful."

"But we don't where he is," Cara said. "Or even who."

"We can stake out Kandrakar. The Oracle will at least be able to tell us when the enemy is going to attack," Rae said.

The others nodded. It seemed a good a plan as any.

"So what now? We just go to Kandrakar?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah. I can open a portal right now."

"Wait," Gabi said. "We don't know what's going to happen. There's a chance we could get attacked when we get to Kandrakar. Or the Oracle could point us on the direction of this guy right away and we'd have to go find him. I mean, Ellie's dream was not of what _will_ happen, but what _was_ happening. What if Caty's vision is also of the present? If we have to fight this enemy when we get to Kandrakar, this could be the final battle the prophecy is talking about. If there's even the slightest chance that we might not...you know, _come back_...then I need to say goodbye to Luc."

"You think this could be it?" Ellie asked, looking haunted.

"It?" Jake repeated. "Are you guys marching off into some death battle?"

"We don't know," Rae said. "Probably not."

"But Gabi just said-"

"I know what she said Jake," Rae snapped, then looked at everyone else. "It's slightly possible, but I don't think it's time yet," she said.

Brian and Adam looked really confused.

"You're going to be okay, right?" Brian asked, taking Caty's hand.

"Yeah, definitely," Caty said with a smile, but she blushed.

"Ellie, you can't do anything that'll get you hurt," Adam said insistently.

"I don't have a choice Adam. It's my duty," Ellie said. "Besides, I'll have help."

"She'll have _my_ help for sure," Chris said, taking her hand.

Ellie gave him a huge smile as she felt the same shivers she got every time Chris touched her. She looked at Gabi. "But what do you think? Is this our last battle?"

"Honestly El? I don't know. But we need to entertain every possibility," Gabi replied. "Besides, I didn't get to see Luc this morning, and usually I always do. So I need to go."

With that, Gabi took off, flying high enough in the air so everyone would assume she was bird.

"Gabi, wait!" Josh called, but she couldn't hear him.

"You know what? I think she might have the right idea. Maybe we should say goodbye. At the very least, I should tell my mom what's going on," Alyssa said. "Maybe she can even offer some help."

"Good idea. I'll go with you," Rae said as she changed the girls back.

Jake and Brian were awed by the change, while Adam let out a short moan, but the others paid them no attention.

Alyssa frowned at Rae. "But what about your mom?"

"I can't tell my mom. She knows about the prophecy, but if she finds out what's going on, she'll never let me go," Rae argued.

"Rae, I understand why you didn't want to loop her in about the power switch, but she needs to know this. You have to tell her. And as much as she won't want to, she'll understand. She'll let you go," Alyssa said firmly.

"I'll go with you," Jake offered.

Rae sighed but nodded. "Okay."

She turned to the others to give some last minute orders.

"In case of battle, we'll take a small Meridian army with us. We can go to Meridian first, and go to Kandrakar from there. Right now, we need to do some damage control. Sage, teleport into the inside of the gym and fix everything that's broken. Chris, Cara, go to the school with her and drop the glamour zone once she's done. Caty, you go with them too. I need you to use your mind control to get the principal to dismiss everyone and let everyone go home. Make him realize there's no real fire, and also get him to skip the roll call that usually occurs after a fire drill."

"What about after that? What do we do?" Caty asked.

"You can go home, say your goodbyes. We'll all meet at The Silver Dragon."

Caty nodded. "Come with me?" she asked Brian.

"Of course. I have to hear more about this mind control," Brian grinned, taking Caty's hand. The couple ran off. Sage grabbed Chris and Cara's arms and teleported away.

"Okay the rest of us can go home as well."

"I'll go with you," Adam said to Ellie.

"Okay. We're headed to Marcus's. That's where Jason is staying, and Gavin's there right now too."

"Why?"

"Well, Gavin and Marcus are friends."

"No, I mean, why is Jason staying with Marcus?" Adam asked as the pair headed off.

"Oh, I have a _lot_ to catch you up on. Jason moved in with Marcus and I moved in with Alyssa. Actually, this happened before our fight."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Adam asked.

Ellie replied, but now they were out of earshot.

"Okay, the rest of us can go together. Josh, I need you to get Gabi," Rae said.

"Josh nodded.

"Oh wait, James, do you want me to go to your house with you first?" Alyssa asked.

"Nope. Let's just head to your house."

Alyssa nodded. James didn't talk about his family much, but from what he did say, Alyssa (and Rae and Jake) knew that James didn't really get along with his family. He didn't have any siblings. His mother was very proud of James' musical and martial arts abilities, but didn't really know anything about him, and his father barely spared him a glance except to ask about school every week or so. That's part of the reason James wanted to go to Princeton. It was close enough that he could still see Alyssa and his other friends every now and then, but far enough away that he wouldn't have to see his family if he didn't want to.

The group walked to Larson Street. Josh split from them immediately since Gabi's house was on the right side and Rae and Alyssa's were on the left.

"Okay, so we'll wait for you right outside and you can come join us when you're done," Alyssa said as she opened the door to her house. "And we'll walk to The Silver Dragon together."

"Sounds good," Rae said as she and Jake went ahead. She took a calming breath. She didn't like the idea of giving her mother a last goodbye.

"You okay?" Jake asked.

"Absolutely."

"You're a terrible liar," he said. He took her hand.

Rae smiled. No, she wasn't okay, but with Jake by her side, she was on her way there.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed that as much as I hope you did. One chapter left guys, and even though it tones the story down a little, there are a couple things in there I think you guys will like too!**


	50. Goodbye

**A/N: Okay, last chapter, and last batch of shout-outs! Hope you like it!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: Emotional turmoil and instability is a factor in all relationships…is the only thing I can think of to defend myself, because I honestly, the worse it gets for these couples, the more fun I have writing. But I swear, by the end of these three chapters, all of that will be resolved…somewhat. You'll see. Honestly, I thought up the power switch thing on the spot. Not the actual switching of powers, I wanted to do that for a while, but the reason for the switch. I knew I couldn't avoid it forever, and I randomly had this idea one day while I was pacing around my dining table (I do that a lot, and a lot of my best ideas come from doing that even if I'm not trying to get an idea). Yup, Ellie's a dancer who's awed by popularity. Cheerleading is perfect for her. The idea for the three of them cheering came randomly too. I had an idea long ago that Lana would convince Rae to join cheer, and that would deepen the Rae/Gabi conflict, but that didn't end up happening, and this was like my way of still having another GRACE girl (or in this case, girls) who had no business cheering, cheer. Getting along and being friends? Sure. Getting back together? Not for a while, if at all. I intended to put them back together, but that just seems like too much 'perfect/happily ever after' you know?**

**Misa: Yes, it's true, Jake and Rae were a lot of people's favorites at one point or another. But I had to. It was so unrealistic for Jake to keep being in this relationship in which his girlfriend keeps lying to him, and he just keeps accepting it. They have to be done. I am sorry for messing with your emotions though. Tony's liked Caty for a long time, for even longer than she liked him. He's not going to mess up whatever relationship she's currently in, but he's not going to give up either. Caty and Brian made great strides-all the strides actually-as you saw. Just because he's not over Alyssa doesn't mean he's not into Ellie, because he is. It's not easy to let go of your first love. I'm glad you liked it. The cheer part seems to be a fan favorite, and I had a whole lot of fun writing it. Yes, that is the right expression, and you'll just have to keep reading to find out. I promise you there's going to be a twist that hopefully no one saw coming. Hope you enjoyed the last two chapters and this one!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Gabi burst into her house as she changed out of guardian form. She knew that wasn't smart, with all the lights her body emitted as she changed back, but she halfway hoped Luc would be in the living room and see her so she could explain what was going on instead of giving him a vague goodbye.

Luc was not in the living room however. When Gabi slammed the door behind her, Sienna walked out of the kitchen.

"Gabi, thank goodness you're alright!" she cried.

Gabi rolled her eyes at her step mother's dramatics. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I got a call about the fire."

"The fire?" Gabi asked before remembering their cover to fight the monsters. "Oh right. Well it wasn't too bad, but we were dismissed anyway."

"Yes, that was addressed in the call too," Sienna said.

Gabi just nodded. The house was quiet. She knew her father was probably at work and Eva and Luc were shut up in their rooms. She wanted to say something to her father, but hopefully this wouldn't be the last battle. In case it was, she needed to see her brother.

"Luc!" Gabi called as she walked to his room.

"Gabi, Luc isn't home," Sienna said, following her brunette step daughter. "School is still in session, remember? You're only home because of the fire."

Gabi realized she was right. Checking her phone, she realized there was still over an hour before Luc got home. Oh well. The team could wait for her.

"I was going to go hang out with some friends, but I guess I'll wait for Luc."

Sienna frowned. "Honey, Luc isn't coming home. He's on his trip remember?"

Gabi hated when Sienna called her 'honey' as if she was Gabi's real mother or something, but completely ignored this when Sienna said 'trip.'

Of course! Luc was on his fifth grade field trip. It was a three day camping trip. Gabi and Luc said their goodbyes _yesterday_ just in case. How could she have forgotten?

But that meant she wouldn't see Luc before she went to Kandrakar and fought in this potentially life threatening battle. Sure all her battles were life threatening, but this one could be life ending. There was no guarantee they'd all survive.

In fact, including KARMA, the group that went crazy, only three of the Thousand Year Guardians won with their lives, and none came out unscathed. They'd lost other friends or endured irreparable injuries. All Gabi wanted was to say a final goodbye to her brother before that happened. And now she couldn't see him?

"Well then, I'll go to his school. Maybe they haven't left yet," Gabi decided.

"They have. They left at 10 o'clock this morning."

"I'll drive down to the campsite."

"Gabi, it's in Delaware!"

Gabi bit her quivering lip.

"Honey, what's wrong? Why do you want to see Luc so badly?"

Gabi didn't know how to reply to that. She couldn't very well tell Sienna she was going to another world where she might engage in a battle she may never come back from.

"I j-just...I _need_ to see him!" Gabi wailed. Before she even realized what was happening, she was sobbing. "I just w-wanted to say goodbye, that's all. I love him so much and I just wi-wish he _knew_."

"Oh sweetie, trust me, he knows. No one makes anyone feel as loved as you make Luc feel," Sienna promised.

"I didn't _see_ him this morning," Gabi blubbered. "I didn't say bye or tell him I love him and I always…" Gabi was crying too hard to continue.

Sienna didn't say anything. She just pulled Gabi into a hug. And though Gabi would never in a million years admit it, it was actually nice. Warm, comforting...safe. She wrapped her arms around Sienna and hugged her back. If Sienna was surprised, she didn't say anything. She just tightened her grip, not asking anymore questions.

For a few minutes, Gabi just sobbed in Sienna's arms, not even thinking about who it was that was hugging her. Then Josh burst through the door. At first, the shock of seeing Sienna and Gabi hugging overwhelmed him, but he snapped himself out of it when he realized Gabi was crying.

Neither female looked up when Josh came in, so he had to put his hand on Gabi's back to let her know he was there. When she saw him, she broke away from Sienna-gently-and hugged him instead.

'I'll take care of it,' he mouthed to Sienna.

She nodded and went to the kitchen.

"Want to tell me what's going on?" Josh asked as he led Gabi to his room.

"Luc's gone. He's on his field trip."

Josh didn't say anything. He just chewed on the inside of his cheek nervously. That's why he tried to stop her.

"You remembered," Gabi realized. "I didn't."

"You were overwhelmed at the prospect of this being our final battle. But I don't think it is."

"How are you so sure?"

"Not everything in the prophecy has come to pass yet."

"Alyssa and I were talking about that," Gabi said. "A few days ago I mean. And we realized not everything has to pass before the final battle. Nothing in the prophecy has been straightforward so far. Rin is the Child of Magic, but no one knows _why_. She's not blood related to Caty. Why is someone with no relation to us in the prophecy? And it was an _altermere_ that perished in the land of rain. Nothing is happening in order either. The rest of the prophecy could all unfold _during_ this battle. And this _is_ the final battle because if we lose to whoever this enemy is now, and then he gets the Heart of Meridian, we have no chance of winning anyway. So we have to pull out all the stops to win _now_."

Gabi let out what seemed like her last sob as she dried her eyes.

Josh was silent. Why did no one else think of this? Why did Alyssa and Gabi keep these thoughts to themselves? This could be the _final_ battle, and if that was true, then…

"I'm sorry you didn't get to say goodbye to Luc," Josh said. "And I really don't want to steal the moment or anything, but I need to tell you something."

Gabi looked at him with curious eyes. "What?"

"I love you," Josh said. "I know I've never said it before, but I mean it. I don't just have strong feelings for you. I _love_ you."

Gabi blushed. "Um...I love you too." And she meant it. She'd just been too scared to tell him before since he was already so hesitant about starting a relationship. She didn't want to scare him away with more than he was ready for.

"And I'm ready to take the leap."

Gabi's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I've let fear stop me, but I've been scared long enough. I love you and I want to be with you. We'll get through this Gabi, I promise. We'll win, we'll survive this, and after that, we'll be together."

Gabi actually laughed in glee. He was right. They'd win. Why did she doubt that? They were strong. They'd defeat this enemy, and all their others. Gabi would survive, and she'd get to see Luc in three days, and when she did, she could tell him that she and Josh were together. He'd been hoping Gabi and Josh would go out ever since he moved in, even when he knew Gabi was with Jake, who he liked.

"We'll be together," she repeated and kissed him to seal the deal.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae was pacing around the basement of The Silver Dragon when Gabi and Josh walked in.

She looked up hopefully, then groaned.

"Someone's not happy to see us," Gabi said, rolling her eyes, back to her normal self. So normal that she bit Sienna's head off when she asked if Gabi was okay, and again when she asked where Gabi and Josh were going.

Gabi looked around the room. Jake was trying to talk a pacing Rae. Chris and Cara were laughing at something on Cara's phone. Caty was telling Lili something, and Lili was nodding. Maybe Caty was asking for a favor. Brian, Nina, and Misha, true to form, were doing homework. Alyssa and James were also laughing at some private joke, but Alyssa looked up when Gabi and Josh entered and walked towards them, a smile on her face.

"Do my eyes deceive me? Are you two holding hands?" she asked excitedly.

Jake, who was trying to calm Rae down, looked up for a minute before returning to his ex.

Josh turned red, but Gabi just smiled widely.

"Why yes we are," she said.

"I took the leap," Josh said shyly.

Alyssa squealed in joy, which was a very un-Alyssa like move, and hugged them both. "Oh, I'm so happy for you!" she cried. Then she gave them both stern looks. "Josh, I don't care if you're my brother. If you hurt Gabi, you should _run_. And Gabi, I don't care how close we are or how close we get, the same goes for you. Don't hurt Josh."

Both nodded, bewildered.

"Where is everyone?" Gabi asked. Three people were missing.

"Sage is grabbing Rae a coke to try and calm her down," Alyssa said. "And Ellie and Adam aren't here yet. That's what's freaking Rae out. She's getting impatient. And no one knows where they are either. At least with you guys, Josh texted Rae when he got to your house, and you texted when you were on your way. I texted Ellie to ask her if they were heading here and all she replied was 'Still gotta do something.' Vague."

Gabi nodded. Rae tended to fly off the handle when people were late. The Keeper was annoyingly punctual. But it's not like she set up a time frame.

Gabi felt Josh let go of her hand. She looked at him. He gave her a smile, then nodded over to Sage, who was giving Rae a glass. Gabi nodded. They needed to tell her, and Josh wanted to be the one to do it.

Alyssa and Gabi watched with rapt attention as Sage's face registered the news and her expression went from curious to shocked to glee. She squealed like Alyssa had and tackled Josh in a hug. Both the Earth and fire guardians breathed a sigh of relief. Sure Sage had given Gabi her blessing, but that was different from being _happy_ about their dating. They were glad to see she liked it.

"So what did you tell Luc?" Alyssa asked.

Gabi explained he wasn't there.

"Oh Gabi, I'm so sorry," Alyssa said.

Gabi waved it away, not wanting to think about it-or the fact that she took comfort in Sienna. "So how did everybody else's goodbyes go?" Gabi asked

"Well, my mom was predictably worried, but understood. Thank God she's good with the guardian thing now. The hard part was telling my father."

"Nigel was at home?"

"No. Mom made me call him!"

"Ouch. So how'd he take it?"

"He demanded I don't go, which is weird because he wasn't in support of my mom taking my powers all those months ago. But after I told him, Mom took the phone and calmed him down. He's not happy, and he still doesn't want me to go, but he's not threatening to lock me up and throw away the key."

Gabi laughed.

"Rae's mom was tougher. I don't know the details, but she freaked out, shrieking and saying things to shrilly for either Rae or Jake to understand, burst into tears, and even though she didn't forbid Rae from going, she hugged her for nearly ten minutes, telling her to be careful the whole time and refusing to let go until Jake literally had to _pull_ Rae out of her embrace."

Gabi giggled at that.

"Caty's parents were still at work, and her grandparents had taken Rin out. They left a note for Caty, but they didn't say where they were. Caty called her house from here and left a message saying she has study group tonight, and she's sleeping over here, so Hay Lin can corroborate if Iris calls, which she probably won't. They usually don't check up on Caty as long as she tells them what she's up to. If Caty doesn't come back, then Lili's supposed to tell them the truth, and tell them about Rin's powers too."

"I can only imagine how they'd take that," Gabi said. "Personally, I think Caty should tell her parents about Rin regardless. What if Rin still needs the suppressant root by the time Caty goes to college? What if she forgets to sneak some into Rin's food, or doesn't come home for a month and she spontaneously combusts?"

"I don't think she can make herself _explode_," Alyssa said slowly, "but I see your point."

Gabi's eyes were laughing. "So what about Hay Lin and Eric?"

"They always knew this day would come, but they're still worried. Eric wanted to come with us, but Chris and Cara convinced him to stay here. They said he should stay in case Hay Lin needed protection, but I think the real reason was that they didn't want him to lose focus and go crazy if one of them gets hurt."

"Makes sense," Gabi said. "If something happens to Josh…"

"Yeah. Or James. Or Rae," Alyssa said.

"Or Caty."

"Or Ellie."

"Between the two of us, it's or anyone," Gabi said. "We need to be careful. We can't let our emotions rule us during our battle."

Alyssa bit her lip. "Yeah," she said softly, looking at James. "Excuse me a minute."

She went over to James. "Can we talk?"

"Sounds serious."

"It is. We need to like...temporarily break up."

"What?" James looked perplexed.

"We're too invested in each other. And if this is our final battle in which anything could happen, if one of us gets hurt, the other won't be focused. And we can't afford to lose focus."

"And you think breaking up will change that?" James asked, sounding angry. "Because it won't. Broken up or together, I will worry about you just as much."

"Me too," Alyssa said. "But what are we supposed to do?"

James let out a breath, wracking his brain for anything to take the miserable look off his girlfriend's face.

"I mean, we can't worry about protecting each other," Alyssa went on.

"I can't _do_ that. My first instinct will always be to protect you."

"It can't be," Alyssa said.

"Well what do you want to do?"

"I don't know!"

James sighed. He wanted to make Alyssa feel better, and honestly, he understood where she was coming from. He had an idea, but it was a bad one. A _very_ bad one. He didn't like it one bit. But if it would give Alyssa peace of mind, wasn't it worth it?

"Okay, what about this? Let's make a pact that during the battle, we'll block each other out."

"Didn't we just establish there's no possibly way we could do that?" Alyssa asked.

James eyes clouded over. As he spoke, he looked like his words were causing him physical pain. They caused Alyssa physical pain as well, to hear them.

"If there's one thing I learned from being on this team, it's that anything is possible as long as you have the right tools on your side. I was really interested in magic. That's probably how Sage and I got so close. We talked about magic a lot at first. And she told me about this spell she can do. It's from something called the Emotional Manipulation skill set. Sage can make it so we don't love each other anymore."

"What? No! Why would someone even _know_ a spell like that? No, wait, I don't actually care _why_. We are _not_ doing that, you hear me?"

"Lyssa, I don't want to do it at all. But it will help us get rid of this tunnel vision we have when it comes to each other. And it's not like we won't care about each other. We just won't be in love. You'll feel about me the way you feel about Caty or Gabi. We'll be friends. And everyone around us will know it's a spell, but we won't. _We'll_ forget we were in love, and won't know there's a spell on us, so it won't be hurting us."

"No! No way James! I'm not doing that! You know how I feel about memory tampering after everything I've been through. I don't want to _forget_ I'm in love with you. I can control myself and my emotions better than that. I don't _need_ that."

"I know you don't. But _I_ do. That's what you're really worried about, isn't it? Not us, but me? How I'll react if you get hurt."

"I…" Alyssa trailed off. She'd always been good at controlling her emotions. Her mother was like that and she recently found out Caleb was too.

"And as much as I don't want to, I'm going to ask Sage to use the spell on me."

"But why?" Alyssa asked, aghast.

"Because you need it. You may not want to admit it, but you won't be able to concentrate on the battle if you know I won't be able to. You wanted this."

"No I didn't!"

"You wanted _something_! You wanted a solution. That's why you brought this up in the first place. And I'm not saying you wanted me to forget my feelings for you. I know you don't want that. You didn't know this is what the solution would be. But you can't go back on it now."

"Yes I can! This is not a solution James, this is craziness."

"No, it's practical. You're just being cynical."

"No, it's just the principle!"

"What do you guys think?" James asked the room, because, unlike his girlfriend, he'd noticed that everyone was listening to their conversation since it started.

Everyone wore 'deer in headlights' expressions, realizing they'd been caught. In their defense though, both were talking loudly, and if they wanted to have a _private_ conversation, they shouldn't have done it in the basement they were all in.

"Well?" James asked, genuinely curious.

Everyone muttered an answer, not one of them cohesive.

"Well you guys are a lot of help," James said sarcastically.

"You're my best friend," Jake finally spoke up, "but you're insane if you want to do this."

"I think it makes sense," Sage piped up.

"Great," Alyssa muttered. Sage was the one who could _do_ the spell. If she thought it was a good idea, then she'd do it.

"No, it makes zero sense," Gabi argued.

"I agree," Brian said.

"I totally get why James wants to do it," Caty said.

Brian stared at her incredulously.

"I do too," Rae backed up.

"Rae!" Alyssa cried, looking betrayed.

"I think it's none of our business," Chris spoke up. "Our opinions can be taken into account if James and Alyssa want them, but this is their decision, and we shouldn't confuse them by arguing about it and taking sides."

James let out a breath and Alyssa groaned. Why had she brought this up in the first place? James was right; she'd wanted a solution. She wanted to figure out if there was a way the two of them _could_ block each other out. If James could block Alyssa out. But she hadn't realized what it would mean.

"What do we even _know_ about this spell? How do we know it works? Or that it'll wear off?"

"It _will_ work," Sage said, looking almost offended. Her expression changed to her usual kind one when she spoke the next sentence. "And there's a counterspell that I can also successfully perform after the battle is over."

"But how does it even work?" Gabi asked. "How does he just _forget_ that Alyssa is his girlfriend?"

"It's like...when James looks at Alyssa now, he feels love. After I cast the spell, all he'll feel is friendship, and he won't remember that he ever felt anything else unless one of us tells him, and even if we tell him, which we shouldn't do, he won't care. He won't be _able_ to fall back in love with Alyssa until I use the counterspell."

"That sounds terrible. Immoral," Jake said, making nearly everyone in the room shift uncomfortably. After all, they'd all agreed with Rae when she wanted to erase his memories the first time. After thinking it through, at that point in time, even Alyssa would've supported it if she'd still been friends with them. She was friends with Jake, but not close enough for her to want him to know the way she currently did, and she'd agree it was dangerous and that he should forget.

"_Before we go any further on this issue_," Alyssa said in James head, "_do you think I'm being selfish by allowing Jake to keep his memories? Knowing does put him in danger, especially now. Like Rae said, he's really close to most of us."_

_"__If you're being selfish, then so are the rest of us. But it'll like Jake said. It's immoral to erase someone's memories, which I know you know. So we can't do that, especially to him, because we already did it once."_

"_If it's immoral to erase Jake's memories, then how is it _not_ immoral to erase yours?"_

_ "__Because _I'm _asking for this. We erased Jake's memories without his knowledge or consent, and it would be the same if we erased his memories this time. But I'm giving my consent for this_."

"_Well, I'm not_."

"_It's not really your choice is it? It's my memoirs and my mind."_

_ "__And it's for _my_ benefit. I'm not letting you do this for me."_

_ "__Then let me do this for _me_. Giving you peace of mind is something _I_ want._"

"_That's still for my benefit_!"

"_It's for _our_ benefit."_

_ "__James, you're practically _conning_ me into saying yes. I'm too smart for that_."

"_That's just it Alyssa. I don't _need_ you to say yes. I'm going to do it one way or another. It'll be a lot better for you if you get on board_."

Alyssa couldn't understand how he could say something so infuriating in a tone that still made her _melt_. James didn't just ooze charm; he _was_ charm. That was his whole being. Or maybe Alyssa just loved him that much.

"Fine! I'm on board," Alyssa said finally, hardly believing she was saying it.

"How did she decide that? They were just staring at each other for five minutes," Jake said, confused.

"They were having a telepathic conversation," Rae said. "Like, in their heads."

"I know what telepathic means," Jake said, a laugh in his voice. "So is that what you guys were doing every time some of you stared at each other not saying a word?"

"Mostly," Rae said. "If it was just Alyssa and I, then sometimes we were just having a conversation with our eyes. That's not a guardian talent. Just a best friend talent."

"Even though my best friend opposed my viewpoint," Alyssa said.

Rae shot her an apologetic look, then spoke in her head. "_Chris said this was a private matter, and you can't get more private than a mental link. But I know that's not why you started talking in your minds. What was the reason?"_

Alyssa shifted uncomfortably. "_We were talking about Jake and whether or not we should erase his memories_."

"_And?"_ Rae asked excitedly. Were they going to let her keep him in the dark like she wanted?

"_And we decided not_," Alyssa said. "_Sorry. But you should know, I can read your mind, and you're lying to yourself by saying you want to erase his memories. Deep down, you _love_ that you can finally tell him this stuff_."

Rae glared at the fire guardian.

"_Payback for taking James' side over mine_," Alyssa teased.

"Are you guys doing it now?" Brian asked.

"Guilty," Alyssa admitted.

"Wow. Can you speak in _my _mind?" Jake asked.

"Do you want me to?"

Jake paused. "I don't know. Read my mind instead. What am I thinking?"

"You're thinking that if you try hard enough, I won't be able to read your mind, and maybe you're right, but you're not good at blocking me. And now you're scared because you don't want me to know all your secrets. And now you're wondering if I know…" Alyssa stopped, partly because Jake's face was getting paler and paler and partly because she knew she shouldn't say the next thing out loud.

"_Now you're wondering if I know whether or not Rae would take you back. And I _do_ know. But I'm not going to tell you, because your relationship is a lot more complicated than you think."_

Jake looked startled for a moment, hearing Alyssa's voice in his head, then frowned at her words. What did _that_ mean?

"Should I prepare the spell?" Sage interrupted nervously.

Alyssa's face darkened.

"Yes," James said firmly.

"No," Rae countered. "We wait for Ellie." Then she began to pace again.

"If she ever gets here," she whispered to herself.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Adam turned to Ellie and opened his mouth to speak, but then decided against it and looked ahead again.

"Adam, God! That's like the twentieth time you've done that. If you have something to say, just say it!" Ellie cried.

"It's just...abuse? My God Ellie, why didn't you _say_ anything?"

On the way to Marcus's house, Ellie explained to Adam everything she had kept a secret for years. She told him about the abuse she faced. How in the beginning, her mother would apologize after she hit them, how Alyssa found out and why they split up, how it stopped for a while, how Ellie's uncle walked back into their life, starting the abuse again, why they couldn't tell when Jason turned 18, and why they couldn't tell now.

She told him about Caty snooping, about telling Chris, how he told the other guardians, how she ended up attacking her mother and uncle, and how Gavin reacted to her powers. She told him all about her dad, and how she had to make her family forget, which lead to the story of how Jason found out about her powers.

Adam didn't say a word all the while. When she was done with the story, they'd reached Marcus's apartment. Ellie tried to beat around the bush when she told jason what was happening, but he saw through her and demanded the full story. He knew about the prophecy already, so she just told him it could be the final battle, and to her surprise, and immense relief, he didn't try to forbid her from going. Instead, he just hugged her tightly and told her to be safe.

She told Gavin the reason she stopped by was just to say hi, gave him a hug goodbye, and left. She told a still 'silent as a ninja' Adam she had one more thing to do before they met up with everyone else at The Silver Dragon. As she led the way, Adam tried to finally say something, but found it difficult until this very moment.

"I was scared. If you knew what if you told the police and an investigation was launched and Mom got taken away? Gavin and I didn't want that to happen."

"_Didn't_ want that?"

"I know now that she'll never come back. She'll never be my mom again. Not the mom that loved me anyway."

"So why don't you tell the police now?"

Ellie nearly stopped walking. That was the question she was hoping no one would ask, and up until now, no one had. She had answer ready, but she also knew if someone asked her that question, they'd also question her answer. But she didn't want to lie or avoid anymore. At least not with Adam.

"Because I don't _really_ need to to tell the police, do I? Jason's gone, I moved out. Jason found an apartment that the two of us can live in. We can move in as soon as school ends, so we won't be imposing on Marcus or Alyssa too much longer. Mom is still Mom with Gavin, and Uncle Tim is leaving him alone, so why should we tell? Gavin can keep Mom."

"And what happens if you mother or uncle demands you home? What happens if your mother can't stop your uncle from hurting Gavin? What happens if your mother loses it and starts hurting him too? You always knew in the back of your mind she'd never come back, but that's because she hurt you when you were little. She's been nothing but sweet to Gavin for almost 17 years. He's too far gone. No matter how much she hurts him, he'll never believe she's truly gone. He'll do everything in his power to remind her how much she's supposed to love him. And that's dangerous. You have to tell the police, to protect your brother and yourself."

Ellie didn't say anything. She knew Adam was right, but as long as no one brought it up, she figured she could forget about it. Adam _would_ be the one to dig deeper and figure it out.

"Well, I have a plan," Ellie said. "Hopefully, it'll work, and I won't need to get the police involved."

Adam opened his mouth to ask what that plan was, but as he took in his surroundings, he didn't need to. He figured it out.

"Ellie, no."

"I have to."

"For what? For Gavin? Just tell the police. That'll protect him too, and you don't have to put yourself in danger. Sure he'll be mad, but he'll understand, and if he doesn't, then he's a lousy brother. Jason would never let you do this for him, so why are you doing it for Gavin? He's not nearly worth it."

"It's not for him, it's for _me_," Ellie said. "And if it helps Gavin in the process, then that's an added bonus. I _am_ putting myself in danger, but not with this. With the battle we're engaging in today. If it's not the final battle, I'll be okay. The prophecy says we all survive to face this enemy in the final battle, but if it _is_ the final battle, if there's a chance I could die today...I couldn't go face that without trying."

Adam sighed. This was not a good idea. He knew the minute he saw Ellie's apartment building in front of him that she was going to go back into her house for the first time since she moved in with Alyssa, to say goodbye to her mother, who she still loved, despite everything. Ellie was not stupid. She knew Betty wasn't the same woman who doted on Ellie. She was pretty sure she'd never see that woman again, and the woman she called Mom now was someone she was scared of. But she still loved her, and she needed to say goodbye. And, if she could, she needed to see if there was a chance of bringing her old self back.

"Okay," he said, knowing there was no changing Ellie's mind once she was set on something. "Let's go."

Ellie gave him a coy smile, one that he recognized. It was the smile she wore when she was going to tell him something she knew he wouldn't like hearing. And this time, Adam knew what that was.

"No. Ellie, no! I'm not letting you go in there _alone_."

"Adam, I'll be fine. I checked everything out with Gavin while you were talking to Jason. My uncle is at work and will be until late tonight and my mother is in a good mood. You can come inside the building with me, and even wait in front of the elevator of my floor, but I need to go in and speak to her on my own. I have my powers. You didn't see this today, but I can go invisible, and I have a limited ability to fly even without my wings, because I control air. I'll be able to make a quick escape if I need to."

"Invisible? Like, disappear from sight, invisible?"

Ellie nodded.

"Wow," Adam breathed, putting a hand on his head. Unlike Brian and Jake, who were in awe of the guardians, Adam got more and more uncomfortable as he saw and found out more and more of the story. Ellie had a bad feeling Adam was going to cave and ask her to erase his memories. She could manipulate them so that he'd forget the guardian stuff, but not that they made up, but it would only be a matter of time before he asked what she was hiding again.

Adam broke out of his reverie and said, "If you use this invisibility, or any other power, your mother will see. What are you going to do, knock her out and erase her memories again? You can only erase complete days from her mind for so long before she decides she's going crazy and tries to get help."

"And what will that do? The memory flower is powerful magic. No amount of help could get her remember what I did to her if I'm forced to do it again."

Adam closed his eyes, as if trying to steady himself. "Alright, fine. But for_get_ the elevator. I'm waiting right outside the door. _Your_ door. And you're leaving the door unlocked. Using your powers on your mother is a _last_ resort, and if she seems hostile at any point, you're _leaving_."

Ellie nodded, knowing she could promise that. She wasn't brave enough to stay anyway.

Adam stayed out of sight as Ellie unlocked her front door and opened it up. She entered her apartment and closed the door behind her, but didn't lock it, staying true to her promise.

Her mother was the couch, a bottle of vodka in her hand. She hadn't noticed Ellie yet. Ellie braced herself and said, "Hey Mom."

She hadn't meant for the words to come out so weak sounding, but they did.

Betty Kramer looked up, and into the eyes of her only daughter. "Oh. It's you. What are you doing here?" she asked, clearly not caring about the answer.

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. She _was_ in a good mood if she was talking calmly instead of lunging at her, and considering the fact that she didn't call her Emily or Erin, she wasn't drunk yet (Betty always used Ellie's name when addressing her if she was drunk, but she also _forgot_ Ellie's name when she was drunk so she called her whatever name she could think of so long as it started with the letter 'E').

"I wanted to see you," Ellie said meekly.

"Why?"

"It's been a long time since I have."

"Yes it has. Where have you been?"

Ellie shrugged. "That's not important. I just wanted to see you in case I don't get another chance to."

Betty didn't ask what this meant. "And that useless brother of yours? Where is he?"

Ellie fought to stay in control. She had to remain sweet if she wanted to bring her mother back, but hearing her call Jason 'useless' made her mad. Jason was anything but.

Ellie walked over to the couch and snatched the bottle from her hands.

"Hey! Give that back you ungrateful brat!" Betty demanded.

Ellie ignored her. Ungrateful brat was not bad by Betty's standards, so most likely, dumping the vodka in the sink like she was doing right now, wouldn't result in a beating.

"You're wasting it," Betty whined. "Money down the drain."

"We don't have money to spend on alcohol as it is," Ellie said.

"We?" Betty sneered. "Last time I checked you don't live here anymore, so what do you care?"

"I don't live here anymore?" Ellie asked.

"You haven't been here in a month. Neither have your clothes, your books, or any of the items you deem important."

Ellie was surprised her mother had even noticed.

"So I figured you moved out. And you don't have any bags with you, so it doesn't seem like you're moving back in."

"You're right, I'm not. I'm living with a friend. And Jason and I are moving in together at the end of the month."

"Good," Betty said.

Good? What did that mean?

Ellie looked at her mother. Betty had a sad smile on her face. "You shouldn't live in this house any longer."

That didn't sound like she was kicking Ellie out. That sounded more like advice. And was that _relief_ in her voice?

"Mom, do you remember when I was ten and I told you about the brownies Alyssa, Adam, and I made at Alyssa's house, but I couldn't remember the whole recipe? Remember how we made twenty batches of brownies all with different amounts of ingredients just so we could find the right recipe?" Ellie asked, hoping a good memory would help Betty remember she was supposed to love her kids.

To Ellie's surprise, Betty nodded.

"It was hard to get you to eat anything but sweets at that age, and even though it wasn't good for you, I fed you desserts so you'd at least eat _something_. I would make cheesecake and cookies, but you were getting tired of both. You seemed excited about these brownies, so I had to find the recipe so I could make something else you'd be willing to eat."

Ellie smiled at that. "Why didn't you just call Taranee?"

"Taranee and I went to Sheffield together, and we didn't exactly get along. I was pretty terrible to her, and she never really forgave me."

"What did you do?" Ellie asked, because holding a grudge didn't sound like Taranee.

"It was the usual mean girl stuff. I was popular in high school, and Taranee was friends with a few popular girls, but not popular herself. I mainly just teased her, but the thing she hold against me was when I cheated on her brother with her ex-boyfriend Nigel. He'd broken up with her a couple months ago, but she wasn't over him, plus my current boyfriend, the one I cheated on, was her brother Peter. It didn't go over well. She broke my nose, which got me kicked off the cheerleading team for the rest of that year, and told her brother, making him break up with me and start dating this girl Audrey who I heard he eventually married. The ordeal did bring her and Nigel back together though."

Ellie was awed. She knew Betty and Taranee went to Sheffield together. Betty was two years older than Taranee. She also knew she got kicked off the cheerleading team in her junior year because her broken nose would reflect badly on the team's overall image (whoever was captain that year was meaner than the old Gabi and Traci put together), but she didn't know the reason.

It did make sense now why Taranee stiffened and wore an un-Taranee like, tight-lipped smile every time Ellie brought up her mother. Adam, Alyssa, and Ellie always wondered about that, but never asked.

"She and Nigel are married now."

"I know. I guess they were meant to be. Like I thought Kurt and I were."

Kurt was Ellie's father. Ellie knew that he and Betty started dating in their senior year. She was cheer captain, and he was the quarterback. They went to the same college on athletic scholarships, got married right after college graduation, and had Jason a few years later. Then came Gavin and Ellie. Ellie remembered the fights her parents got in very well, but she also remembered how lovey dovey they used to be. She wondered what changed.

"Why don't you bake anymore?"

Betty didn't answer.

"Why did you change Mom?" Ellie asked suddenly, taking the plunge. "You used to love me. Why don't you love me anymore? Why do you only love Gavin?"

Betty didn't look surprised at Ellie's outburst. "It's easier to love him. Tim doesn't hate him as much. But without you and Jason here, that might change."

Ellie frowned. What did that mean exactly?

Betty frowned as well, looking pained. She looked torn for a moment, then gave Ellie a mournful look before getting up and grabbing a beer from the fridge.

"There's not reason for you be here you little bitch. Get out!" she commanded, though she didn't sound nearly as malicious as she usually did. Ellie knew their moment was over however, and left, locking the door behind her.

"What happened? How'd it go?" Adam asked.

Ellie gave him the play-by-play as they walked to The Silver Dragon.

"It was confusing. I don't understand what she meant or why she suddenly got angry," Ellie said. "And why didn't sound as mean as usual."

"It sounds to me like the abuse comes from the influence of your uncle. I don't think she really _wants _to hurt you. Maybe your uncle _makes_ her. And she wants you and Jason to move out so that you don't have to be in that environment anymore. She got angry and made you leave because she didn't want to reveal all that to you. She's worried about Gavin because he's the only one of you home now, but she can probably protect him for the rest of summer, and then he'll be gone again. You and Jason can't leave just yet, so she prefers you move out."

Ellie thought about that. "It hurts a lot when Uncle Tim hits me. But if Mom hits me, she usually leaves me alone. He only hits me if Mom isn't home and I am, or if Mom didn't touch me that day. And I know Mom is strong, and it hurts when she hits me, but not enough for me to scream. I scream so that she'll be satisfied. She always hits me less when I scream. But I know she can hit me hard enough to make me really scream, but she doesn't."

"Maybe that's it. Maybe she's worried your uncle will hurt you, so she hits you so he won't. She doesn't do it too hard, but you being a good enough actress to pull off real screams helps her sell it. As long as it seems to your uncle that you're getting hurt, he'll lay off and let your mother take care of it."

"But my uncle wasn't around when she first started hitting me. And the insults and the drinking weren't his influence."

"It's just a theory," Adam said. "I don't know for sure."

The Silver Dragon appeared.

"Adam, if I don't make it back from this battle-"

"El, don't talk like that. You _will_."

"If I _don't_," Ellie said firmly, "I need you tell Jason this theory, along with the exact conversation. Okay?"

Adam sighed, but nodded. "Yeah, okay. And Gavin too?"

"No. There might be a way to bring Mom back if this is really because of Uncle Tim. But unless Jason and I find a solution, Gavin can never, ever know."

Adam nodded. The pair entered The Silver Dragon and went downstairs to see Alyssa and James making out like it was the last time they would ever see each other (which it might be), Caty, Brian, and her friends doing homework (seriously?), Gabi, Lili, Chris, Cara, Sage, and Josh laughing about something (were Gabi and Josh _holding hands_?!) and Rae pacing around while Jake tried to calm her down.

Rae looked up as the pair appeared.

"Thank God!" she cried gratefully. She turned to the others. "Alright, we're all here. I guess the first thing we need is for Sage to do the spell."

Ellie frowned. "What spell?"

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: This was kind of an awkward place to end it, but it was getting too long, even for three chapters. Next is the battle, but ****_not_**** the final battle. We still have a little ways to go. The good news is, people who like reading this story will get a lot more. The bad news is, people who want this story to end will get a lot more. Though, I guess if you want to the story to end, you probably stopped reading by now. Anyway guys, please review and I'll try to write as fast as possible!**


	51. The Dark Prince

**A/N: Hey everyone! So I'm sorry it took me so long to get these out. I just started my summer class, and after that I'm going overseas, so I want to get out a lot of chapters, but the writing seemed to be slow going. I had so many ideas in my head that it was hard to get it all out on paper, and I didn't do any of my ideas justice.**

**I still hope you guys like it though!**

**I'd like to finish by giving a HUGE thank you to Winxcat for favoriting this story and another HUGE thank you to philip36 for following this story. Hope you guys like these new chapters!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Emily: I love you...so much. Please remember that as you beta the next chapter. Because I'm literally shaking replying to you. I really hope you find **_**something**_** in these chapters that you like.**

**WaterAmulet: Rae and Jake are not back together yet, and the reason is explained in the next chapter. This was not the final battle. There's still a bit of the way to go. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**SilvenArrow: Of course PMs are alright, I love hearing from you either way. I responded to most things when I PM'd you back, so I just want to say thanks for reading and hope you enjoy...really, because I have a feeling a lot of people won't, and you're the only one who doesn't have extreme reactions at the things I do.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"He really did _forget_," Ellie whispered.

"Yeah...I know," Alyssa replied. "Stop reminding me, this is terrible!"

"It's only for a little while," Gabi soothed. "Just until the battle's over."

Alyssa sighed, but nodded. She knew her friends were trying to be there for her, but they didn't understand how it felt to look at their boyfriend whose eyes were once filled with love go blank all of a sudden.

Alyssa wanted to talk to Rae about this, but Rae was busy making plans in her head for the impending battle, and she knew that took precedence. She couldn't distract Rae with her problems.

"Okay guys, here's what we're going to do," Rae said finally. "We're going to Meridian in guardian form. We'll gather a small army, and split up into three teams. One team will be led by me, one by Sage, and one by Chris."

Chris looked surprised. "Why am I a leader?"

"We need leaders who can open portals. As a child of a former guardian and a Regent of Earth, you can as long as you have the Heart in your possession."

"And how is he going to have that?" Alyssa asked. "The Heart fuses with you when you change us."

"You're right. That's why I need you guys to transform yourselves...without the Heart, the way Gabi and I do."

"Rae, we can't. Don't you remember how sickly we get when we try?" Caty complained. "None of us have been able to do it yet."

"Ellie has. She did it _first_. I know you were in a life threatening situation, but we need you to be able to do it without one of those."

Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie exchanged looks, then sighed and tried it. It took ten minutes for Rae to finally allow them to stop.

"Okay, okay, nevermind," she said. "Gabi, you and I need to transform."

Gabi nodded and the two girls changed.

"Earth!"

"Quintessence!"

Rae raised up the Heart. "Guardians, unite!"

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Air!"

To everyone's surprise, Rae was still holding the Heart.

"Wait, why didn't it merge with you?" Caty asked.

"It only does that if I transform myself with it. If I transform the rest of you, but I'm already transformed myself, it doesn't fuse with me."

"Then why did you make us do that?" Ellie demanded.

"Guys, don't be mad at Rae. She was just trying to help us learn a skill we will most likely need to learn eventually," Alyssa mediated.

"Your friendship with Rae is really amazing. You guys understand each other without saying a word. It's admirable Alyssa," James said with a smile.

Tears sprang into Alyssa's eyes as she went red. She'd never heard James take that casually friendly tone with her. With her, his tone had always been loving, even when they were just friends.

Rae, Jake, and Ellie immediately crowded around the fire guardian, hoping to calm her down.

"Did I say something wrong?" James asked.

"No, of course not!" Sage said quickly, and for once, her acting skills boosted her lying skills.

After Alyssa had calmed down, Rae gave the Heart to Chris, then opened a portal. She was getting much better at opening portals without the Heart.

"Wait," Jake said. "That's a portal, as in a way to go to a different dimension, right?"

Rae nodded.

"So you're leaving for this land where Sage and Josh are from, and then you're going off into some sort of final battle?"

"It's _not_ the final battle, but there may be a battle, yes," Rae said.

"You're leaving us hanging," Jake protested. "We've been really patient. We've asked as few questions as possible and helped you in any way we could. We calmed you down and went with you wherever you wanted to go. And now you're leaving with no explanation whatsoever?"

Rae took a deep breath.

"Jake, I think you'll want to back off," Alyssa said.

"Seriously? You _vouched_ for me when-"

"Jake! I'm not threatening you, I'm warning you," Alyssa said.

Jake looked at Rae, who was glowering at him, and paled. He knew Rae was about to explode. And Alyssa knew pissing Rae off when she was in leader mode was worse than pissing her off at any other time.

Jake debated. He knew he should, as Alyssa said, back off. But he couldn't.

"I've waited too long for this," he said calmly. "I want the story."

Rae growled. "Jake, I'm sorry if you're _confused_, but I have an _army_ to _lead_ into a battle that might _end _some lives, so I think what I'm doing takes priority over what you're _feeling_," she screamed.

Jake jumped. He'd never seen Rae get that angry before.

"_I tried to tell you_," Alyssa said in his head.

"It's okay," Nina said quickly, not wanting the situation to escalate. "You guys go. Lili, Misha, and I will try our best to explain to Jake, Brian, and Adam what's happening, and you guys can answer any other questions they have when you come back."

"Sounds great. Thanks so much," Alyssa said, trying to pull Rae through the portal while shooting Jake an apologetic look.

Ellie gave Adam a hug, Caty kissed Brian and waved to the others, and the group went through the portal. When they were all gone, the portal disappeared.

"Where did it go?" Brian asked.

"Rae closed it," Misha said.

"And how can she do that? Open and close portals?" Jake asked.

"We have a long day ahead of us," Lili sighed.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you sure this is a big enough army?" Caleb asked nervously as people began to gather in his house.

"Yes. We just need a small army," Rae said. "So we'll have back up. According to the prophecy, most of the ass kicking needs to be done by us."

Alyssa laughed. The team was scattered, talking with some of the members of the Meridian army, but Alyssa stuck by Rae. She was the only one that could keep Alyssa from breaking down about James.

Caleb still didn't look convinced. When Team GRACE arrived in Meridian and went to Caleb's house to let him know what was going on and what they needed, he'd been very calm and spread the word to his best fighters. But now that everyone had arrived, he was freaking out a little more.

The army consisted of Caleb himself, Aldarn, a close friend of theirs the girls hadn't met named Vathek, some of the men in Elyon's guard who hadn't gotten captured during the siege of palace, like Rathor, Jilly and Julia, and several men who'd fought by Caleb's side since they were teenagers trying to return Elyon to the throne and imprisoned her brother.

"We're good. I'll just tell them the plan," Rae said.

Caleb stopped her. "Your team, you talk. This army is _my_ team. I'll tell them the plan."

Rae looked miffed. "It's _my_ plan."

"I know it. And splitting up into three teams isn't much of a plan."

Now Rae looked mad, but to Alyssa's relief, she just huffed and let it go.

"He sure needs affirmation of his manhood," she muttered before Caleb was out of earshot.

He turned back to her and glared, but didn't say anything. He just gathered his army to talk to them.

"Rae, you okay? _You're _the one that keeps insisting this isn't the final battle. You _don't_ have a boyfriend that _forgot_ you're his girlfriend. Yet, you seem to be in the worst mood out of everyone."

"I'm fine," Rae replied convincingly. Her eyes flitted over to where Josh was standing. He was talking to his sisters, and holding Gabi's hand. He wanted to introduce his sisters to his girlfriend, and the three girls seemed to be getting along great. "I can't believe they're together."

"Isn't it great?"

"Great? They seem like an odd couple to me."

"I don't know. When you think about it, they actually seem pretty perfect for each other."

Rae shook her head. "I don't see it. I can't believe he likes _Gabi_. I was so shocked when he told me."

"When _did _he tell you?" Alyssa asked.

"Um, a few days after he kissed me. He wanted to talk about it and I said it didn't mean anything and he agreed because he likes Gabi."

Alyssa frowned. "Rae, is it possible when he kissed you, you liked it?"

"No! Maybe...yes? I mean, it wasn't a _bad_ kiss or anything. It was actually really good. But it didn't mean anything."

"Then how come it sounds like you're jealous of Gabi?"

"I'm not _jealous_," Rae said. "It's more like...okay, Josh used to like me, but I didn't know that until _after_ I started dating Jake, and noticed how jealous Josh was. And I didn't realize he stopped liking me, and when he told me he liked Gabi instead...it's just that...how is _Gabi Shay_ of all people a replacement for me?"

"You guys are actually more similar than you think," Alyssa said as calmly as she could. It wasn't easy because she bristled at Rae's comment. Alyssa was naturally protective of her friends since it had been so long since she had any.

"We are _nothing_ alike," Rae objected vehemently.

Alyssa actually jumped. "What is your problem with her?" she asked, only letting curiosity into her tone.

"Alyssa, that girl _tortured_ you for almost seven years of your life for no other reason than because she _could_. She thinks she's God's gift to the Earth or something. She's _so_ self-centered."

"She apologized for teasing me."

"How is that enough?"

"It's all I wanted. And her apology didn't make us friends, her personality did. She's commanding, sarcastic, funny, and helpful, at least when she wants to be. You're all those things too. I like her so much because she's a lot like you. And that's probably why Josh likes her too. Plus she's gorgeous, and you know how pretty girls are his weakness."

Rae laughed lightly at that, even though she didn't love the fact that she and Gabi shared so many traits.

Ellie came up to them. "Do you see Julia and Jilly? They look like they're getting ready to punch Josh."

Alyssa laughed. "I better go save him," she said.

Alyssa walked up to her three half siblings just as Gabi went to go join Caty, who was talking to Cara.

"And if you're going to shoot more than one arrow, then hold the bows sideways. You have more of a chance of hitting multiple targets that way," Josh was saying. "Unless the targets are at different altitudes, in which case-"

"Josh, what are you doing?" Alyssa asked.

"Giving my sisters advice," he replied.

Jilly, who was holding a bow and was wearing a quiver, looked angry. Her left eye was beginning to twitch.

"Josh, they're good fighters. I understand brotherly advice, but I think you're annoying them."

Alyssa gave the twins a friendly smile. They reciprocated with nasty looks. Alyssa wasn't surprised. It hadn't escaped her mind that Jilly and Julia probably thought of her as nothing more than the lovechild of their father's terrible affair, and hated her, rather than as their half sister.

Josh frowned at the looks that twins shot Alyssa, but Alyssa touched his arm and shook her head warningly, telling him not to say anything.

Josh sighed, then said, "C'mere," to Alyssa, put his arm around her, and led her to a more private part of Caleb and Cornelia's yard.

"How're you doing?"

"You mean because of James?"

Josh nodded.

"You really want to hear that?"

"You're my sister. If you're upset, you should be able to come to me."

Alyssa sighed. "I want to cry all the time. I feel tears well up _every single time_ I look at him. I want to scream and sob and lay in bed forever. I can't stand the look in his eyes. He used to look at me with so much love and now he sees me on the same level as like...like Ellie or Gabi...just friends. He doesn't even see me on the level of Caty or Rae. How could he have wanted this? Didn't he think of what this would do to me?"

"He did this _for_ you Lyssa. So he wouldn't worry about you so you wouldn't worry about him worrying about you."

"I know, I get that, but this is _so much worse_. I knew it would hurt once he did it, but I didn't think it would hurt this much."

Alyssa stopped talking, her eyes full of tears.

"He'll come back," Josh said firmly. "Once the battle is over, Sage will do the counterspell."

"I _know. _I'm trying to be rational and logical about this, but it's hard. I guess living without his love for even a short period of time is too much for me."

Josh grimaced and Alyssa grimaced back.

"Sorry. I guess you don't want to hear that."

"No, it's okay," Josh said. He tightened his grip, giving her a one armed hug. When he let go, he said, "Okay, listen. I know this is bad timing, but can I give some brotherly advice about James?"

"I guess," Alyssa accepted slowly.

"Don't date him."

"What?"

"You heard me. Don't date him. Keep him under this spell. Or let Sage do the counterspell and break up with him. I don't trust him Alyssa, and this has nothing to do with being protective of you. There's something not right about that guy, and you know I have like a sixth sense about these things."

"Josh-"

"Go out with Chris. That's a guy who really cares about you."

"Chris is with Ellie," Alyssa said, feeling more confused than angry at what Josh was saying. "And _Chris_ thinks James is a good guy and I should hold onto him."

"I personally don't see Chris and Ellie lasting, but whatever. I don't know much about romance. Don't date Chris. But don't date James either. You need someone who'll treat you well."

"James _does_ treat me well."

"Then you need someone you can trust."

"I can trust-"

"No, you can't. You only think you can."

"Josh, no one shares your feelings about James. Everyone likes him. Even Chris trusts him. And you told me yourself he's not dangerous."

"I don't think he's dangerous. That doesn't mean he's trustworthy. I thought he was untrustworthy since the beginning, and the feeling grows stronger the more I get to know him."

"Get to know him?" Now Alyssa was angry. "You haven't gotten to know him at all! You don't know a single thing about him. And honestly, he's been nothing but nice to you even though you're such a jerk to him. You never pass him the ball during basketball, you're always too brutal with him during training, and you badmouth him every chance you get. What has he _ever_ done to you?"

"You mean besides existing?"

"Josh!"

"I'm sorry Alyssa, but I can't ignore this feeling. I'm not telling you what to do though. It's just my advice. You can take it or leave it. Clearly none of my sisters listen to my advice."

Josh threw the twins a backwards look.

"Josh, you tried to educate Julia and Jilly on something they're good at. And at least Julia fights with a sword like you. Maybe you can teach her something if you learned a new trick. But you suck at archery. What right do you have giving Jilly advice?"

"It was sound advice."

"It was also probably something she knew. It was common sense."

"What do you even know about being an older sibling?"

"Two words: John Ashcroft."

Josh rolled his eyes. "Oh whatever. I hate you!"

Alyssa giggled. "You love me!"

"No, I _detest_ you."

"Aw, I love you too!" Alyssa crooned.

Josh glared at her, but his expression softened within a second. "Stay safe Lyssa. I do _not_ want to lose you." He put his arm around her again as he led her back to Rae.

"Back at you Josh."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

When Team GRACE got to Kandrakar, they were horrified at the sight they saw. The Oracle and the rest of the Council trapped in a bubble suspended in mid-air. The same monsters the group fought in Meridian recently were milling around. There were a few hundred of them. They noticed the guardians immediately. Of course they did. There a bright light coming from the portal.

Team GRACE was prepared of course. The guardians were in their full form, Sage, Josh, and James had their weapons drawn, and Chris and Cara were in regent form. Alyssa had already set up several mental links, one between the team, one between herself, Rae, Caleb, and Aldarn, one between all twelve of them, and one just between her and Rae. She always had one between her and Rae. They were ready for this.

"See? Told you. Final battle," Gabi said.

"_A _battle. _Not_ the _final_ battle," Rae disagreed.

"We need a plan," Caty said.

"No time," Rae replied. "Sage, Chris, stay behind me for instructions. The rest of you, go. Fight as fiercely as you can."

No one needed to be told twice. Seven of the team members charged. So did the monsters.

Rae turned to Sage and Chris.

"Go back to Meridian and split the army in half. Each of you bring one half in. Chris, how easily are you able to control the Heart?"

"Very. The Heart is receptive to anyone with the blood of a previous or current guardian."

"Good. I need you to open a portal off the left. And Sage, you open one off the right. Make sure they're ready to fight and they come in charging. The enemy has a majority right now. If we can overwhelm them in the first few seconds, kill a few, then by the time the remaining regain their wits, we'll have more of an even fight."

Chris and Sage nodded. They both went back through the portal. Rae closed it and joined the fight. It was only a minute later when Chris and Sage led the Meridian army into Kandrakar. For a while, the team and Meridianites found the battle easy. The guardians had gotten far more powerful than they had realized. Using each other's elements and training for as long as Hay Lin wanted helped them learn lots of new tricks that made it easy to kill the monsters.

But they should've known it wouldn't have been that easy. After all, the entire Council of Kandrakar was trapped, and it took powerful magic to be able to do that, magic that was beyond all their comprehension.

By Rae's estimation, they started with 700 monsters, and now there were less than 300. There were very few Meridianite injuries, and none of the soldiers were dead. But just when everyone started to relax, 400 or so more monsters came out, returning them to their original number.

Caleb exchanged a grim look with Rae before they went back to fighting.

"Um, how long are we going to have to keep doing this?" Gabi asked. She and Rae we back to back, fighting off monsters that formed a circle around them. "Because I can't keep going forever. I'm getting tired."

Rae bit her lip. She was getting tired too. So far, they'd never had a battle in which they had fight hard and long enough to get tired until now. Even the battle against Hope and Riley, and the battle in Meridian didn't go this long.

"We anticipated that," Rae said. "Hay Lin equipped Sage, Chris, and I with the energy bars we use during practice to re-energize us. It'll only work for so long, so I'm reserving them for when we really can't go on any longer, but they're there."

"Hopefully whoever this enemy is doesn't have more monsters waiting in the wings," Gabi replied as they defeated the last of the monsters encircling them.

Of course just as Gabi said it, a huge winged creature appeared. He was at least twenty feet tall, like Snake Dude, but he looked more like a dark angel than an overgrown lizard.

"Chris, that guy looks just like you, except you know...bigger," Cara said.

"Yeah, no kidding," Chris said.

He had large black wings and a gold mask, just like Chris. But unlike Chris, he was dressed from head to toe in black.

"So, what are the chances that guy is on _our_ side?" Ellie asked.

The angel came towards Rae, his fist out, ready to punch.

"I'd say zero!" Caty cried as Rae managed to fly out of the way.

"Then let's destroy him before he can destroy us," Gabi said.

Rae was first to follow that advice. She flew right up to him, touched his shoulder, and shocked him.

The angel screamed in pain.

"Guardians one, Anti-Shagon zero," Alyssa cheered.

"Anti-Shagon?" Chris asked. "I vote against that name."

"You're outnumbered," Alyssa replied as she sent a big fireball towards him. It hit it's mark and Anti-Shagon screamed again.

The Meridian army, along with Josh and James, continued fighting the other monsters while the rest of Team GRACE focused on Anti-Shagon. Even though he kept getting hurt, he wasn't going down easily. He kept trying to grab the team, but they were too fast.

It wasn't too long, however, before Rae's flying started to deteriorate, and Anti-Shagon grabbed hold of her.

Rae screamed and struggled. She let out a few sparks of electricity from her hands, shocking Anti-Shagon's hand, and making him let go of her. However, once he did, he shot his arm, and a large bolt of electricity came at Rae.

Ellie grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way.

"Thanks," Rae breathed.

"Thank me by telling me how he has your power."

"I'll let you know once I figure it out," Rae replied.

Next, Alyssa got captured by Anti-Shagon. She used the same trick Rae did to burn the angel's hand. He let her go, but now he had Alyssa's power over fire _and_ Rae's power of quintessence.

Then, he grabbed Ellie and Gabi at the same time. They struggled for a few seconds, but then Anti-Shagon threw them several feet away. They saved themselves from crashing by flying, but Anti-Shagon added power over Earth and air to his arsenal.

"_He's not after all of us_," Caleb said the team's heads, realizing what was going on first. "_By touching you, he can gain your power, and he's not just limited to one. I think that he can only do it from you guys, or maybe all magical beings? He hasn't paid any attention to the rest of us. I don't think he can gain anything from humans."_

_ "Or any being with no ties to magic," _Alyssa agreed. "_Okay, so what's our plan?"_

_ "For him not to get the rest of us_," Rae said. "_He already has four elements, so that means Caty, the Regents, and Sage need to stay out of his grasp. Understand?_"

Everyone nodded. Sage, Caty, and the Regents joined the Meridian army, and the others kept Anti-Shagon busy so he wouldn't try to go after them. Some of the members of the Meridian army decided to join the team.

James joined them first, since they were his friends and his team. Caleb, Aldarn, and Vathek joined in next. Josh and his sisters started to make their way over too, but Alyssa noticed and flew over to them, landing in front of them so she could block their way.

"Not you guys," she said.

"Excuse me?" Julia asked, her voice sounding just like Gabi's did before she made an especially bitchy comment. "Who are you to tell _us_ what to do?"

"We're going to go help our dad. You'd think you'd care considering he's your dad too," Jilly added.

"Knock it off guys. Check your attitudes at the door," Josh said warningly.

Julia scowled. "As if _you're _any better than she is!"

"I don't care if you guys have a problem with me," Alyssa interjected. "Honestly, I get it. But this is _not_ the time. And by the way, I'm saying this for your own good. That thing can take the powers of any magical being, and as the kids of a former guardian, you guys count, meaning if he touched you, your fighting skills are his, and we do _not_ need that."

"She's right. That's why we need her," Josh said.

"Yeah, we know all about how smart she is," Julia said, rolling her eyes. She and her sister went back to the army.

"Sorry," Josh said. "They're usually not like that."

"You see me as your sister. They see me as the proof of your father's tryst. I get it," Alyssa assured him.

Josh looked like he wanted to protest, but Alyssa shot up and away as she saw the angel grab hold of James. Since James was human, and Anti-Shagon couldn't get anything from him, he'd probably just kill him.

Alyssa was fast, but Sage got there first, abandoning the army to help her friend. She used a spell to make copies of herself that way Rae did with astral drops. Sage and her army of fakes used flight to confuse the monster and make him drop James. Sage used her telekinesis to ease him onto the ground, but lost focus. When James landed, Anti-Shagon grabbed her.

Sage shrieked. She used her teleportation to get away, but the damage was done. Anti-Shagon had her magic.

"Well this isn't good," Josh said, appearing next to Alyssa.

"Why did you let him get you?" Caty asked, joining them.

"She didn't _let_ him get her," Josh defended.

"She was helping James. Tell me you wouldn't have done the same if you'd noticed," Alyssa added. "Or does your best friend mean nothing to you?"

"Guys! Are we seriously fighting? Now?" Rae asked. "What's done is done. Caty, get back to the army, and stay away from this fight, no matter what. Sage, now that he has your magic, you can help us here."

Both girls nodded. Caty headed back to the army and Sage joined the fight against Anti-Shagon.

Alyssa set up a link between the members of the team and members of the army fighting against Anti-Shagon.

"_Okay, we need a plan. How do we defeat someone who has most our powers? He's about as strong as the entire team."_

_ "No he's not. He only has four elements and he doesn't have the powers of the regents. We can defeat him, we just have to figure out how. He clearly can't die like everyone else or else he would be dead by now," _Rae said. "_Electrocuting him doesn't work. Neither does trying to burn him_."

"_Okay, so what will work_?" Ellie asked.

"_A new power_," Alyssa said.

"_What do you mean?" _Caleb asked.

"_I don't know how many of you guys saw, but when Rae struck him, he was hurt. But once he grabbed her and gained her power, he was healed. The same thing happened with me. He healed from the burn I gave him once he got my power. If he has the power, it can't hurt him anymore. But if we attack him with powers he doesn't have, he can't survive."_

_ "Okay, then connect us to Caty_," Rae said.

Alyssa did, and Rae explained the plan to the water guardian.

"_You need to be careful. If he gets your power, we lose our edge. You need to drown him before he can grab you."_

_ "I'm too tired to create that much water_," Caty protested.

"_Then you get your energy bar now,"_ Rae said.

Caty flew over to the group. Rae gave her one of the energy bars Hay Lin gave them. Caty looked completely revitalized. After that, defeating Anti-Shagon was a cinch. But their battle wasn't over with that. The next thing the guardians knew, five new enemies were flying in front of them, where Anti-Shagon was.

"Um guys...are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Ellie asked.

"If you're seeing five figures made of our elements, then yes," Gabi said.

Sure enough, there were five figures in front of them, each of their bodies made out of one of the guardian elements. The figures were in the shape of girls. One, made of lightning, was short with long, thick hair. One, the one made of vines, was tall with a pixie cut. Two of them, made of fire and water, were rail thin with shoulder length hair. They looked like twins. The last one, made of air, was a little chubby with long, thick hair and bangs in the front.

"_Guys…_" Alyssa said. "..._in the guardian group KARMA, the ones the nymphs came from, there were two girls, Regina and Marina, the guardians of fire and water, were twins_."

"_Does that mean…?" _Caty started, but trailed off when she heard the air girl giggle.

"_Oh no_," Ellie moaned. "_The nymphs_!"

"_But we _defeated_ the nymphs_," Gabi insisted.

"_Clearly, we didn't_," Alyssa replied. She connected them to the other members of the team and quickly explained what was going on.

Chris and Cara joined the group, trading places with Caleb, Aldarn, and Vathek.

"_Why do they look different now_?" Chris asked. "_They have full forms now_."

"_I don't even want to _think_ about what that could mean_," Caty moaned.

"_We need to fight them_. _We don't really have much of a choice_," Rae said.

"_We'll help_," Chris said as he and Cara took to the air.

"_No. The army is drowning out there. They need all the help they can get. You go there. We'll handle the nymphs,_" Rae ordered.

No one looked happy about that, but slowly, Chris, Cara, James, Josh, and Sage joined the army.

At first, the fight was okay. The nymphs started out overconfident, thinking, since they were guardians for much longer than GRACE was, they could beat them using little tricks. But GRACE had an amazing teacher. Hay Lin taught them all kinds of things that helped GRACE knock the smug smirks off of KARMA's elemental faces.

When KARMA realized they had to step it up, they started using sheer force and power and GRACE realized they were in trouble. The nymphs had more than double their power, their blasts larger than those of GRACE.

"_This isn't _working!" Alyssa cried. "_Element against element like this. They've got way more power than us. Regina's fire blasts keep swallowing mine, making hers bigger."_

"_The same thing's happening with Marina. And she can keep water frozen longer than I can_," Caty added.

"_Then it's time to switch dance partners_," Rae said. "_We can't win this way, but we might be able to defeat the nymphs if_ _we weaken them with their opposite elements._"

"_What do you mean_?" Ellie asked.

"_Like this. Caty, drench the fire nymph with as much water as you possibly can."_

"_That'll only weaken her,"_ Alyssa said. "_The nymphs need to be defeated by the guardian that wields their element, and we don't know how to do that. What we did the first time didn't work."_

"_I have a plan for that. Here's what we're going to do right now. Caty, force the Water Nymph to freeze herself. Then you and Alyssa switch places. Ellie, trap the Earth nymph in a tornado. Gabi, trap the Air Nymph under boulders. Then, all of you come here."_

The girls did as they were told. The fire nymph folded the quickest, the water too much for her. She sank to the ground, a smaller version of herself. The water nymph, who'd frozen herself, followed after Alyssa basically melted her body. Gabi and Ellie were successfully able to trap each other's nymphs. When they gathered near Rae, she ordered the girls to attack her nymph all at once. They did, and the Quintessence Nymph went down.

Rae flew down to the ground where the nymphs lay.

"_Chris, I need you here, _now_."_

Chris flew over to Rae.

"The Heart please."

Chris gave Rae the Heart. She lifted it in the air and concentrated. One by one, the nymphs were sucked into the jewel.

"You trapped them in the Heart?" Alyssa asked.

"Yup. I got the idea when I remembered the Oracle was forced to lock them up before. They didn't stay dead, so instead, I trapped them in here."

"Good idea. Can they get out?" Chris asked.

"Unlikely. I need you to take the Heart to Sage though. She's wearing the Heart of Meridian look alike jewel, and I think they're safer in there than the Heart of Kandrakar. She can transfer them into her jewel."

Chris nodded, took the Heart from Rae, and pulled Sage aside.

"Okay, now we go join the others," Rae ordered.

The others nodded.

"Hey guys, we've got company. _New_ company," Gabi said, nodding towards the sky. Flying at them were monsters they'd never seen before. They were gray with large wings and fangs. They looked like pterodactyls, except their heads were rectangular rather than triangular. There were at least 200 of them.

"Great. Now we face monsters that can _fly_ too," Alyssa sighed. "That was _supposed_ to be our _one_ advantage."

"The fact that they can fly _can_ be an advantage," Caty said. "Watch."

Caty flew up to where the new monsters were waiting, cawing like crows. The other girls joined her, curious.

Caty created her famous ice sword and used it to cut off the wings of four of the monsters. They all fell to the ground, cawing in pain. Judging the the faint crack Ellie heard, she guessed they'd broken some burns. They'd surely bleed to death.

"Cool," Gabi said.

"My turn," Ellie said, grinning wickedly. She used a gust of hair to make two of the monsters lose their ability to fly. While she had them squirming and wriggling in front of her, she wiped out their air supply, killing them. Then she let them drop.

"You guys are such freaks," Alyssa said.

"Burning monsters alive isn't much different from what we're doing," Caty said.

"But putting them through so much pain before their death...I know they're our enemy, and we don't have to spare them, but mercy is always an option," Rae said, understanding where Alyssa was coming from.

"As if they'd do the same for us," Gabi argued.

"Are you seriously having a discussion about morals right now?" Josh asked as he and Sage joined them in the air.

"How are you flying?" Caty asked.

"I gave him enough of my power that he can fly," Sage replied. "James too."

As if on cue, James flew up to join them. In the next second, Chris and Cara were there.

"I put the nymphs in my jewel," Sage said.

"Now let's take these guys-these _Flyers_\- down and let the army handle the monsters on the ground," Cara suggested.

"Good plan," Rae agreed.

Team GRACE began fighting the pterodactyl type monsters, and even though they had an extra power with the flight, and they seemed to want to _bite_ the guardians, they weren't difficult to take down. Chris and Ellie both ended up with scratches on their arms from the monsters' talons, but were okay to continue.

When all the pterodactyl type monsters were dead, Team GRACE joined the army on the ground. There were only two monsters left. Caleb cut off both their heads at once. The army began to cheer.

"No casualties," Caleb said, grinning in relief. "And we won."

Rae was about to suggest they figure out how to free the Oracle and the rest of the council when they heard clapping.

Everyone turned to look in the direction of the noise. A man was standing next to the dome entrapping the Council of Kandrakar. He had oily, curly black hair and pale blue eyes. He was quite tall and looked young, like he was in this early to mid twenties. He had an evil sneer on his face, but Ellie was pretty sure if he smiled instead, he'd be kind of hot. He reminded her of Jason's new favorite actor ever since the new Star Wars movie came out, Adam Driver.

"Who are you?" Rae asked, her voice coming out more like 'bitchy cheerleader' than 'cold hearted leader.'

The man smirked, making Ellie and Gabi shudder.

"I am known around the worlds as the Dark Prince."

Hearing the man's voice instantly made everyone feel weaker. This was the voice Ellie had heard in her vision: the epitome of evil.

"The Dark Prince? Kasson?" Alyssa asked, getting her wits back first.

"That's not the guy I saw in my vision," Caty protested.

"Nor is he Kasson," Sage agreed. "I've seen Kasson when he and Mom met for royal meetings."

The man let out a noise of annoyance. "That pitiful Kasson took the name of Dark Prince to strike fear into people's hearts. The name belongs to me however."

"That's more of a title than a name. What's your actual name?" Rae asked, sounding more like leader than cheerleader now.

"I think I'll keep that little fact to myself," the man teased. "Now, let's see what happened here. You defeated my army, you defeated my angel, you even defeated my re-animated nymphs. You're stronger than I gave you credit for Guardians of the Veil. And you had much more help than I anticipated."

Everyone was suddenly unnerved. The man himself didn't look too scary, but his cold-as-ice voice made them nervous, and hearing him speak so much at once didn't help.

"_Guys, he's just one guy. I know he sounds scary, but it's like he said. We defeated his army. Maybe we can take him down too. Let's attack him together."_ Rae said. "_The guardians, Sage, and the regents, all at once_. _Clear_?"

"_Clear_," the others responded.

"Oh, clever Keeper," the Dark Prince suddenly said. "Attack all at once with no warning, take down the enemy. But I'm afraid it's going to take more than that."

"How did you know our plan?" Alyssa asked.

"You think you're the only one who can read minds Guardian of Fire?" the man teased.

Alyssa turned away, affected by his voice.

"Don't talk to her," Caleb growled, a surprising fatherly instinct coming out.

The man just laughed, his voice chilling everyone.

"You did well guardians," he said finally. "But it won't be enough. I know what you want. To defeat me before I get my hands on the Heart of Meridian. But you are sorely mistaken if you think this will be easy for you."

With that, he waved his hand. The group braced themselves, but for a moment, nothing happened. It was clear he wasn't casting a spell when several more monsters appeared. It was the same type as before, the ground monsters, and the pterodactyl Flyers. There were at least 200 of each.

The Dark Prince had disappeared. Caleb looked at Rae. She nodded. He nodded back and yelled, "For Meridian!"

"For Queen Elyon!" Aldarn backed up.

"Let's go help," Sage said to Josh.

"No. I need the team to take to the sky," Rae decided.

Everyone nodded and flew up in the air.

For a while, the battle seemed to be going okay, but the team was getting tired. Caty was okay since she had an energy bar, but the rest were running on fumes. Alyssa's fireballs were pitiful. At one point, a golf sized ball went completely awry, missing every target. The monster had the edge, but James cut it's head clean off before he could attack Alyssa.

"Okay, this isn't working," James declared. "_Rae, the rest of us need that energy bar you gave Caty, including you."_

No answer.

"_Rae_?" Alyssa asked.

"_Busy, call back later_," Rae replied. Looking in her direction, James and Alyssa saw Rae was trying to take down about twenty monsters on her own.

"Plan B," James said. "Follow me."

Alyssa did, and they got to the ground, hiding behind a bit of an alcove.

"_Sage, we need some of those energy bars_," James said.

"_I'm going to need a minute,"_ Sage replied.

"We can wait here for Sage," James said. "We won't be totally safe, but I'll protect you."

Alyssa bit her lip. That sounded like something her boyfriend would say, but his eyes only held friendship.

"While we're relatively unbusy," James said, "let me ask you a question. Are you keeping something from me?"

"Why would you think that?" Alyssa asked, even though she was keeping a secret from him. She was mad at him. At least, she was mad at the version of him that loved her and chose to forget her. "And unbusy isn't a word."

James smiled. "I know. And I think you're keeping a secret because you refuse to even look at me, and every time you do, you look like you're going to cry. The last time you stopped looking at me was when you were afraid of my reaction to GRACE."

Alyssa frowned. "You remember that?"

"Of course I do. The secret getting out is what made us even better friends."

"Do you remember why you joined the team?"

"To help. I wanted to be part of it, and you were in it, so bonus."

Alyssa bit her lip again. James had told her that he did want to join to be part of something, and it was a bonus that she was in it, and he wanted to protect her. But her presence in GRACE motivated him because he was falling for her. What was his motivation in his new memories?

"Or are you mad at me? Last time you were mad at me, you ignored me, and I entertained that possibility too. So if I've done something, then please just tell me," James said. "Because I've been wracking my brain, and I can't think of anything."

"What exactly do you remember? What's like...the _last_ thing you remember?"

"Um...leading you here?"

"Before the battle. Before coming here."

"Hanging out at The Silver Dragon, waiting for everyone else. Before that, going to your house to tell Taranee what was going on."

"And our friendship? What do you remember about that?"

James frowned. "Why are you asking me about this?"

"We're unbusy, right?"

James grinned, making Alyssa want to melt. "I remember going to the Halloween Dance together. I remember spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with you. I remember getting jobs at Lange's with you and the awesome birthday dinner you set up for me. You're one of my best friends Lyssa."

Alyssa's eyes filled with tears. He remembered everything, _every moment_ of their relationship, but in every memory, they were just friends. Sure, now she knew she was on a higher level than Gabi and Ellie were, but that thought didn't make her feel any better. She wished he just forget all their time together, because being his best friend in his memories instead of his girlfriend was way worse.

"Whoa, wait, what did I do? Don't cry! I'm so sorry for whatever it is I said," James said, worried and confused.

"It's not you," Alyssa said, except it was. He was the one that chose this.

He said he wanted to forget for himself. Well, now she needed to choose something too, for herself. And as if fate was on her side, Sage appeared in front of them right at that moment.

"I've got your energy bars. Everyone's eaten one besides you two," she said. "Rae hasn't either, actually. There weren't enough for all of us and Rae wants you two to have them."

"As always. That's the leader thing to do," Alyssa muttered. She couldn't deny she was worried about Rae, but she also knew she and James couldn't give up the energy bars. Rae was always the strongest anyway.

Sage handed each of them an energy bar. "Now eat, so you can come join the battle again."

"Before that, I want the counterspell. Now," Alyssa said.

"What? Now? But doesn't that defeat the purpose?" Sage asked.

"I don't care. He chose to do this for himself and to take care of me. I need to take care of myself and do something for me. I can't deal with this anymore. I want you to perform the counterspell."

"The counterspell for what?" James asked. "And who are you talking about?"

"Sage?"

"It's a kiss. For this particular strand of the spell, you need to kiss him, and he'll remember everything, including the spell."

Alyssa nodded. She ate her energy bar and convinced James to do the same, promising him she'd explain what she was talking about once he did. Sage left as James ate. Once he was done, Alyssa leaned in and kissed him. At first, James was stiff, but she could tell the spell had worn off when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.

Alyssa wasn't sure how long they were kissing. Probably too long considering they were in the middle of a dangerous battle. When they finally broke apart, Alyssa was overjoyed to see love in James' eyes again.

"You're back," she said.

"I never left."

"James Mason, the GRACE warrior never left. James Mason, my boyfriend was gone."

"But I thought you were worried about being too concentrated on each other."

"I'm beginning to think that's a good thing. I can't handle you forgetting who I am," Alyssa replied. "We can do this. We can fight and win without hindering ourselves because of each other."

James smiled and held Alyssa's hand. "We can do this."

Alyssa smiled back. They flew up together, hand in hand, shocked at the sight. In their little alcove, they couldn't see anything, but the number of monsters seemed to triple.

"There are more now," Alyssa said dumbly.

"There are _too _many," Caty said, hovering next to the pair. "We can't do this."

"Actually, I feel like I could take them all on and win!" James cried, pumped.

"Me too actually," Alyssa said. "But it's like my mind is fighting, trying to tell me that's not true."

"It's the effect of the energy bar. It makes you feel like you can do anything. It'll wear off. For you Alyssa, the rational part of your mind is more prevalent that it is in most people so you mind doesn't succumb to the recklessness the bar gives you at first. Mine didn't either."

"So no matter what, you're a know-it-all?" Alyssa asked teasingly.

Caty rolled her eyes, then used her ice sword as one of the Flyers came at them.

"What do we do now?" Alyssa asked. "According to your rational mind, there's no way we can take them all down."

"Rae says to keep fighting. She has some sort of plan I think," Caty said.

Alyssa and James nodded. They let go of each other's hands and began slicing and burning the Flyers.

For the first time, Alyssa had no idea what Rae was planning, but she hoped it was good, because the energy bar's effects were wearing off, and she wasn't sure how they were going to make it out of this one alive.

Rae however, knew exactly how they were going to make it out of this one alive. She just didn't like her plan much.

There was no way they could defeat this many monsters, and even if they did, Rae had a feeling the Dark Prince, who had since disappeared, had more monsters waiting in the wings. They were grossly underprepared for this. So they needed to retreat, but they needed to wait for the right time, so that they wouldn't lose anyone. Rae refused to leave anyone behind.

It wasn't long before she decided to begin the process. The group of monsters seemed like the mythical beast, Hydra. Every time they defeated one, two more took its place, both up in the air, and on the ground. They were severely outmatched.

"_Alyssa, stop fighting_."

"_Um, that's the worst plan you've ever had_," Alyssa replied.

"_Just listen, okay? I need you to find a hiding place. Take someone with you, preferably James or Josh_, _in case your hiding place doesn't work out._"

"_Okay, and do what?"_

"_Break all the links you've set up, and create a new one, linking all of us. GRACE, the rest of the team, the entire Meridian army. I need all of us to be linked to each other."_

"_That'll take some time_."

"_That's why I need you to hide first_."

Alyssa nodded just as Rae got closer to the fire guardian.

"Hey James! Want to go be unbusy some more?" Alyssa asked.

James grinned. Rae had no idea what that meant, or why Alyssa was suddenly so comfortable with her "as of right now ex-boyfriend" but didn't question it as another Flyer came at her.

Five minutes later, Alyssa and James flew back up.

"It's done," Alyssa said. "At least, I think it is. I've never connected that many people before."

Rae nodded. "_Attention to everyone. This is Rae, the Guardian of Quintessence. Alyssa has linked us all so we can all hear each other. Keep fighting as hard as you can. I promise you this will be over soon_."

Some of the members of the army seemed surprised to hear Rae's voice in their heads, but most of them kept their wits about them and continued to fight.

It was five minutes later, when the monsters seemed to triple _again_, that Rae decided it was time.

"_Retreat!"_ she yelled. "_We need to retreat_!"

"_Retreat? We cannot leave this battle like cowards_!" roared Rathor in his Australian accent.

"_There is no shame in leaving so we can live to battle another day_," Rae said firmly.

"_She is right. A smart warrior knows when we cannot win, and we cannot_," Caleb backed up. "_We look to you Keeper. What's the plan?"_

"_I need you guys, as surreptitiously as you can, get into the groups you were in before we came here. Some of you were led by Chris Lyndon, or Shagon. Other were led by Sage Martin, Meridian's princess. They will be your leaders again."_

"_What does surreptitiously mean?" _Ellie asked, then blushed realizing everyone could hear her.

"_Secretly," _Alyssa answered.

Ellie nodded, and everyone continued fighting, trying to get into groups. Chris and Sage, who were in the air with the rest of the team, headed back to the ground.

"_The groups are formed_," Chris said a few minutes later.

"_Chris, I need you and your group to fight your way toward a place next to the dome holding the Council. Sage, the same for you guys, but to a spot as far away from the dome as possible. Guardians, down on the ground, opposite the dome."_

Everyone did as they were told. Josh, James, and Cara hovered by Rae.

"_I need you three to watch everyone's back with me. Got it_?" she asked.

"Got it_,"_ they replied.

"_Okay, Chris, you lead group one. Sage, group two. When I tell you to, you fold your groups out. Once you make sure everyone is safe, you go through yourselves. Once in Meridian, close the portal, then open one more to The Silver Dragon basement. We'll meet there. But Sage, I need you to wait for Chris. You'll need to fold yourself and him to Earth."_

Both nodded though Rae couldn't see it from her altitude. Neither knew why Sage would need to fold Chris to Earth if he had the Heart, but didn't question it.

"_Meridianites, stay in Meridian,"_ Rae said. "_We all thank you for your help. Rest and take care of your injured. You've done more than we could ever ask for_."

"_It was an honor to fight alongside you guardian_," Rathor said.

Vathek and Aldarn nodded in agreement and many others grunted in support.

Rae was about to reply when she saw movement near the dome. If the Dark Prince was coming back, everyone needed to get out _fast_.

"_Okay, group two first. Sage, fold your group out of here."_

Sage opened a fold, and her group started going through. Rae, Cara, Josh, and James protected the group from any threats, Rae and Cara remaining in the air, Josh and James on the ground. Once everyone was through, Sage went through.

The monsters were smarter than Rae had given them credit for. They all began charging for Chris's group.

"_Guardians, attack. Chris, go! Before you leave, give me the Heart."_

Chris opened a portal and ushered his group through. Once everyone had gone through, he closed the portal from his side. He threw the Heart it Rae. It went wide, but it knew where its master was and floated towards Rae. Once Chris was sure the Heart was heading towards Rae, he jumped through the shrinking portal and went through just before it closed.

"_Guardians-and the rest of the team-gather where I told you to before. Everyone on the ground_," Rae said.

The team gathered. Just as Rae predicted, the Dark Prince had come out again, his face twisted in anger. Funnily enough, this made him look _less_ scary.

"Do not let them get away!" he commanded, his voice sounding less chilling and more high pitched and whiny. Rae had to resist the urge to laugh.

She sobered as she saw hundreds of monsters heading toward her team. From her spot up in the air, she opened a portal behind the team.

"_Guys, I need you to fight. When I give you the signal, you go through. No hesitation."_

_ "How will we know what the signal is_?" Ellie asked.

"_Trust me you'll know. Guardians, in a few seconds, you might feel unimaginable pain, worse than you've ever felt, even worse than the headaches. Push through it_," Rae said in the most serious voice she'd ever heard.

Her tone gave everyone enough pause not to ask what Rae was talking about.

Rae took a deep breath. The monsters were relentless, and they needed to be distracted if the team was going to have any chance of escaping. She knew this was a risky plan, but she hoped it would work. She was glad Sage had transferred the nymphs into her jewel. The Heart wouldn't be able to keep them trapped.

Rae didn't need the Heart for much anymore. She could open portals without it, transform without it. But the others...they still needed it to transform, save for Gabi. And the Heart granted Rae powers she wouldn't have without it. But she needed to save her team.

Rae took one more deep breath, then smashed the Heart against the wall next to her. The Heart broke instantly. Bright pink lights flashed around the room. Immediately, everyone covered their eyes, except Rae. For some reason, the lights didn't blind her or overwhelm her. She could see clearly. Maybe because the light was coming from the broken Heart, that belonged to her.

Rae was right about the pain. It hit so intensely, that at first, none of the guardians felt anything. Their nerves were so overloaded, their bodies weren't able to process the feeling. It gave Gabi and Ellie enough time to go through the portal. Cara and Josh followed.

Rae motioned for the others to go through as well. Alyssa and Caty turned towards the portal. In the next second though, they both fell to their knees. Immediately, James knelt down next to Alyssa. Rae's wings stopped working and she fell to the ground, but she didn't even feel the pain of falling from an altitude of 15 or so feet because the sensation of not being able to breathe was too great.

But then the life powder kicked in and the girls began to breathe easier. The lights from the broken Heart were still going strong. Rae got up, limping and crying. Her left wrist hurt like hell. It was most likely broken. She dislocated her shoulder as well, an injury she was familiar with since she'd done it once the previous year after a particularly brutal tennis match. She could also feel some bone damage in her right leg. A drop would do that.

She managed to make it to where the others were. She frowned. She was still in guardian form herself, and so were Gabi and Ellie when they went through the portal, but Alyssa and Caty were in human form again.

"Why are you guys not in guardian form?" Rae asked.

"I think we should we the ones asking the questions," Caty replied. "Like what the hell were you _thinking_ smashing the Heart like that? That's our _life source_."

"I was thinking it's just the distraction we need, and that we had the Kandrakar Life Power so we wouldn't die," Rae replied.

"The Heart transformed us," Alyssa said, deciding to answer Rae's question. "So Caty and I, and probably Ellie, went back to human form when it was destroyed. You and Gabi changed without it, which is probably why you retained that form."

"Not to break up the question and answer, but it seems like the light is fading," James said urgently.

He was right. So far, the monsters and the Dark Prince were too blinded by the light to pursue, but it seemed like it was fading, however slowly, and four of the Flyers that managed to escape the light were on the ground now.

"We each take on one," Rae said. "Once we kill it, we go through, no hesitation."

Everyone nodded, ready, but of course it didn't work out the way Rae hoped.

In human form, Alyssa and Caty couldn't kill. Alyssa's fireballs were big enough to burn, but too small to burn alive. Caty was still unable to create ice for a long enough period of time to slice through a monster in human form. And even though Rae was in guardian form, she didn't eat an energy bar, making her weak.

Still, Caty made a valiant effort to try and drown her Flyer enemy. She didn't create enough to drown him, but did manage to drench _two_.

That gave Rae an idea. Water conducts electricity, so she shot the biggest lightning bolts she could at him with her uninjured arm. Thanks to the water, the lightning was powerful enough to kill them. James beheaded a Flyer at the same time.

Alyssa was still having trouble with hers. James jumped in front of her, slashing. The Flyer jumped back, then scratched James with his talons.

Rae stood next to James, pushing Caty and Alyssa back. "No hesitations!" she reminded. "Go!"

Alyssa waved Caty on. Caty frowned, then grabbed Alyssa's arm, dragging her along. Alyssa resisted.

"No! I'm not leaving without James," she snapped.

"Lyssa, you can't argue with me on this," Caty insisted.

"No!" Alyssa growled.

Rae shot a ball of lightning at the monster, then turned around. "Alyssa, are you insane?! Go!" she yelled, distracted.

The Flyer took that opportunity to lunge at the Keeper.

"Rae, watch out!" James cried, jumping in front of her. The Flyer sank his talons into James.

James cried out in pain, making Alyssa and Caty scream. Rae turned back around in shock.

The Flyer didn't release his grip on James. Instead, he started _flying away_, taking James with him.

"James!" Alyssa cried, trying to run towards him.

Caty tightened her grip.

Rae shot into the air after him, but several Flyers went after her. The lights were fading fast.

"Rae!" Caty cried, a struggling Alyssa in her arms. "We can't lose you!"

Rae debated. She was leader, and she should go after James, try and save him. On the other hand, she was _leader_, meaning the others needed her. This was something Hay Lin was telling her. That the leader would often have to make hard choices, and would need to do what was best for the most people. No decision would be the best for all of them.

She knew James would tell her to stay with the team, and not bother with him. She didn't like it, but she knew what she had to do. She shot the biggest bolt of lightning she could manage at the Flyers, then flew back down as fast as she could.

The Flyers in the air were momentarily distracted, and the light, though fading fast, was still helping. They had to leave.

Alyssa was screaming and crying, struggling to free herself from Caty's grasp. Luckily, Caty was stronger than Alyssa.

"Lyssa, I'm _so_ sorry about this," Rae said. "But there's nothing any of us can do. We'll find him, but right now, we _have_ to get out of here."

"No, no, I can't leave, I need to save him!" Alyssa screamed, tears streaming down her face.

"Caty, go," Rae said. "Take her."

Caty nodded and dove into the portal, taking Alyssa with her. They landed hard on the floor of the basement.

"Ow," Caty muttered as she tried to get up and disentangle herself from the sobbing fire guardian. Looking around, she saw Chris and Sage were back, and Lili, Misha, Nina, Brian, Jake, and Adam were still there. Hay Lin and Eric were present as well.

Adam was next to Ellie, looking at her worriedly. He'd probably witnessed the few seconds of her dying before the life powder kicked in. Brian came over and kissed Caty. Lili, Misha, and Nina swallowed her into a hug. Josh was holding Gabi's hand, but let go when Caty and Alyssa came through.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, taking in his sister's devastated face.

Chris's features tightened as they always did when he was worried. He was next to Ellie, with his arm around her, but she shrugged him off to crawl closer to the fire guardian, trying to calm her down.

It was Jake who succeeded in the end. He took her hand and asked her softly what was wrong. She couldn't speak, but fell into him, seeking comfort. He was perfectly fine offering it, although he was growing increasingly worried.

Alyssa did not fall apart easily, and Rae wasn't back yet.

Clearly, Hay Lin had the same thought.

"Where's Rae?" she asked, fearing the worst.

As she said it, Rae stepped through the portal and closed it immediately before collapsing in exhaustion.

"Are you okay?" Sage asked, touching her shoulder.

"Ahh!" Rae cried out, tears springing into her eyes.

"I'm sorry! What did I do?" Sage asked, alarmed.

"Nothing, it's just...I think I dislocated my shoulder and broke my wrist, and my leg is kind of messed up."

Jake frowned. Why was Alyssa falling apart? He had feared the worst immediately as well, thinking something happened to Rae, but besides being a little-okay, a lot-worse for wear, she was fine. She was here. So what…

"Where's James?" he asked.

Alyssa cried harder.

"Oh no," Jake whispered.

"What happened?" Gabi asked.

"One of the Flyers took him. We couldn't save him," Caty said. "We couldn't fly."

"She could," Gabi said, nodding at Rae. Like Alyssa predicted, Gabi was still in guardian form.

"She was exhausted," Caty defended.

"Because she decided not to take an energy bar like the rest of us. That was her own fault. What were you trying to do New Girl?" Gabi asked angrily. "Do you really think you're so much better than the rest of us that-"

"Gabi, that was not Rae's fault. She was trying to be a good leader," Hay Lin broke in. "It was partly my fault. I only had nine of those energy bars left. I gave Rae, Sage, and Chris three each to distribute if you needed them. I was hoping you wouldn't, but they were well aware one member of the team wouldn't get to eat one. Rae had already decided she would be the one that wouldn't get one before the question even arose."

Gabi bit her lip, feeling bad. Of course Rae would make sure everyone else on the team was taken care of.

"And for the record, she _tried_ to save him. She went after the Flyer," Caty added. "_I _called her back. We are a guardian team with no Heart. We couldn't lose our leader too."

Rae was very quiet during this conversation. She was grateful to Caty and Hay Lin for defending her, but she had promised no one would die on her watch, and now James was kidnapped, and the Dark Prince would probably torture him for information, then kill him. She wasn't the leader she thought she was, or else she would've gotten _everyone_ home safe.

But when Nina timidly asked, "So what are we going to do about James?" Rae snapped to attention.

"We'll find him," Rae said firmly. "He won't be gone for long."

"Yes, we'll find him," Hay Lin agreed. "But first thing's first. We need a new Heart."

"So how do we get one?" Caty asked.

Hay Lin shifted. "I don't know."

"Are you saying in the _ten thousand _years the guardians have existed, the Heart has never been broken?" Gabi asked.

"Of course it has. Even one of the Thousand Year Guardian groups have broken it. Usually, we would go to the Oracle to get a new Heart, but the Council of Kandrakar is trapped."

At this, even Alyssa looked up, her face tearstained. Josh scooted closer to her, and Alyssa took comfort in him so Jake could go over to Rae.

"Well, what if we go to Meridian?" Gabi suggested.

"And contact who? That fake Dark Prince? Or, how about Hope and Riley? We really hit it off with them," Rae said sarcastically.

"Wait, what about the Mage of Meridian? Maybe she can help," Caty said.

"Well, where is she?" Josh asked. "Because last I checked, she was supposed to be _dead_. But then I found out she's actually my _grandmother_-"

"_Our_ grandmother," Alyssa interrupted softly from his embrace.

"Uh, right, _our_ grandmother, so she must be alive and...what, hiding?"

"No wait, she was trapped in her ring when Nerissa posed as her," Rae said. "So after that she went…?"

"To her home," Hay Lin realized. "She lives in a small cave near the Lake of Meridian. She might be able to help. So, first thing's first. We need to figure out when we can get to Meridian. Tomorrow after practice?"

"That's not the first thing," Jake broke in suddenly. "The first thing is get Rae to a hospital."

For a moment, everyone seemed shocked. The last time someone had a hospital worthy injury was when Caty fractured her ankle nine months ago. All other injuries were cleaned up by Hay Lin or healed by Sage.

"Oh, I can just take care of her," the princess offered.

"Actually, I think Rae could use a break," Jake replied. He sounded as polite as always, but everyone could hear the 'don't argue with me' tone in his voice.

"O-oh. Um, okay," Sage replied, not sure what else she could do.

Jake helped Rae up gently, and supported her as she limped over to the stairs. Jake gave Alyssa and Josh a, 'You coming?' look.

Josh made sure Alyssa was okay with this, then followed the pair.

"So how'd you get hurt?" Jake asked as they left.

"My wings stopped working and I fell from an altitude of 15 feet," Rae replied.

"Yeah, we're going to need a different story for the hospital."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: So, a couple of things. If you want to get clearer images of the pterodactyl monsters, I imagined them to look the like pokemon Aerodactyl, so you can look that up in google images to get an idea. Adam Driver is the actor who played Ben Solo/Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I imagined him to look more like the character of Kylo Ren (out of the Vader suit) than Adam Driver himself. And yes, I realize Driver's eyes are brown, but my Beta said pale blue would be scarier. Anyway, thanks for reading guys! Hope you liked it.**


	52. The Mage of Meridian

**A/N: I want to say this in advance for this chapter: I'm sorry! Please don't kill me, and enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: I would like you to hold on to that feeling of forgiveness as you read this chapter, at least for my sake. I really need that. Prom was a lot of fun to write so I'm glad you liked the read. Yes Ellie gets her best friend back, but as you'll see in this chapter, there's a reason Rae didn't get her boyfriend back yet. I hope you can try to enjoy.**

**Taylor: I'm so glad! You seem very invested in the couples. I liked how you PM'd me about Gabi and Josh and put everyone else in the review. They were always meant to get together just the way I wrote it, but it was supposed to be the actual final battle, and this isn't. Don't worry, if I made Sage not be able to perform the counterspell, I'd be a truly cruel person with the other things going on in these chapters. Try to enjoy!**

**Misa: Sorry! I love roller coasters though haha. And I had to give Alyssa and James some drama, because besides the small mention of Princeton, they didn't have any, and I kept thinking about writing a scene like that so I had to incorporate it **_**before**_** he got kidnapped, because it wouldn't work at any other time. You'll see why when I get there. Adam **_**needs**_** to be back in the picture, and Rae and Jake can't be together just yet. You'll see the reason for both those things in this chapter. I planned on Jake, Brian, and Adam finding out at the same time during an assembly for a LONG time, so I'm glad I finally got to write it. Hope you enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So can you like, get inanimate objects to do your bidding?" Jake asked the next day during lunch.

"I mean, essentially, but I haven't learned how to make inanimate objects come to life yet," Rae replied.

"And you can make people do whatever you want?" Jake asked, looking at Caty.

"I mean, I guess. It doesn't always work, and sometimes it works too well, and sometimes it goes horribly wrong."

"Like…?" Brian asked.

"Like when she told me to keep my mouth closed and I tried to staple it shut," Lili answered, glaring at her cousin.

"Whoa," Jake cried.

"Jake, that's not a _good_ thing," Alyssa said. "It just proves we still can't control all our powers. Sometimes, I'm standing in gym class or trying to take a test in math and everyone's thoughts come at me at once and I just want to scream."

"You think that's bad? When I'm in a bad mood, everything in my room starts to fly. I once got hit in the face with my history textbook while trying to get everything back in it's place. I was dizzy for hours after," Gabi said.

"Every time I get scared or nervous, the wind starts to pick up and blow hard, even if I'm inside. And if I get embarrassed, I start to go invisible. I have to watch myself and concentrate very hard to make sure that doesn't happen in front of anyone," Ellie put in.

"I brought someone to life and killed her," Rae said quietly.

All eyes turned to her.

"What?" Jake asked softly.

"Rae, no. You didn't _know_," Alyssa said. "It wasn't your fault."

"What's she talking about?" Adam asked.

"Oh, you're the _last_ person I want to tell about it," Alyssa replied. "You might just _abandon_ us."

Adam didn't reply. He'd been really nice to her because of James, but she'd been less than receptive to him. She'd started to hate him even more after the conversation she and Chris had at prom about his abandonment of Ellie.

The previous night, Jake made up a story about Rae hanging out on her roof and falling off when they got to the hospital. It seemed like the doctors and nurses believed him. She had a cast around her left wrist and a cast on her right leg as well. She had broken her wrist and fractured her leg. They were able to pop Rae's shoulder back in place. She was on a dozen different painkillers. Silena fawned over her, and even though it had only been one day, Rae was already at her wit's end. She didn't want her mother to dote on her, and she realized she wouldn't be able to practice with all these injuries so before school started that morning, she had Sage magically heal her injuries so she wouldn't have to deal with them.

Jake was disappointed because he wanted to sign her casts, but was amazed at the fact Sage could effortlessly heal injuries. He had lots of questions about the guardians. Rae asked him to save them for lunch because Alyssa was still devastated about James, and barely said a word. She looked absolutely haunted, and her eyes were dead. However, Alyssa loved to explain and educate people, so Rae figured answering some questions would give her a little more life, and to her relief, it did.

Even though Rae, Alyssa, Jake, and while he was around James, usually ate at Caty's table, today Rae and Alyssa sat at the table they sat on before they became friends with Caty. Josh and Ellie joined them immediately, not liking the idea of leaving Alyssa's side. With Ellie came Adam. They were joined by the other guardians, and eventually, the rest of the team. Sitting with them were also Nina, Misha, Brian, Lili, and Jake. Brian and Jake were full of awe inspired questions. Adam seemed to be listening, but he looked a little worse for wear. He clearly still hadn't adjusted to the news. No one expected him to. It was amazing how well Jake and Brian were taking it.

"Don't you guys kill all the time?" Brian asked, looking a little shaken. Even he and Jake, understandably, weren't completely comfortable with the killing, even though they knew it was them or the guardians.

"This was a little different," Caty replied.

"_I'll tell you guys later if you really want to know_," Alyssa said inside the boys' heads. Jake wasn't surprised since he'd heard her voice in his head before. Brian was awed, but didn't show it. Adam jumped a little, but Rae didn't seem to notice. "_It's best not to go into it now. Rae doesn't need to relive this. Someone ask another question, please_."

Brian obliged. "If you guys are related to a mage," he said, looking at Alyssa and Josh, "does that mean you guys have some form of magic?"

Both siblings looked startled at that prospect.

"The thought never really crossed my mind," Alyssa admitted.

"Maybe we'll find out today," Josh muttered.

Everyone had agreed to go see the Mage after practice that day. Hay Lin didn't want to overwhelm her, so she called Rae last night while she, Alyssa, Jake, and Josh were still at the hospital, and told her she was sending Rae, Gabi, and Josh. Alyssa insisted on coming along. Hay Lin didn't love the idea. She was sending Rae and Gabi because they could transform without the Heart, and Josh because he was the best fighter, and related to the Mage, but Alyssa said she should go because she was just as much related to her as Josh was. Hay Lin didn't want to deny Alyssa since she was in such a fragile state.

Jake and Brian asked several more questions. Brian was very interested in Sage and Josh, and learning the differences between Earth and Meridian, something Josh found fun to explain because he could rant about the stupidity of Earth, which Brian didn't take offense to.

Jake focused on Gabi for a good ten minutes to ask about her telekinesis, a process Gabi found severely boring since she'd answered exactly the same questions the first time Jake found out. However, she obliged as if she wasn't having a serious case of deja vu.

Through the whole conversation, James was a taboo topic, but also the elephant in the room, meaning he had to be brought up sometime.

"Can I join the team?" Jake asked.

Alyssa bit her lip to keep from laughing. She expected this question. Ellie sighed and handed Caty five dollars. While they were in Meridian, waiting for the army together, they made a bet on how long it would take Jake to ask to join. Ellie thought it would be when they got back. Caty figured he'd wait a day.

"What? No! Absolutely not!" Rae cried.

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous!"

"But you let James join!" Jake argued, then looked across the table, where James would normally be sitting, as if to look for his agreement before remembering he wasn't there. Instead, it was Alyssa's now crumpled face staring back at him.

Rae gave him a sharp look.

"Alyssa, I am _so_ sorry," Jake said.

"Don't be," Alyssa said, shaking her head.

"But-"

"No, it's okay," Alyssa said. "You know what? I'm absolutely devastated James is gone. I going out of my mind with worry, wondering what's happening to him or what has happened or what will happen. It's making me insane. But I'm not the only one who misses him."

Rae frowned. "Alyssa-"

"It's true. He meant something to all of us."

Rae's frown deepened. That was true. James was friends with most of them. She herself was close to him. But he was Alyssa's _boyfriend_. Everything he did in regards to the team was for her. His loss took a bigger toll on her than the others. How was she thinking of anyone else riht now?

"But Lyssa-" Ellie started.

"I love him," Alyssa interrupted. "But I'm not the only one. Caty, he was one of your closest friends. And Rae, you guys were really close too, and I know you feel like it was your fault that he got taken, but it wasn't. You couldn't have done anything. When that Flyer got him, he was protecting _me_. And you had to choose either him or us, and you chose us like any good leader would. That's probably why you were chosen and not us. No one else could've made that decision. But you made the right one. We need you. I mean, I don't even want to _think_ about my state if both of you were gone. And Jake, I know Caty's basically your best friend, and that's great, but every boy needs a male best friend, and you didn't really have one til you met James. We're all suffering, not just me."

"We're going to find him Alyssa," Rae said firmly. "I promise you, we will find him."

Jake gave her a 'Can you really promise her that' look, but Rae ignored him. She said promise so that there was no way she could go back on that. She'd have to find him now.

Alyssa smiled and nodded. She had no doubt they would find James. She also heard the way Rae worded her promise. They'd find him. Rae could promise that. What she couldn't promise was whether or not he'd be alive when they did.

"What are we going to tell people?" Brian asked. "His disappearance is not going to go unnoticed, especially not by his parents."

"Well last night, we took care of it," Adam spoke up.

Jake, Josh, and Rae went to Alyssa's house after the hospital to explain to Taranee what happened and make sure Alyssa would be alright. Ellie was already there, and Adam was with her. Ellie had with her James' cell phone that he left at The Silver Dragon. Rae had Adam call the Masons and tell them he was working on a project with Jake, so he was just going to sleepover. Most of them planned to stay at The Silver Dragon, and had all their stuff with them anyway, so his parents wouldn't wonder why James didn't come home for a change of clothes and his school stuff.

Adam put on the speakerphone so everyone could hear. His mother seemed to believe it was him. Adam managed to mimic James' voice perfectly, and Alyssa coached him on what to say, including reminding him to call Mrs. Mason 'Mother' as opposed to 'Mom' the way James did.

"That only covers one night," Jake said. "We can't tell his parents he's staying at my house indefinitely."

"What if we say he's going to music camp? Or early orientation at Princeton?" Ellie suggested, looking proud of her idea.

"Don't you think those are things his parents would be aware of El?" Jake asked.

"Oh. Yeah. Nevermind."

"What about the Memory Flower?" Gabi asked. "It isn't just to make people _forget_ things. It's technically used to manipulate memories. Could we feed it to James' parents and manipulate them into thinking he went to early orientation?"

Rae thought about it. "We can, but we'd have to get Taranee or Hay Lin to coach us on exactly what to say because this more complicated than anything else we've used the Memory Flower for. But it seems like our best option. Maybe our only option."

"Have you used the Memory Flower a lot?" Misha asked.

"Half my family's taken it," Ellie said. "One by choice, two by force."

Nina, Misha, and Lili all gave her strange looks at that. Outside of the team, only Adam knew this story.

"What's the Memory Flower?" Brian asked.

"It's a magical plant. We use it to erase people's memories of guardian stuff," Alyssa explained. "As you can see, we've been pretty bad at keeping this a secret. Lili was the first one to find out, and after that, we decided whoever on the team is closest to the person or people that found out would make the decision of whether or not to erase their memories."

"Who knows about this wings and power besides us?" Adam asked, unable to really use the term 'guardians.'

"Jason," Ellie said.

"My mom," Rae said. "She knew the old Earth guardian and the Meridian queen. Josh's mother and Sage's mother."

"And the she devil knows," Gabi added, though outside of the team, only Jake knew who she was referring to.

"Wait," Brian said. "Caty's best friends know...Ellie's best friend knows...Alyssa and Rae are each other's best friend...Gabi, your friends don't know?"

Gabi shook her head. "I'm an expert on keeping up with a social calendar. Bree is the only one who's noticed I've been a little busier-and cagier-than usual, but she hasn't pried yet. She asked a couple of questions, but I was able to get away with some vague answers."

"Who else have you used it on?" Jake asked suddenly. "The Memory Flower?"

The guardians exchanged looks. No one had told Jake that they'd previously erased his memory, and no one really wanted to. Was that what he was asking?

"We used it on Eva," Gabi said. "Not that it worked. Now she knows most everything and likes to call me _fairy. _A freaking _fairy_. How embarrassing! I can't believe it didn't work."

"Most likely because she's the Heart of Earth," Rae said. "It's better for her to know."

"What's the Heart of-" Jake started, but the bell rang. Jake looked really disappointed.

"Jake, your face is heartbreaking," Caty laughed.

"Don't be sad. You can all come to guardian practice if you want, and ask us questions whenever we have downtime. And you can see us use all our powers. You boys haven't seen that yet," Rae suggested.

"Oh, you should see what Caty can do when she has a water source," Nina said.

"And the full extent of Gabi's mental powers are amazing," Lili added.

"I'm sold," Jake said.

"Me too," Brian added.

"Adam?" Ellie asked.

Adam didn't look thrilled at the prospect, but managed to give Ellie a smile. "Wouldn't miss it."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

One of Ellie's favorite things about her relationship with Chris was that there was never any awkwardness. They never ran out of things to say, but if they were ever silent, it was always comfortable. Except for right now.

As usual, after guardian practice (and after the team plus Caty's friends and the boys had said good luck to Gabi, Rae, Alyssa, and Josh), Ellie went up to Chris's room with him. Normally, they'd either talk about their day, do homework together, or start making out. But today, something was off.

It was clear to Ellie that Chris had something on his mind. Something he was nervous to say. And that made for a really uncomfortable silence.

Yesterday, when Ellie and Gabi stumbled out of the portal and into the basement, and promptly stopped breathing, Chris was next to her in an instant. Cara told him that Rae smashed the Heart. Chris told her it would be okay, that she'd be fine. Clearly, he remembered about the life powder, unlike Ellie, who was certain she was dying.

He'd been so sweet to her, but then Adam had interfered. She understood. He watched his best friend almost die. Of course he wanted to be there for her. Especially since, until that day, they weren't even in each other's lives.

He grabbed her hands and hugged her tight, and he even told her he loved her. Of course Ellie didn't respond to that-what could she say? But she felt a little thrill go through her, different from the usual uncomfortable feeling she usually got when Adam said he loved her.

When Adam _finally_ let go, it was clear Chris heard him tell Ellie he loved her, but he didn't seem to mind. He put his arm around Ellie, but not possessively, like a jealous boyfriend would. And he _should_ have been jealous. So why wasn't he?

After realizing they'd lost James, Ellie had been reminded how easy it was for one of them to get killed. Being guardians was no walk in the park. And they all came really close to death in yesterday's battle.

Alyssa had mentioned she wouldn't be able to deal if she'd lost both James and Rae. Gabi and Josh, who were an official couple, insisted on sticking together, even developing partner techniques during training so they wouldn't have to face battle without each other. Brian wouldn't let Caty out of his sight. Ellie wondered why Chris hadn't mentioned anything to her about how he doesn't want to lose her or can't be without her. He'd barely paid attention to her at all that day.

He greeted her with a kiss, but instead of a long, sweet one, it was just a little peck. And instead of spending the moments before class making out under the shade of a tree, he ditched her for his friends. She let it go because the team had an unspoken agreement to eat lunch together, so Ellie figured Chris wanted to catch up with his friends since he wouldn't get to see them at lunch. Ellie wanted to do the same with Jade and Milly anyway.

But he didn't sit next to her at lunch and barely looked at her. He didn't hold her hand while they headed to The Silver Dragon from school like he usually did, and avoided her eyes, giving her one word responses during the walk. It was like he and Josh switched personalities all of a sudden, Josh becoming the sweet, doting boyfriend and Chris becoming the grumpy man of few words.

"Do you need any help with algebra?" Chris asked finally.

"Um, yeah, I still don't get factoring, and there's going to be a lot of it on the final," Ellie said.

Chris and Ellie sat with their backs against the bed while Chris helped Ellie do the factoring problems on Ellie's final review packet. After about an hour, Chris yawned.

"Bored of algebra?" Ellie asked teasingly. "I can't imagine why."

Chris laughed. "It's not that. I'm just tried."

"Didn't get much sleep?"

"Barely any. I was kept up by nightmares."

"What kind of nightmares?" Ellie asked curiously. The last time Chris talked about a nightmare was during their Halloween sleepover, when he admitted he dreamt of Alyssa dying.

Chris shifted uncomfortably. "Um…"

"Come on, you can tell me," Ellie said.

Chris sighed, but looked at her. "Okay," he said. "Well, I know we weren't there, but I dreamt about James being taken by one of the Flyers."

"That's scary," Ellie said. "I still can't believe it happened."

"It could've been any one of us," Chris said.

Ellie was suddenly more alert. Was this it? Was he going to tell her he didn't want to lose her?

"That's probably the reason that when I had the dream, it wasn't _James_ that the Flyer had."

"Who was it?" Ellie asked, knowing Chris was going to say he dreamt _she_ was being taken away. Why was he so nervous to tell her that?

"Um, well…" Chris didn't finish.

"Chris? Who was it?" Ellie asked again after a minute of silence.

Chris took a deep breath. He opened his mouth to answer when Hay Lin walked into his room.

"Chris, your shift started ten minutes ago!" she snapped. "You can't neglect work."

Chris's eyes hardened. He was always ridden harder about work than Cara, partly because he was older, which he understood, and partly because he was supposed to take over the restaurant, which he didn't want.

"Right. Because nothing is more important than waiting on people," Chris muttered sarcastically.

Ellie cringed. Hay Lin wouldn't take that comment well. She looked like she was about explode.

"Okay, so I'm going to just...go," Ellie said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow Chris, bye." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and ran before Hay Lin began to yell.

She'd just have to wait one more day for Chris to tell her he didn't want to ever lose Ellie.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Look, there's the waterfall," Alyssa said. "The Mage lives in the cave behind it. We're supposed to wait in front of the waterfall."

"Then let's go," Gabi said. She and Josh were holding hands. They went first and Rae and Alyssa followed. Gabi and Rae were in guardian form, and Josh and Alyssa were holding swords.

One benefit of Rae breaking the Heart was that the spell that was trying to drain its power was broken, meaning all the guardians had their original powers back. Caty made the connection when she used her powers in human form yesterday while trying to fight off the Flyers to go through the portal. She didn't have a chance to mention it until guardian practice that day. While Rae and Gabi transformed and practiced with their powers, the other girls worked on getting stronger in human form.

When the group reached the waterfall, they all looked at each other, silently asking each other which one of them would call out for the Mage.

When no one stepped up, Gabi, Josh, and Alyssa all turned to Rae. She was leader after all.

Sighing, Rae nodded and took another step forward. "Um...hello? My name is Rae. I'm a Guardian of the Veil and the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar...um, sort of."

"Less about yourself New Girl," Gabi hissed.

"Oh right. We heard you helped the guardians in the past. You were wise and a guiding force. We come seeking your...wisdom and guidance?"

"Rae!" Alyssa cried in a whisper.

"Wisdom and guidance? Really?" Gabi asked with a laugh.

"Why did that come out sounding like a question?" Josh asked.

"Well, I'm sorry! Do _you _want to try?" Rae burst out.

"Oh, I think you're doing a _great _job," Josh assured her with a smirk.

Rae let out a growl, but froze when she felt a jolt go through her. It was the same kind she got everytime Sage walked into a room or Angel joined a battle, but the jolt was stronger. She figured it was the Mage, who was clearly more powerful than Meridian's princess and Elyon's regent.

The Mage revealed herself. She wore a dark purple cloak with a hood. Her eyes were dark, but they started to glow, turning her irises and the whites of her eyes green. She wore a headband with a red jewel. Her lips were bright red, as if she put on ruby red lipstick. She had what looked like either burn marks or tattoos in grey around her eyes, on her chin, and on her forehead.

Alyssa's eyes widened. Rae took a couple of steps back. Gabi shuddered and huddled closer to Josh, who also looked fearful.

"So, new Guardians of the Veil have been chosen," the Mage said. Her voice was gravelly and she sort of hissed, like Snake Dude.

"Um...it's a pleasure to meet you Mage," Rae said.

"Indeed, the pleasure should be mine," the Mage replied, shifting her gaze to Josh and Alyssa. "Meeting my granddaughter and grandson for the first time."

Alyssa and Josh shared a look before giving the Mage tentative smile.

"How is my son doing?" the Mage asked Josh.

"O-oh, Dad? Um, good...fine...good-fine," Josh stammered out.

"Good-fine? What does _that_ mean?" Alyssa whisper-asked, then blushed and straightened up when the Mage looked at her.

The Mage, whose expression was blank up until now, gave Alyssa and Josh warm smiles, which put the whole group at ease. Hay Lin said the Mage was not overly friendly, but wasn't mean either.

The Mage focused on Rae. "So Keeper, you say you seek my wisdom and guidance, but it is a mystical talisman that you truly need, is it not?"

"Um, yeah, I guess. I had to break the Heart of Kandrakar. It was...stupid...but necessary. And now we need a new one."

"And you cannot ask the Oracle?" the Mage asked. "Several guardian groups have broken the Heart. The Oracle will give you a second chance. And is seems you broke it with noble intentions."

"The Oracle and the entire Council is trapped in a dome in Kandrakar by an enemy," Rae explained.

The Mage sighed. "It is as I feared. I had a vision Kandrakarans were in trouble, but the images were unclear, and I was not sure what I was seeing."

"Is there anyway you can help?" Gabi asked.

"Perhaps," the Mage said. "The Heart of Kandrakar is a powerful talisman, so the object that acts as a jewel must be a magical object. I have such an object in my possession. However, the other requirement is trickier."

"Other requirement?" Gabi asked.

"You are seeking a new Heart of _Kandrakar_. The Oracle has pure Kandrakaran magic, which he infuses into the Heart. He is locked up, and as the Mage of both Meridian and Kandrakar, I have Kandrakaran magic, but it not pure Kandrakaran. I have Meridian magic as well, and my Kandrakarn magic isn't powerful enough to create a new Heart. I can rebuild the old Heart. Do you have any pieces of it left?"

"Unfortunately, no," Rae said. "I even dropped the piece of twine the jewel hung from."

"Is there any way we can help?" Alyssa asked.

The Mage suddenly smiled. "Yes. I do not know why I did not think of it before. _You_, Guardian of Fire, are my granddaughter. All my children and grandchildren, therefore your father and siblings, have magic beyond your own comprehension. You and the boy were both born on Earth, meaning your magic was Terran. But, _you_, my granddaughter, became a guardian, which meant any magic you possessed, be it dormant or present, became Kandrakaran. You have pure Kandrakaran magic. If we combine our powers, we will be able to make a new Heart."

With that, the Mage disappeared, not even giving Alyssa a chance to respond. When she reappeared again, she was holding an object similar to the old Heart. Rather than a sphere, it was an oval, and instead of being held by silver jaws, the jaws were gold, but it still hung from a piece of brown twine.

"I'm all for helping with this," Alyssa said. "I mean, without the Heart, I can't transform. But I didn't even know until this very moment that I _had_ magic. What am I supposed to do?"

The Mage handed the Heart to Alyssa, who took it.

"You must look inside yourself. Magic is only activated when you are ready for it. So concentrate, child, and try to feel the potential inside of you."

The Mage placed her hand over the oval so both she and Alyssa were touching it. "Close your eyes. Clear your mind. Let it in."

Alyssa closed her eyes. She stayed that way for so long, she would've fallen asleep if she weren't standing up. She heard Gabi yawn sarcastically. Several minutes later, Rae yawned for real. After that, Josh whispered, "It's been over an _hour_."

Alyssa knew it was taking a while, but she had no idea it was that long. Still, she didn't let them break her concentration.

"Magic comes from the heart. You get strength from those you love. Focus your mind on someone that you _love_. Someone that gives you strength, a constant in _your _life."

Alyssa knew she should probably focus on a family member, or Rae. She thought instead, of James. It hurt to think about him, or picture him, but she knew if he were here, he'd be holding her hand, giving her silent encouragement. He always knew what she needed, and always provided it. She missed him.

Focusing even harder, she felt like she could feel his hand on hers. She closed her eyes tighter and focused only on him. Nothing else. His face, his voice, his clothes.

"Focus."

She got more specific. His favorite jeans. His blue eyes. The way it sounded when he said her name.

"Harder."

His lucky shirt, his thick, brown hair, his amazing, full smile.

"Just a little more."

The way he said "I love you," the look in his eyes when he saw her for the first time every day, the way she felt when he kissed her.

Alyssa felt a strange tingling sensation. It was a surge of power, like the one she felt when she transformed, but different.

"Look," Rae whispered. "It's glowing."

"That means it's working," the Mage said.

Alyssa opened her eyes to see the oval was glowing pink. It was dull, and blinking, but it was working.

"Come here child," the Mage said to Rae. "It needs your touch to stabilize."

Rae walked over and put her hand over the part of the oval that wasn't encompassed by the hands of the Mage or Alyssa.

"Keep concentrating," the Mage told Alyssa.

James' grin when he was amused, his single, adorable dimple, the tiny birthmark over his lip.

"It's getting stronger," Rae whispered.

The strength of his arms when he held her, the way she felt safe and protected when he just held her hand, his deliciously tantalizing scent.

The oval began to feel warm in her hand, and it was pulsating.

"It is done," the Mage declared.

Alyssa opened her eyes and let out a breath. The Mage took the Heart, which now glowing a bright pink, from Alyssa and gave it to Rae. Rae put it around her neck.

"Test it to make sure," Gabi suggested, going back into human form.

Rae nodded, already planning to do this. She went back to human for as well, then said, "Guardians, unite!"

Rae was lifted into the air, bright lights emitted from the Heart and surrounded the girls, and they felt the surges of power.

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

"Quintessence!"

The girls are grinned at each other.

"We have a new Heart!" Rae cheered.

"And Classless-a has magic," Gabi added, grinning teasingly.

"That was pretty cool," Alyssa agreed.

"That was only the start," the Mage said. "All you did was pour magic into a talisman. You can do much more, but you will learn it in due time. And so will you, my grandson," she added, looking at Josh.

"Great," Josh muttered, not at all thrilled. He always had a bit of an aversion to magic, even with the Meridian royal family, his _second_ family, all having magic.

"If that is all," the Mage said, not commenting on Josh's attitude.

"Oh no! I mean...is it possible...my boyfriend got _kidnapped_ and I have no idea how to find him. Do you know where he could be?" Alyssa asked hopefully.

The Mage looked thoughtful. She waved her hand toward the waterfall behind her. Several images appeared and disappeared, as if a slideshow was playing, until finally, the "slideshow" stopped playing at the image of a portal.

"It seems your boyfriend is in another dimension, though which one I do not know," the Mage said. "I can tell you that for the time being, while he is tired and a little frightened, he is physically alright and stays mentally strong in the face of the enemy. I...cannot see who the enemy is."

Alyssa smiled, relieved.

"I can," Rae said quickly. "I mean...I can't _see_ him, but we know who has him."

Hay Lin told them that since the Mage had been released from her own ring, her powers had not been at their full strength. It seemed like she still hadn't recovered fully. It made sense. Rae had a feeling she'd go crazy if she was trapped in the Heart, so the fact that the Mage retained her sanity and the majority of her powers was a feat in and of itself.

"So there's not way you can help us find him?" Rae asked.

The Mage hesitated. "You will find him," she said. "You have the power. Once in the dimension the boy is trapped in, the power will get stronger. But...I can make you something to help, if you wish."

"Yes, please," Alyssa said.

The Mage sighed, as if she wished Alyssa had said no, but held out her hand. "I require the Heart."

Rae handed it over. This was unlike her-she was usually so cautious with the Heart-but the others all trusted the Mage as well, so no one questioned her.

The Mage held the Heart in her hands. Rays of pink light emitted from the stone. They all joined and pointed themselves at a stone beyond them. The stone was immediately transformed into a five point star. It had a silver border and was dark blue.

The star floated towards the Mage. The Mage caught it and handed the Heart back to Rae. "This is known as The Star of Shushui."

"Shushui?" Josh repeated. "Isn't that what this cave is called?"

"Yes. I made an item like this decades ago called The Star of Threbe when I lived near the Threbe Volcano. An item such as this is always named after the place it's closest to," the Mage explained. "This star can help you find one person who is lost. The person you choose will be inexplicably drawn to the star, no matter how old, powerful, or weak they may be, and it will protect him from anyone or anything that threatens to derail his trip home. However, once it's activated, it cannot be destroyed, and can one day be used by your enemies, so I suggest only using it when you have no other options. Any person touched by magic may activate it. Just touch the star while thinking of the person you want to find, and the star will go to that person."

Rae took the star. It seemed to be too powerful for them to use just yet.

"My advice is to absorb the star into the Heart. It is far too powerful to be fully absorbed, but it can be stored in the Heart until you need it, so you can keep it safe," the Mage said.

Rae nodded and did what the Mage said, ignoring Alyssa's incredulous look. Rae knew Alyssa wanted to use the star right away, but Rae had a feeling they shouldn't. The Mage said she had the power to locate James on her own. She'd give it six days, until the one week anniversary of James' kidnapping, and if she couldn't find him by then, she'd use the star.

"Thank you," Rae said. "You've helped us immeasurably." She got down on one knee and bowed in front of the Mage.

"_Rae, _what_ are you _doing?" Josh asked in her head, using the link Alyssa had set up when they first arrived.

"_I don't know, this just seems right_," Rae snapped, but she got up.

"I will always come to the aid of those pure of heart," the Mage replied.

Rae suppressed a groan. That sounded like something Angel would say.

The Mage floated backwards into her cave.

"So...home?" Josh asked.

"Yes," Rae said, opening a portal.

"Guys, what about the star? What about _James_?" Alyssa asked. "He's the one I thought of the access my magic you know."

"I figured," Rae said. "But I remember reading something about The Star of Threbe in one of Hay Lin's journals. I don't remember what it said, but we should ask her before we use this star. I think it's too dangerous."

Alyssa looked miffed, but sighed and went through the portal. The other followed. Rae closed the portal, then changed the girls back. Then she gasped, suddenly realizing something.

"What wrong?" Josh asked.

"The Heart found me, meaning I'm it's owner. The Keeper. Even though I broke the old Heart, the new one still belongs to me. The Heart only serves me, or old guardian Keepers. The only thing the Heart will do for others is open portals, and that's only for magical people."

"So?" Gabi asked.

"_So, _the Mage used it to create the star."

"Does that mean the Mage used to be a _guardian_?" Alyssa asked.

"Not just a guardian," Rae said. "She used to be a Keeper."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Ellie wasn't sure she wanted to break up with Chris. She was really grateful to him. He had done so much for her, and it was hard to let go. But she had to.

It was Wednesday morning, and all Ellie could think about was the dream she had last night. The previous night before bed, Ellie kept thinking about the fact that Chris had a dream about James being kidnapped (except the Flyer had kidnapped _her_ rather than James). So of course Ellie had a dream about the kidnapping as well.

Her dream was similar to Chris's. For one thing, neither saw the Flyer kidnap James, so they had to use their imagination. For another, in Ellie's dream, it was James being taken away, but it wasn't Chris either. It was Adam.

Ellie played with the idea of the dream being a vision, but it wasn't. She knew the difference. Ellie being taken away was Chris's nightmare, but Ellie's nightmare was the abduction of Adam, rather than her boyfriend.

Ellie placed a lot of importance on her friends, but even she knew what she was feeling. She was in love with Adam.

Ellie waited at the red maple tree. Once April arrived and brought warmer weather, Rae and Alyssa began to hang out atop it again, with Jake and James. Jake stopped joining them when he and Rae broke up, but now all three of them were up there.

Usually Chris met Ellie under this tree, and they'd talk (and make out) til the first bell, signalling ten minutes til class started, rang. Today, when Chris arrived, he asked if they could talk inside. Ellie agreed that would be a good idea. She followed him into the empty art studio.

"I have to tell you something," Chris said.

"Me too," Ellie said. "I had a dream last night."

"A vision?" Chris asked, momentarily distracted.

"No, it was like your dream, about James being kidnapped, but it wasn't James the Flyer had in my dream."

"Oh, that's what I want to talk to you about," Chris said, suddenly uncomfortable.

Ellie knew she should go first, break the bad news before he could tell her how much he couldn't be without her.

"I know I should've dreamt of you, but I didn't. I dreamed it was Adam being abducted!" she blurted out.

Chris looked surprised, but also relieved, rather than hurt. "Really? Because I know I should've dreamt of _you_, but I dreamt it was _Alyssa_ getting abducted."

"Really?" Ellie felt a little hurt, but she was ultimately relieved. "So what does that mean?"

"I'm not sure."

"I mean, I guess it could mean you never _really_ got over Alyssa."

"And maybe you _did_ like Adam more than you were willing to admit."

Ellie bit her lip. "So are we breaking up?"

"We'd just be stringing each other along if we stayed together."

"It's funny. I don't really want to let go, but I'm not really that sad. It doesn't feel like a break up."

"Because it's mutual. We're probably the only people in the world who can say our breakup is mutual and actually mean it."

Ellie laughed.

"And you don't have to let go. We can still be friends...if you want."

"I _do_ want. I think we can do better actually. I think we can be best friends. You know more about me than anyone...except Adam."

"Best friends...I like that," Chris smiled.

"So...you're leaving me for Alyssa, huh? Good choice."

"You're leaving me for Adam...can't say the same."

"Hey!" Ellie cried, but she was giggling.

"And I'm not leaving you _for_ Alyssa," Chris corrected, his smile disappearing. "That would mean I could actually get Alyssa, who is depressed and devastated at the fact that James is missing. You remember James, right? Her _boyfriend_?

"I already told you I thought she chose wrong. Josh thinks so too. When we find James, you should tell her how you feel, and then she can have the chance to choose again."

"She'll choose James every time," Chris insisted.

"Yeah, with _that_ attitude," Ellie said.

"You're my ex Ellie. Are you really trying to help me get a new girl?"

"We're supposed to be friends, aren't we? And that girl is my best friend. I want her to be happy, and I know she loves James and he loves her, and if she chooses him, then I'm happy for her. I like James myself. But I still want her to _have _the choice."

Chris smiled. "You really think I'd even have a chance?"

"Sure, as long as you have positive attitude."

"That's not going to get me Alyssa."

"But it's a damn good place to start."

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

That afternoon, in Music III, while Jade was getting her performance review (which was their Music III Final), Milly was in the bathroom, and Adam was with his guy friends, Ellie was talking to Sage about her break up, as fast as she could.

Normally, a breakup was something she'd discuss with Adam, but the reason she and Chris broke up was because they had feelings for other people, and Ellie couldn't tell Adam that. And she could talk about it with Jade and Milly because Jade hated Adam ever since he broke her heart _again_, when, after prom, he said he thought he could try again with her, but decided he didn't like her that way. Jade hated Adam, and Milly took her side. Ellie and Sage chose to stay impartial, and Jade was okay with that, but telling her that Ellie liked Adam would be the opposite of okay.

Chris told Josh about the breakup, who told Sage, so when Sage got her first minute alone with Ellie, she asked if Ellie was alright. Ellie assured her she was fine and told her what happened.

"It does make me wonder what my relationship with Chris was though. I mean, did we have anything at all? He never got over Alyssa, and I know I wouldn't admit it before now, but I think I always liked Adam."

"Well, for Chris, I think he had the same thought process Adam had. Adam began dating Jade because he had to move on from you, and he chose Jade because he could see himself with her. Chris needed to move on from Alyssa, and he could see himself with you."

Ellie nodded. "And for me, it could be hero worship. He knows a lot about me, and saved me from myself. Maybe that's what I was feeling."

Sage nodded. "I can see that. Not to say your relationship wasn't real. You both harbored feelings for other people, but there was time, however brief it may be, that you actually liked each other, the way Adam liked Jade. It just didn't last."

Ellie thought about that. "I think I started to really like Chris a week after we finished the art project. I started making myself look good for him. I know I look confident on stage, but I'm actually really insecure, so when I'm around a guy I like, I have to make sure I look extra pretty. When I started taking more care of my appearance, that's when you know I like someone. And then Adam walked out of my life, so it didn't even register that I could like him, but when we became friends again, that's when I realized I always returned Adam's feelings. Maybe not since kindergarten, but as we got older. He always said he loved me and I think the reason I thought I didn't like Adam was because I wasn't _in love_ with him, but I realize now, I liked him romantically."

And there was no reason for her not to. Adam proved how much he loved her in the last two days. It was painfully clear Adam was afraid of the guardian stuff, from the wings to the battles, and everything in between. It was a lot like Gavin's fear. But there was one big difference. For all his reservations and fears, Adam was never, not _once_, scared of _her._ When Gavin looked at Ellie, he didn't see his sister anymore. He saw a monster. But Adam...he only ever saw her. His best friend.

Ellie offered Adam the option to forget several times. Every time his face paled, his eyes bulged, or he was struck speechless, she asked if he was sure he wanted to know this. And every time, he said yes, no matter how fearful he was. Knowing Ellie's secret meant he had her back as a friend, and that was most important.

And how easy had it been to tell him everything else, everything about her home life and the abuse, once he knew about the guardians? He was always there for her, always ready to help. It was always him. How could she not have seen that?

"Well, are you going to tell him?"

"No way, I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because!" Ellie cried, as if that explained everything.

"Ellie, come on," Sage said gently. "You're going to have the easiest time with this."

"What makes you think that?"

"He already loves you. All you have to do is tell him you feel the same way."

"It's not that easy Sage. Not anymore. I put him through too much. He's not gonna want to be with me."

"Ellie, that's crazy," Sage insisted.

"No, _you're_ crazy," Ellie replied. "For thinking this is going to play out like a fairy tale."

"It's called faith. It's good to have. Look at how things are working out for us. We have a way to find James. We have a new Heart, one that isn't slowly being drained of its powers. You guys have your own powers back and are stronger than ever. Gabi and Josh, after months of frustration, are finally together. If all of this can happen, you two can happen."

"Maybe," Ellie said. "How are you doing with Gabi and Josh anyway?"

"Better than I thought. They're a good couple, and I think I'm almost fully over him. Sam asked me out, even after I pretty much ditched him at prom. We're going on a date this Friday."

"That's awesome! I think he really likes you."

"He's a lot of fun and I could see myself liking him," Sage replied.

"Talking about boys? Fun. Who?" Milly asked as she rejoined them.

"Sam Parker, Sage's prom date, who clearly likes her," Ellie said.

Milly giggled, excitedly asking Sage questions about her developing relationship with Sam.

Ellie looked over to where Adam was with his friends. She caught his eye and he smiled her. Ellie felt her heart wanting to burst out of her chest. Maybe he wouldn't want to be with her anymore, but they could still try. At the very least, she'd have to tell him. She didn't want to hold it in.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

After school that day, Caty was helping Ellie clean her locker. Ellie didn't want to-cleaning was her least favorite activity-but Caty brought up a good point: if she got rid of all the useless papers and junk now, she'd get to return her textbooks faster on the last day, and she could just leave.

A lot of people were cleaning out their lockers that day. They only had a week and half left of school, with four extra days for finals week. Things were winding down. All the AP classes were full of fun and movies since the AP tests were over. All the other classes were full of final packets and reviews in preparation for final exams.

The club meetings had stopped for the year. The last issue of the newspaper went out that morning, ZOOM would go out the next day, and Student Council would meet one more time to plan Freshman Orientation, and the fundraising options for Project Graduation.

Everyone was excited. Even Alyssa wanted a break at this point, her thoughts consumed by James. She tried to stay upbeat for the most part, and Rae, Jake, and Josh barely left her side. The others tried to be there for her as well. Misha and Nina roped her into preparing them for finals, and Jake and Brian peppered her with guardian questions, two things that kept her occupied and, for the most part, calm, if not completely happy.

"Is this locker like your second home or something?" Caty grumbled as she pushed a large, rolling trash can toward Ellie.

"You don't _have_ to help you know," Ellie replied as she threw away an empty bag of chips, a Milky Way wrapped, and a stack of papers.

"And leave you to wade through this landfill yourself? I'd like to think I'm a better friend than that," Caty replied.

"Wading is the problem Caty. It's going to take forever that way. I say we just throw out everything that isn't a textbook, folder, or notebook."

"But what about old tests and papers you did well on? Notes that could help you next year?"

"I doubt my American History notes will help me next year. I'm not taking history at all. And my biology notes won't do anything to help with Astronomy."

Caty rolled her eyes. "You're also taking Animal Behavior. Trust me, you'll want those bio notes."

Ellie sighed and grabbed a couple of notebooks from the top.

"Hey, my sheet music from Annie! I thought I lost these, but they were just tucked into my old Drama II notebook this whole time!"

Caty didn't even comment, grabbing the notebooks and putting them in the 'KEEP' pile.

"Did your locker explode?" Adam asked as he walked up to the two girls. They were ankle deep in books and papers.

"Caty's making me clean it," Ellie explained.

"That's probably a good thing," Adam said. He bent down and picked something up from the bottom. "Isn't this mine?"

Ellie looked at the fountain pen in his hand.

"Oh right! You let me borrow it so I could learn calligraphy, but I gave up on that. Teaching yourself something that complicated is too much for me. You can have it back."

Adam smiled and handed it back to her. "Keep it. You're friends with Alyssa again. She can teach you."

Ellie smiled back and took it. "Thanks."

"El, what's this?" Caty asked, holding up a silver whistle. When Ellie first got that, it was bright and shiny. Now it was covered with dust.

"That's not your Confidence Whistle, is it?" Alyssa asked as she, Rae, Jake, Josh, Gabi, and Bree walked over.

"Her _what_?" Jake asked.

"Oh wow, I haven't seen this in forever," Bree cried, taking it from Caty.

Alyssa laughed. "Ellie used to wear this around her neck all the time and blow every time she wanted to say something was to shy to. It was her way of telling us she had something on her mind."

"That's...strange," Josh said, wondering if this was an Earth custom.

"My mom gave it to her," Bree explained. "She's 'the new kind of therapist' remember?"

Bree's mother-Ellie's aunt-was a therapist who experimented in self designed methods to help people with their problems, and like most therapists, she couldn't help but psychoanalyze her family. Ellie was painfully shy when she was younger, and Bree's mom gave her the whistle so she could whistle at people instead of talk. As people got older, they asked her why she was whistling, and eventually Ellie got over the shyness and just told people what she was thinking without being asked. It _was_ strange, but it worked.

"Remember that time she freaked out when she accidentally spilled paint over her self-portrait and blew the whistle for the rest of art class?" Adam asked Alyssa.

"Back in second grade? How could I _forget_?" Alyssa laughed.

It was an embarrassing memory for Ellie, but she was so happy to see Alyssa laughing-for the first time since James' abduction-that she let it go.

"I remember that too!" Jake piped up. "I thought you were trying to be musical so I begged my mom to buy me whistle too so _I_ could be musical. She bought me a kazoo instead."

"Really?" Rae asked, a laugh in her voice. "That's so dorky!"

"Yeah, well my little dorky heart was crushed when Brittany got so annoyed with my kazoo that she broke it."

"Brittany would!" Caty laughed. "And I remember the whistle blowing incident too. I thought you were an idiot."

"Hey!"

"Come on El, who blows a whistle for 45 minutes?" Gabi asked. "She was justified."

"Ellie was justified too," Bree said. "Everyone needs to find a way to express themselves. I used to flip off tables whenever I was frustrated."

"That was _cool_," Jake said. "I always thought so."

"Dalton said he developed a crush on me the first time he saw me do a flip back in fifth grade," Bree said blushing.

"I'm not surprised. I was always impressed by those flips," Alyssa said.

"I used to watch you to see your technique," Adam admitted. "So I could teach Ellie how to flip for a dance routine."

"Why didn't you just ask me?" Bree asked. "I would've taught you."

"Bree, that was the same year you tried to legally change your last name so no one would know we were related," Ellie replied.

"You told all the teachers that the office got your last name wrong," Gabi giggled.

"Didn't Mr. Miller make you write lines on the chalkboard for that?" Alyssa asked.

"I will not tell lies a hundred times and I will be proud of who I am a hundred times. He was so old fashioned!" Bree groaned, making everyone laugh.

Rae and Josh rolled their eyes at each other. They always got bored whenever their friends began talking about memories they all had because regardless of how long they were or weren't _friends_, they still _knew _each other their entire lives.

Jake noticed Rae getting irritated and bored and decided to speak up. "Okay guys, let's cool it with the 'we're in the exclusive club of living in Heatherfield forever' talk. I think my girlfriend's-" Jake's eyes widened and he stopped.

The air grew awkward as Rae and Jake looked anywhere but at each other and no one spoke. Gabi grabbed Josh's hand and the two of them walked away, Bree following.

Rae and Jake were rebuilding the friendship they head before they became boyfriend and girlfriend, and they both wanted to get back together, but neither had discussed it. Alyssa was a go-between for the two of them, and she advised them both _against_ getting back together, so they were in a bit of a standstill.

Adam cleared his throat. "El, can we talk...in private?"

"Um, sure," Ellie said. She wasn't sure if Adam really wanted to talk or if he just wanted to get away from the awkwardness, but she didn't really care. She needed to talk to Adam anyway. "I'll be back in a few minutes Caty."

Caty nodded.

"Um, we're just gonna...yeah," Alyssa said, grabbing Rae's arm. The two girls sped away.

"Well that was sufficiently awkward," Caty said as Jake sat on the ground next to his best friend.

"Do you know why Alyssa doesn't want us to get back together?" Jake asked.

Caty nodded.

"And you won't tell me?"

Caty shook her head.

"Why not?"

"It's for Rae to tell you."

"But you're _my_ best friend. We're loyal to each other, aren't we?"

"Jake, I can't tell you a secret that's Rae's to tell," Caty insisted.

"What secret? How can there be another one? I thought _Alyssa _was the one that didn't want us back together."

"Are you kidding? Alyssa would _love_ if you guys got back together. But there _is_ another secret, and she doesn't think you guys should get back together until Rae tells you what that secret is."

"Maybe I can live without knowing what it is."

"You definitely could. But I think you have a right to know," Caty replied.

Alyssa and Caty had talked about this just the previous day. They both agreed Rae and Jake shouldn't get back together until Rae admitted that she erased his memory. It was her moral obligation. He could decide what he wanted once he knew what she did.

Jake sighed. All he wanted was to know Rae's secret so they could be closer. Now he knew and he never felt farther from her.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"So, what did you want to talk about? Or were you just super uncomfortable there?"

"I _was _uncomfortable, but I also want to talk. Sort of. I know you El, and I know you have something on your mind. So what is it?"

Ellie shifted. "Okay, I do have something I want to tell you. But you have to promise to just listen and not say a word until I finish."

"Promise," Adam said immediately.

Ellie smiled, took a deep breath, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "I think I love you."

Adam's eyes bulged out of his sockets. He opened his mouth, but remember he wasn't supposed to speak, so he closed it, but it looked the effort was physically hurting him.

"Yeah, I know. Okay, so here's the thing. I know I like you, like...romantically. I don't know if I _love_ you though. Not the way you always said you loved me. But I know I can get there. And I wanted to tell you that. Chris and I broke up this morning. I guess I didn't tell you that. But you're not a rebound or anything. I liked you even before I got together with Chris, and while I was dating him. I just didn't know it. But after the guardian secret came out, I realized all the affection I felt for you wasn't just pla...play...platonic?"

Adam just nodded.

"Great! Platonic. So yeah, I want to be with you. And you don't have to say anything now. In fact, I'm just going to leave after I say my piece because I know you need time to think. You loved me and I kept a secret from you and we had that whole period of not being friends and now you're terrified of the double life I have. I know I put you through a lot, never giving you a chance or taking your feelings seriously. Then, you had a chance to move on, and I ruined that too, by being jealous but not admitting the real reason why. I guess I was scared. I mean, out of all the guys I dated, I think Chris was the only one I actually had _real_ feelings for, and even then, they weren't as strong as the ones I realize I have for you. But I also know you're probably not ready for anything right now, at least not with me. So I'll let you think about how you feel. No pressure. Yeah...I'm finished."

Adam stared at her speechless. Ellie gave him the brightest smile she could muster. It was no easy feat. She didn't realize how much it would effect her to admit this. She was _shaking_. But she gave him a smile nonetheless, and began to walk away.

Adam grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him.

"First of all," he said in a quiet voice, "saying no pressure just adds pressure."

Ellie had to laugh.

"Second, you had nothing to with the failure of my relationship with Jade. She wasn't the girl for me. No matter how you reacted, it would've ended up the same. I liked her, but once we got together, I kept looking for you in her. I couldn't find you, and realized I wasn't ready to move on from you yet. And finally, I never stopped loving you. I don't need time. I want to be with you too."

Ellie blushed. "Is it bad that I was hoping you would say that?"

Adam chuckled. "There's nothing bad about that at all."

Ellie smiled. Adam leaned in, and Ellie closed the gap. The kiss was explosive. She felt _fire_ between them. It was like fireworks were going off behind her. When they broke apart, Ellie had to catch her breath.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," Adam breathed.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted a kiss like that."

"Want another?" Adam asked.

"Yes please," Ellie replied, smiling.

So they kissed again.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Rae, please! Let's do it right now," Alyssa begged.

"One more day Lyssa, please," Rae replied.

"But-"

"Just one more day."

"But what if we don't _have_ one more day? What if _this_ day is all we have? Every hour, no every _minute_ counts," Alyssa cried, on the edge of hysteria.

"Alyssa, all the guardians, including you, plus Sage, your mother, and Hay Lin have kept their ears to the ground and searched for visions. Unless we hear anything to the contrary, I'm going to try conventional methods to find James for one more day. If by midnight Tuesday, we haven't been successful, I promise that afternoon, we can use the Star of Shunsui."

"But Rae-"

"Alyssa! I am _leader_ of this group, and I don't want you complaining about this anymore. That's an order. And we are not using the star until Tuesday. That's a rule."

At first, Alyssa was shocked. Rae had never talked to her like that before, or pulled the leader card on her. Then her features settled into a glare. For a minute, Rae was afraid Alyssa would yell at her. Rae had quick temper, and if she and Alyssa got into a fight, it would not end well. But Alyssa just turned on her heel and left.

Rae sighed and walked over to where Jake was sitting. It was Sunday. Ellie and Adam had been together for four blissful days, though they were keeping it a secret from everyone apart from Team GRACE so Jade and Milly wouldn't find out just yet. Alyssa had been getting increasingly nervous about James for four days. Rae had managed to keep her secret from Jake for four days, but she wasn't sure for how much longer. She knew she couldn't be with him until she told him, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Jake asked Rae if they could hang out after guardian practice that afternoon. Rae said yes, because she wasn't strong enough to say no, but tried to make it as non-date like as possible. Jake was apparently determined to do the opposite because he insisted they meet at The Silver Dragon and order a plate of fortune cookies, like they used to do after school when they were dating. At the last minute, Rae invited Alyssa along as a buffer. Alyssa agreed, because that was her job as Rae's best friend, but got distracted when Sam Parker came into The Silver Dragon to hang out with Sage. Sam was one of James' best friends, and Alyssa had decided, instead of acting as a buffer, she'd beg Rae to use the Star of Shunsui to find James.

"Harsh Rae," Jake said when Rae sat back down in front of him.

"I know," Rae moaned. "But the star is too dangerous to use unless we're desperate, so I told myself I'd give myself a week from the day of James' disappearance til we use it."

"I get it. I think you know best. I just also think you could've handled that better. And for the record, James was _abducted_. _Disappear_ is more of what his family did."

Rae grimaced. _That_ was another problem. Alyssa and Jake, the only two people who'd ever interacted with James' family, had called several times last Tuesday to see if they could come over so they could use the Memory Flower. There had been no answer, so Jake and Alyssa went over to James' house.

The house was deserted. The lights were off, the shades were drawn, and the cars were gone. Even James' car wasn't there. The pair used the key under the mat to go inside. The house had been cleared out. No decorations, no essential items, and barely any furniture. All the mattresses were gone from the bed frames, and it honestly looked like no one had lived in the house for years even though Adam had just called the house phone two days ago.

The next day, Jake and Alyssa went back to show Rae. This time, there was no spare key under the mat. They looked in a few other places-under the lone garden gnome that remained in the yard, in a planter, even on the door frame-but no luck. Rae ended up using her powers to charm the garage key pad to opening itself up. He also told them that the Masons had packed up and moved out in a hurry Monday night, but didn't know why.

Jake and Alyssa could both attest to Mrs. Mason being uncaring and Mr. Mason being cold, but neither could see them leaving without James. When they brought this up to the rest of the team, Josh pounced, saying he knew they couldn't trust James. But Caty brought up an alternate theory of the Masons being kidnapped, and their captors making it _seem_ like they moved out-maybe they even forced them to pack up-so no one would be suspicious. Everyone liked this idea more and dismissed Josh's suspicions.

"You guys will figure it out," Jake said reassuringly. "If you can't find James tomorrow, you'll get to use the Star of Whatever, and you'll find him automatically with that. Everything will be alright."

"You seem really sure."

"Cuz I've heard all the stories of how _you_ always saved the team even in the most desperate of situations. For someone who insists she's not a leader, you sure stepped into the role of guardian leader pretty easily."

"There was nothing easy about it. It just got easier as time went on."

"And it'll get even easier. You're already doing better. You're not blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault, you're working as hard as you can to make yourself stronger while looking for James, and you're trusting yourself. I'm on _four_ sports teams, and I know a team is only as good as it's captain, or leader. You keep being the amazing leader I hear you are and the team will fall in line. And everything _will_ work out. Believe it."

Jake put his hand over Rae's making her blush. She wanted to be with him, which meant she _had_ to tell him about messing with his memory...tomorrow. Today, she just wanted to enjoy his company.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Okay, before you kill me, hear me out. Ellie and Chris were never supposed to happen. They were never supposed to be a couple, it just kind of happened, and people liked them so much that I played them out a little, but even then, I knew they'd have to break up, because from the very beginning, Ellie and Adam were supposed to be a couple. It was supposed to happen late in the story, which it did, and it happened a little differently than what I expected because of the Chris factor, but I couldn't go against my original plan. Regardless, I hope you guys liked it!**


	53. AN: India Trip Hiatus

**Hello everyone! So, sorry this isn't a triple update, but this author's note is SUPER IMPORTANT so please read!**

**Tonight, I am leaving on a flight to India with my family and my best friend Emily. Normally when I go, I have plenty of internet access, so even if the power goes out a few times in the day (which is more than likely), I can update. However, both my uncles (who we usually stay with) just got new houses, and therefore, spotty internet access.**

**In addition, for four or five days, I will be in an Indian city in which none of my relatives have internet access. Internet is still a luxary in India.**

**Therefore, this will be my last update until I come back. Not to worry however. I will only be gone for two weeks, and I will be taking my iPad. With no internet access, I will be able to write without distractions, so I should be able to update soon after I return, which will be in mid-August. Until then, you have the next two chapters. I just wanted to let you know why it will take me a little while to update.**

**This also means any PMs and signed in reviews you give me may not get responses right away either, but I promise I will get to them as soon as I get home. Thank you for your patience and enjoy the next two chapters!**


	54. The Signal

**A/N: Hey everyone! I know it's been a while, but as it gets farther into the month of July, homeworks gets harder, and more plentiful. I tried my best with these two chapters, but I know they'll sound drony and boring. HOWEVER, I urge you to concentrate because ALL of the information in these chapters is super important, and can help you guess what will happen in future chapters.**

**I want to give a HUGE thank you to melin-hope and philip 36 for favoriting this story and Zaephyrus for (re-?) favoriting and (re-?) following this story. I'd also like to give the HUGEST thank you to ArthurDragonpen for favoriting and following this story. It always means so much and I hope you guys enjoy this update and stick with me for the next one! **

**I'd like to thank several of my usual reviewers, Emily, WaterAmulet, Taylor, and Misa for taking the time to log in and PM me their comments and thoughts (because they had theories that they didn't want to spoil for other people). It's always so nice to see people so invested in a story, so thank you so much, you guys are amazing! Since you are normally anonymous reveiwers, I am giving you guys shout-outs anyway! And a special thank you to SilvenArrow, who has PM'd me with theories several times over at this point. **

**Hope all of you enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Guest: I'm sorry I killed your OTP! Like I said though, Chris and Ellie were never supposed to happen, and Ellie and Adam were always supposed to happen. I probably shouldn't have played with Chris and Ellie because the more I did, the more people wanted me to put them together, and once I did, people fell in love with them, but Ellie and Adam were meant to be endgame, so I had to break them up. I glad you like the story though, and though they seem bland right now, I'm giving Adam and Ellie a huge plot point in future chapters that will hopefully make everyone fall in love with Ellie and Adam as a couple too.**

**Emily: That was your first long review in a while. I'm not gonna write too much here because I basically told you everything in person yesterday, but I was very impressed with you logging in to your account that I'm surprised still exists to PM me because you were away and couldn't see me. Since you're right next to me, if I get this out tonight, hopefully you'll review right after.**

**Misa: Thank you so much for logging in and PM-ing me. I addressed most of your points in my reply, but I did want to say here that what you said about Ellie and Adam will be addressed in the next chapter. It was something I thought of just before I read your PM, so I'm glad to see I'm on the same page as my readers. Hope you enjoy!**

**WaterAmulet: Thank you so much for your PM. I enjoyed reading all your theories, as I said in my reply. I wanted to say that it's because of your PM that I put in the bit about...well, you'll know it when you read it. Hope you enjoy these chapters, especially that part.**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Early Monday morning, Alyssa texted Rae saying she and Jake were going to James' house one more time before school to see if they could find or do anything else. She also asked if Rae wanted to come.

Rae couldn't pick up on Alyssa's tone through text, but just the fact that Alyssa asked her to come along could mean she wasn't mad anymore. However, Rae had promised herself she'd tell Jake about erasing his memory that day, and going along with them would make that moment come faster, so she said no, she was having a hectic morning, but she would go back with them after school if they thought they needed her there.

Alyssa didn't respond, which wasn't a good sign. She probably was still mad at Rae. But what was Rae supposed to do? Agree to use a potentially dangerous magical item to find James when the Mage, who could _see the future_, specifically _said_ Rae could find him without the help of the star?

It didn't matter anyway. By the end of the guardian practice today, Alyssa would have her wish. One way or another, they would find James. And then Alyssa would forgive Rae for pulling the leader card on her. Jake on the other hand, may never forgive her.

She tried not to think about that on her way to school. Sage chattered on excitedly about something or the other, but Rae had no idea what. All she could think about was Jake walking away from her, exactly the way he had when he broke up with her. She knew she was doing the right thing. But why did the right thing have to hurt her so much?

Rae and Sage arrived at school early. Gabi and Bree were outside, and Rae knew Jake and Alyssa were already here. The final Student Council meeting was that morning, so Caty was already there too, along with the rest of Student Council, but no one else.

When the girls got to school, Sage joined Gabi and Bree on the steps. Rae went inside, passing the Student Council room. Most members were still inside, chatting, but Caty and Jake weren't in there. Rae figured the meeting was over and the two of them left. Sure enough, she saw Alyssa and Caty were leaning against the wall opposite from Alyssa's locker, giggling about something.

"Hey Rae," Caty greeted when the Keeper joined them.

"Hey. Um, where's Jake?"

"Bathroom," Caty replied.

Rae looked at Alyssa. "Did you find anything at the house?"

Alyssa shook her head. "Same as always. Just emptiness. Can we use the star now or do you want to wait til he's dead?"

"I want to wait til tomorrow," Rae said.

"We're not going to find him Rae. We have no way of doing it."

"I'll think of something."

"We're not magical Rae!"

"You are," Rae replied.

"I have no _idea_ how to control my magic. The Mage-my grandmother-had to talk me through it last time."

"Exactly. Magic is uncontrollable and so are magical items. Can't you just be patient for one more day?"

"This is _so_ unfair Rae. You know that if it was Jake, you would've used the star the same minute you got it. Why is it _my_ boyfriend who takes the backseat?"

"He doesn't! I wouldn't have used the star for Jake because I think with my head, not my emotions. I have to because I'm the leader."

"Oh poor Keeper, calling all the shots," Alyssa said sarcastically. "And don't give me that perfect routine Rae."

"I never said I was-"

"But you _did_ say you'd think with your head, but you wouldn't. Not if it was Jake in this situation. You'd move heaven and Earth for Jake...you'd use the Star of Shunsui! You're being _such_ a hypocrite. Because when it comes to Jake, he's always in more danger, isn't he?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You always preached about how Jake couldn't know our secret because he'd be in danger, and since you're leader, everyone fell in line with you because they didn't know what else to do. You made Caty and Brian have their disconnect. It's your fault Ellie and Adam ended their friendship. You didn't care about that, but once Jake broke up with you, it was the end of the world. Figures you'd be the same way with James."

"God Alyssa, why are you acting like I don't even care? I do! I still feel responsible for getting James captured, and I want to find him too. He is one of my best friends, as are you. But you need to get off my back. Stop letting your emotions rule you. No wonder you weren't chosen as leader. You'd be terrible at it."

"As opposed to you?" Alyssa shot back, making Caty gasp.

Rae was uncertain about being leader for a _day_ before she stepped up for the role, and she'd been amazing at it ever since. She always risked her own life to make sure everyone else was safe. She did what she had to for the good of the world rather than herself. And she always had the best, most well-thought out plans, and came up with them within seconds. She was quick, smart, fierce...Rae proved herself to be an amazing leader, but Caty knew, no matter how many people told her that, she never believed in herself. The last thing Rae needed was her best friend questioning her leadership skills.

"Okay, we're stopping this," Caty said as Rae looked like she was just slapped in the face.

Alyssa bit her lip guiltily. "Okay, look Rae, I'm-"

She stopped when a determined look settled on Rae's face. She began to walk past the fire and water guardian.

"Rae?" Alyssa asked uncertainly. She saw the Keeper walking toward Jake.

Jake smiled at the two girls leaning on the wall, the focused his attention the one that was right in front of him.

"I have to tell you something," Rae blurted out.

"Is it good morning?" Jake asked teasingly.

"No, because it's _not_ a good morning," Rae said. "You're going to _hate_ me."

"I could _never_ hate you."

Rae blushed. "But you will. But once I tell you, if by some miracle, you _don't_ hate me, I want to get back together."

Jake's entire face lit up, making him look even more swoon worthy than he normally did.

"Now I definitely can't hate you," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"_God_, _he's so _hot," Rae said in Alyssa's head, because even though she was mad at the fire guardian, this is something she needed to tell her best friend.

"_Maybe tell him that when you're done,_" Alyssa suggested, putting aside her anger for now. "_Soften the blow_."

Rae nearly groaned out loud, then took a deep breath. "Okay, so...um, remember Alyssa's birthday party?"

Jake looked confused. "Um...yes?"

"Great, me too. Well, that's it."

"That's what you had to tell me? That you remember Alyssa's birthday party?" Jake asked dubiously.

"I _wish_ it was," Rae sighed. She looked back at Caty and Alyssa, who gave her encouraging smiles.

Rae tried to imitate Gabi's infamous 'Scram!' look, but she must not have been very good at it, because instead of leaving and giving Rae some privacy, Alyssa and Caty leaned forward, hoping to hear the entire conversation.

Rae sighed again and turned back to Jake. "Okay, what do you remember about Alyssa's party?"

"Um, all of it? We all arrived, and...that was the first time I had a real conversation with James, and that's how we became friends. I remember playing charades, eating dinner...Alyssa opened her presents and her parents were out and we cut the cake...and I remember eating like four pieces, and then...you know, Alyssa found out Josh was her brother and everything went to shit."

"Is that it?"

"Yes...why, was there something else?"

"Yeah," Rae sighed. She knew the Memory Flower worked well, but now she wished it hadn't. This was _so_ hard to say.

"That day at the assembly...that wasn't the first time you found out about our powers."

Jake frowned. "What?"

"You found out once at Alyssa's party. She got mad and started to make the room hotter, so Caty had to try and make the room colder. And then she started up a physical link. It was an accident; we couldn't really control our powers yet. Ellie started up some winds and Gabi's telekinesis started acting up and Caty made the room too cold. We all did what our powers did when we got angry because we all felt Alyssa's anger, and our powers can be controlled by our emotions if we're not careful. And we begged for Alyssa to disconnect us, but she was too angry so Chris turned into Shagon and blasted a lazer between Alyssa and Josh so she would snap out of it."

Jake stared at Rae, open mouthed. She took a shuddering breath and kept going.

"You didn't ask me about it that night after Alyssa kicked us out, but the next morning you wanted to know. And I said I'd tell you the next day. And then you skipped school with Gabi and apparently asked her a bunch of questions about her powers. And then you came over to my house after school and I…"

"You what?" Jake asked, his voice hard. He knew the answer, but he needed Rae to say it.

"I erased your memory with the Memory Flower."

Jake's eyes got darker and darker as Rae talked. Now they were more black than hazel.

"I know you're mad but uh...you're really hot!"

"What?" Jake asked, totally confused as to why she would say that now.

"_Okay, not my _best_ idea_," Alyssa said in Rae's head.

"_Gee, really_?" Rae bit back.

"_Well in my defense, you totally could've executed that differently,_" Alyssa pointed out.

"I'm _so_ sorry," Rae said, ignoring the fire guardian.

"_Are_ you?" Jake asked. "Because it seems to me, you keep doing things you need to apologize for. If you're really sorry, then why don't you stop doing them?"

"Jake, I was trying to protect you-"

"From _what_?" Jake exploded. "Whatever you think is going to happened didn't."

"_Yet_," Rae said. "You have no idea what can happen. You think those monsters in Ellie's house were in Jason's room by accident? You think any of them care if they kill you? Remember the monsters in the assembly? They didn't care that you, Brian, and Adam weren't part of the team. They were willing to kill you anyway."

"They would've done that to _anyone_ that was there. The person didn't have to be close to you, so stop with that bullshit Rae!"

Rae jumped. She'd never seen Jake this angry before. In fact, Caty, being his best friend, was the only person who'd _ever_ seem him mad apart from his family.

"Well I don't know what you want me to say Jake. That's the reason I didn't tell you, and everyone agreed with me."

"Gabi did? Ellie did? James did?"

"Yes!"

"And you?" Jake asked, looking at Alyssa.

"I...to be honest, it didn't even occur to me that you found out at first, and by the time I..._rejoined_ the team I guess, it was already over."

"You mean my mind had already been messed around with, like a plaything?"

Alyssa looked away, her face burning.

Jake walked over to where she and Caty were and held his hand out to the water guardian. "You and me, private talk, _now_."

"Okay," Caty squeaked, taking his hand. Just because she's seen him mad before didn't mean it was any less scary for her.

"And you and me," Jake said, pausing in front of Rae, "are _done_."

"D-Done?" Rae asked.

"We don't hang out, we don't talk, we don't even _look_ at each other. I am done with you...for _good_."

Immediately, Alyssa shot him a glare, her protectiveness of Rae coming out as a reflex even though in the back of her mind, she was still mad at the Keeper. Jake ignored Alyssa and continued on the hallway with Caty.

Rae was both heartbroken and exhausted. She half wanted to cry, but she also really wanted to go to sleep. Finally, she made a decision.

"I'm going home," she told Alyssa.

"I'll go with you," Alyssa said immediately.

"And skip school? You could never."

"For you I could."

"I wouldn't ask you to."

"I wouldn't need you to."

For a minute, Rae hesitated. "Thank you," she said finally.

Alyssa smiled and linked her arm through Rae's. The pair exited the school, their fight-at least for the moment-forgotten.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Caty greeted Rae with a glare when the Keeper and fire guardian arrived at practice that afternoon.

"I hope you're happy!" she spat.

"Um...I'm not?" Rae said questioningly just to annoy Caty because she was _not_ in the mood to be yelled at.

"Jake chewed me out for not telling him," Caty went on. "He said in the entire group, besides you, _I_ should've been the one to tell him because _I'm_ his best friend."

"Well then, I guess you should've told him."

Caty glared at her. "_You_ said I couldn't! You didn't let _any_ of us. And now he _hates_ me. He's fine with everyone else. He understands why they didn't tell him. But not me. And I _always_ wanted to tell him. I can't even _count_ how many times I asked you if I could. I never should've listened to you."

"Caty, lay off her today," Alyssa begged. "Can we just start practice?"

"Gabi isn't here yet," Caty said. "Josh either, obviously."

Alyssa frowned. Those two were usually never late to guardian practice. The rest of the team milled around in the clearing, where they decided to meet that day, waiting for Gabi and Josh. Hay Lin did not look happy. At this point, the couple was ten minutes late, and for Hay Lin, every minute counted.

Rae didn't much care about where Gabi and Josh were. Ever since last Monday, Jake, Brian, Misha, Nina, Lili, and Adam had been coming to practice to watch and hang out during downtime. Today, everyone was there except Jake. She shouldn't have expected him to come. But she thought maybe he'd be awed enough to keep coming to practice, especially if, as Caty had said, he was okay with everyone else on the team.

Five minutes later, everyone saw Josh making his way over to them, but no sign of Gabi. Where was she, and why was Josh here without her?

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"Are you two going on a _date_?" Eva asked that afternoon as Gabi and Josh got ready to leave for guardian practice.

"Shut up about that, will you?" Gabi snapped. "And no."

Gabi knew if Daniel found out Josh and Gabi were dating, he'd have some reservations about letting Josh stay here-the same reservations Grandma Patricia and Michael had before the two were dating. And Gabi and Josh wanted to remain close by so they could protect each other...so they'd never have to go through what Alyssa was going through. So Gabi told Luc, and Eva found out when she walked in on Josh and Gabi kissing, but as of now, Daniel and Sienna had no idea.

"Then where are you going?" Eva asked curiously.

"Why do you care?" Gabi asked. Eva was never interested in her life before.

"If you're going to turn into a fairy again, I want to see it," Eva explained. "So I want to go with you if that's what you're doing. And I know it is, cuz you're grounded, and you wouldn't risk getting more grounded unless you're doing your fairy training."

"For the _last_ time, I do _not_ turn into a _fairy_!" Gabi cried. "I don't have _fairy_ training, God! And if you want to see it, I can just show you when I come home. You don't have to come with us."

"But I want to see all of you turn into fai-uh, superheroes," Eva said.

"Guardians," Gabi corrected. "We guard and protect the veil, which is like a magical wall that's put up between us and the world full of evil. As guardians, we're the only ones who can open a door in this wall and go to the evil world."

"Guardians," Eva repeated. "Okay. I want to see all of you turn into guardians."

"Ev, we're going to be really busy today," Josh said.

It was Rae's last day to try and figure out where James was without using the Star of Shunsui. Everyone was worried about James, but only Alyssa, and to a lesser extent, Caty, were willing to use the star, so everyone wanted to figure out a way to find James without it.

"It could get boring and dangerous. But next time all the guardians are over here, they'll all turn for you, okay?"

Eva considered this, and finally nodded. Gabi guessed it was because Josh was the one who proposed the alternative. Eva was always receptive of Josh.

Gabi opened the door only to find Bree on the other end.

"Bree?"

"Gabi, hey!"

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

Bree looked confused. "You invited me, didn't you? You said we could study for the French final together."

Gabi thought back and realized she was right. Guardian training was scheduled for the night originally, so Gabi invited Bree over in the afternoon, but yesterday Rae decided everyone should meet as early as possible today.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. Can we do it tonight?"

"You forgot again?" Bree asked.

Gabi cringed. The same thing happened yesterday. Gabi invited Bree over, just to hang out, forgetting about guardian practice. Josh was already at The Silver Dragon with Alyssa and Rae. Gabi was heading out when Bree showed up. Gabi apologized, saying she forgot. Bree asked her what she was doing instead, and Gabi gave her the same excuse as always: she was hanging out with New Girl as a means to an end.

Bree had frowned and asked her what that meant, because she never had before. Gabi tried to think of something when Daniel came out of his office, a glare on his face. He told Gabi that she should send Bree home because he needed to have a serious talk with her. Gabi knew what this was about. Gabi was so disgusted at herself for taking comfort in Sienna a week ago that she'd been ruder to her than ever before (funnily enough, despite Gabi's new, even meaner attitude, she and Eva had been getting along better).

Gabi gave her dad a hurried excuse about having to leave for work, then running out, leaving Bree at her house. She heard Bree calling after her, begging her to explain what was going on because she wasn't scheduled that day. Gabi cringed, knowing Daniel heard that. Sure enough, that night, he had grounded her for leaving when he specifically told her not to and for treating Sienna so terribly. Gabi didn't blame Bree, knowing she didn't mean to do that, especially after she apologized so profusely that morning. Anyway, she was the one being a bad friend, ditching Bree at every turn.

"I didn't forget exactly, I'm just double booked. But we can do it later."

"Why? What are you doing now?"

"I have that thing I do with New Girl and the others."

"Oh you mean the whole 'I'm working toward a beneficial goal' thing?"

"Yeah," Gabi replied.

Bree glared at her best friend. "No. You know what Gabs, that excuse isn't going to work anymore. I want to know exactly what's going on."

"What? Why? I thought you were okay with me keeping it a secret!"

"You honestly thought I was okay with my best friend having a secret from me? I wasn't! I didn't want to pry, and I figured you'd tell me eventually, but it's been nine months, and you still haven't. I've watched you go around and lie to everyone you know, and I've watched the others in your group like New Girl and Classless-a-"

"Alyssa," Gabi interrupted.

"-lie to everyone they know too. Jake broke up with New Girl because of a secret, but then he started hanging out with her again, so he must know."

Gabi didn't really feel like it was appropriate to mention that Jake and Rae were in another fight.

"And Sage said Adam stopped being friends with my cousin because she kept lying, and now they're _dating_, so he must know too. Lili mentioned how Snort Master and Encyclopediork had a big blow up and broke up, and he said he hated her and thought she was a sick person and was never going to trust her again, and now they're back together, so he must know. I'm the only person out of the loop here."

"You're not the only-"

"_Lili_ knows what the big secret is and she and Queen Nerd didn't even _like_ each other at the beginning of the year. Queen Nerd's two friends know. How come your best friend doesn't?"

"Uh…" Gabi groaned. How was she supposed to get out of this.

"Bree, maybe we can talk about it later?" Josh asked. "We really have to go."

"Go where?"

"How about we don't do this now?" Josh insisted, irritated.

"How about let's?" Bree practically screamed.

"Josh, go," Gabi said. "I'll catch up."

Josh nodded and slipped out.

"You, to your room," Gabi said, looking at Eva.

Eva didn't look very pleased about being told what to do, but didn't argue. She'd been much more receptive to Gabi since the night Hope and Riley attacked, and even more since Gabi gave Eva advice on John, so she just left.

"And since _when_ does the she-devil _listen_ to you?"

"We're...friendly."

"Like you and New Girl are friendly?"

"I wouldn't call us _friendly_. I still don't like her much, and she pretty much hates me."

"Yet you hang out together everyday. So what are you doing?"

Gabi fidgeted. She didn't know how to get out of this one. In the beginning of the year, when she told Bree and Jake that guardian training was extra cheer practice, all she wanted was to be able to tell them the truth. But now, after seeing all the different reactions of people who knew, she wasn't so sure.

What if Bree got mad at her, like Jake, for keeping the secret for so long? Or what if she was scared every time the topic of guardians was brought up like Adam? Or worse, what if she reacted the way Nina did, freaking out? Alyssa wasn't here to calm her down. What if she was eternally freaked out, or what if she was like Gavin, so terrified she wanted to forget? That would _hurt_, a _lot_.

But what was the alternative? Losing Bree's friendship? Bree and Gabi had been best friends since they were two and were put in Heatherfield Elementary's daycare together. Gabi couldn't imagine her life without Bree. Bree was always by her side, through everything, helping wherever she could, sticking up for her whenever she had to, doing everything she needed to so they could stay on top. Gabi thought about the way Alyssa was acting, depressed and lost, and a little dead inside, now that James was gone. The same way Rae acted when she and Alyssa were fighting. Gabi knew she'd be the same way without her best friend as well.

Gabi took a deep breath. "I wanted to tell you for so long, but I've been scared. First New Girl was telling everyone that whoever knows would be in danger, and that might be true."

Besides Alyssa, Gabi was the only one reading the journals of the other Thousand Year Gaurdians and close friends and family members of most of the members of each team have been kidnapped, injured, or even killed.

"Plus New Girl is leader, so we pretty much have to listen to her. When people find out, if one of us is close to that person, we get to decide what they know, how much they know..._if_ they get to keep knowing. But we technically weren't ever allowed to _tell_ anyone."

"Tell anyone _what_? Gabi, you're not making any sense," Bree said, sounding extremely confused and bit scared.

Gabi sighed and transformed. A pink light enveloped her, and quickly turned green. Bree put her arm in front of her eyes. When the light disappeared, Gabi stood in guardian form. Bree was still covering her eyes.

"Ta-da," Gabi said, both to let Bree know she could look, and because she wanted to keep this moment as light as possible.

Bree's jaw hit the floor. "Gabs...your hair is...and your clothes are...and...omigod, do you have _wings_?"

"Yeah. They're a hell of a lot more fun than a tail...well, I'd imagine they are. I wouldn't know," Gabi said, trying to make a joke.

Bree's eyes were wide and her mouth kept opening and closing, like a fish.

"Say something," Gabi said nervously.

"I don't know what to say," Bree said. "I have know idea what's going on!"

"Okay, well why don't you come to guardian practice?"

"Come to what?"

"That's what it is I'm doing. Attending practice to be a better guardian. That's what I am by the way. A Guardian of the Veil."

"You're a _what_?"

Gabi sighed. This was harder to explain than she thought.

"Okay, let's see...um, okay, the first thing you need to know is that Earth is not the only world in existence. There are other worlds in other dimensions. Two of the most important ones are called Kandrakar, the world I get my power from, and Meridian, which is really where Sage and Josh are from. But Josh was born here on Earth."

"Um...okay," Bree said.

"Do you believe me?"

"Can you fly with those wings?"

"Um...yeah."

"Show me."

Gabi did. She rose into the air, then flew around the room. When she landed, Bree's eyes were wide again.

Gabi heard a noise coming from the office. Worried her father was coming out, Gabi changed back. Her father didn't appear, but Gabi decided to stay in human form, just in case he did.

"Wow. Okay. Between the flying and the...changing, I'd believe anything."

"Okay, good. Alright, next thing you need to know...um...oh, yes! So whenever one of these other worlds have been overtaken by evil, a veil is placed between it and all the other worlds, so that the evil doesn't spread over. Right now, Meridian is overtaken."

"Josh and Sage's world?"

"Yes. See, most of these other worlds are ruled by monarchies, and Sage is part of the Meridian Royal Family. Actually, she's the oldest daughter of Meridian's queen, so she's a princess, and the next in line. She's supposed to be queen next year, when she turns eighteen."

Bree gaped. "We...we're friends with a _princess?" _she asked, her voice squeaking on the last word.

Gabi nodded.

"Wait...what do you mean she was _supposed_ to be queen?"

"Okay, so like I said, Meridian's been overtaken by evil. It's this guy, Kasson. He and Sage's mother, Queen Elyon, used to be good friends, but then he married this woman, Cassandra, and she's pretty power hungry, more so now because she was supposed to be queen of her land, Tarantella, but then her family lost power. So when she married Kasson, she not only wanted to be queen of his land, Eldantia, but also another land, and she chose Meridian."

"Can she do that? She can just _choose_ to take over a world?"

"Well, no, that's not exactly what I meant. She wanted Meridian, but obviously she had to fight for it. Kasson, Cassandra, their family, and their army took over. Cassandra, Kasson, and Elyon are the heads of the three most powerful magical families in all the known worlds. Since Kasson and Cassandra were on the same side, they had double the magic Elyon did. And besides Elyon and her kids, she has very few magical beings in her army, while half of Kasson's army were magical, not to mention Sage, the most powerful member of Elyon's family, wasn't there the day Kasson's army took over, and Kasson's oldest daughter Piper can syphon magic-"

"What does syphon mean?"

"It means she can absorb the magical powers of others just by touching them. Along with the fact that her brothers and sister are even more powerful than Kasson and Cassandra, and they had much more magic on their side, they thoroughly defeated Elyon. They took Elyon, her husband Drake, her kids and her oldest son's girlfriend, who lives with them, captive, and laid stake to the palace and the land. Josh's father is the leader of the rebel army trying to take Kasson down. They haven't come up with a plan yet-Kasson is even more powerful than the enemy Meridian was trying to defeat when Josh and Sage's parents were kids-but once they do, we will be there to help."

"Okay," Bree said slowly. "And what are you again?"

"A Guardian of the Veil. Like I said, if a world is overtaken by evil, the Oracle, the ruler of the world of Kandrakar, places a veil between it and all the other worlds, and the current guardians use their power to protect the veil. There are tears in the veil, holes, I guess, that are called portals. When a portal opens, the evil can spread to other worlds, and the guardians need to close those portals so that the veil remains intact. That's our main objective. Other than that, we help out with whatever world needs help."

"So when did you become a guardian?"

"At the beginning of the school year. I think only two days passed in the year before I found out."

"And who else is a guardian?"

"New Girl is. She's the leader, somehow. Alyssa, Caty, and Ellie are guardians too. Sage, like I said, has magic. Since she wasn't around the day of Meridian's siege, she wasn't captured. She and Josh, who is the Rebel Army's second-in-command came to Earth to help us. Chris and Cara Lyndon also have powers, and so does their dad, Eric. James Mason doesn't have any powers, but wanted to join the team when he found out about all this, so he's part of it."

"How did he find out? And what _are_ your powers?" Bree asked.

"Come with me to guardian practice and you'll know everything," Gabi promised.

"Okay," Bree agreed. "Speaking of James, where has he been for the past week?"

"Something else we'll have to tell you. We have a lot to talk about."

Bree nodded. "Okay. Um, should we tell your dad we're leaving?"

"No, I'm grounded. I'm not supposed to leave," Gabi replied, making Bree laugh.

Gabi may have grown wings and gotten a responsibility to save some random world from evil, but it was good to know her best friend hadn't completely changed.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"What is she doing?" Bree whispered to Gabi.

"Who knows?" Gabi replied, making a rose bud bloom.

"You would, if you looked," Alyssa teased. She looked at Bree. "She's trying to sense the magical energy of everyone around her."

It was nearing the end of the three hour guardian practice. While the team practiced, Misha, Nina, Brian, Lili, and Adam had done the best they could to fill Bree in on everything. During down time, the team answered any questions Bree had that their friends couldn't.

Now the team was just cooling down with simpler tricks and displays of power. Gabi sat down and grew flowers while Bree and Lili watched. Caty made different shapes with the water in the pond, taking requests from Brian and her friends. Ellie and Chris were sparring, but limited themselves by not using their powers. They had to be in the air the entire time, and to win, one of them had to grab the other. Ellie had flown Adam up to the roof of one of the buildings so he could watch. Sage was with him.

Cara and Josh were sparring as well. They didn't fight each other as much as they sparred with others, which is why they decided to do it in the first place. Alyssa and Rae were trying to put their powers together to see if they could make extra powerful attacks, but Rae had decided she needed to practice her 'magic sensing' power, so Alyssa had joined Gabi, Bree, and Lili. Now Bree was asking why Rae was sitting cross legged, her eyes closed, and her palm pressed to the ground.

"What do you mean?" Bree asked.

"Well, Rae has the power to sense anyone of magical decent. So right now, that means, the Lyndons, Sage, and all the guardians. She's getting pretty good at sensing these things, but she finds it harder to isolate each sensation. The one she gets from Sage is different than the one she gets from the Regents or Earth, both of which are different from the ones she gets from us. She needs to practice isolating out sensations everyday in order to be able to do it easily," Alyssa explained.

"So does that mean she can't sense regular people like Lili or I?"

"We may not have powers, but there's nothing 'regular' about us," Lili said haughtily.

Bree smiled and nodded.

"No, she can't sense anyone without powers," Alyssa confirmed.

For a few more minutes, everyone continued to do what they were doing. Bree peppered Alyssa with questions. She wasn't awed like Jake and Brian were, but she wasn't scared like Adam was either. If Gabi had to guess, she'd say Bree was more shocked than anything, and didn't have a real emotional reaction because all of this hadn't sunk in yet.

Gabi grew increasingly nervous as time went on, but practice still wasn't over. The longer she was out of the house, the more chance there was for Daniel or Sienna to discover she'd snuck out. Gabi tried to stay busy to get rid of the nervousness, not wanting to deal with what her father would say unless he actually said it. She made Bree, Lili, and Alyssa chokers, using vines for the chain, and buttercups as the pendant, using her powers to fashion the vines and make the buttercups bloom.

Just when Hay Lin was about to announce practice was over, and they could all go home, Rae gasped. She closed her eyes tighter, and began to shake.

"Rae!" Alyssa shrieked, rushing over to her. Josh and Sage followed suit. "What's wrong?"

Rae stopped shaking and opened her eyes. "James. I know where he is!"

"What? Where?" Alyssa asked, her eyes wild with urgency.

"Wait, how do you know where he is?" Josh asked.

"I...I could sense him."

"Sense him? Like how you can sense us?" Gabi asked as she, Bree, and Lili joined them. The others hadn't noticed anything amiss.

"Yeah."

"But he's not magical," Alyssa said slowly, all the hope draining out of her voice.

"He doesn't have to be," Rae said. "Whenever...whenever I practiced with this power, and tried to isolate the different magical signals I was getting, I would always manage to separate the guardians and Regents from Sage, and I even managed to detect and isolate Hay Lin's weak but still present magical signal. Still, there was always one other magical signal I was getting that I couldn't isolate, and I didn't know who it could be from. Josh and James were the only other ones here, and they weren't magical."

"But I am," Josh said. "I mean, because of my grandmother."

"That occurred to me," Rae said. "After Alyssa used her magic to rebuild the Heart, I asked Hay Lin if the extra signal could be from you because of your magic, but she said it's not possible because your magic is still dormant, and I can't sense that...at least not yet. This power isn't developed enough for that. And then I realized I couldn't separate this second signal from Sage's because it was the _same_ as hers. But yesterday, I managed to do it. It _was_ you Josh, but not because of the magic you have from the Mage. It's because of the residual magical signal you have from getting Sage's powers."

"Right. When I give someone my powers, the powers will last for a limited time, but my magical signal will last for a while," Sage agreed.

"Right. So your magical signal stayed in Josh, so I could also sense him, but since it was _your_ magical signal, I couldn't separate him from you. But yesterday, I managed to isolate him. His signal was much weaker than yours, since it was just residual, but I can still sense him."

"What does this have to do with James?" Lili asked. She wasn't even sure if she managed to keep up with this whole explanation, but she was happy to see the others had the same question as her.

Alyssa, of course, was not confused. "Sage gave James some of her magic during the battle in Kandrakar," she said. "If you can still sense it in Josh, you can sense it in James."

"Yup," Rae agreed. "I didn't get the significance of isolating Josh from Sage yesterday, but this morning it hit me. I could sense Sage in Meridian when we were in Kandrakar last week, so I could probably sense James too, even if he's in a different world. It may be sort of an advanced skill, but I'm so familiar with Sage's magical signal, that it became easier."

"And that's why you didn't want to use the stone, even this morning. You had something else you wanted to try," Alyssa realized.

Rae nodded. "I _had_ to try this first, and it worked. I concentrated on the strength of the signal Josh gave out, and tried to match it to one in other worlds. The drawback was that I could only try and find the signal from worlds we've been to."

"Does that include like Sulfuria and Jumelle?" Alyssa asked.

Rae nodded. "Yes. I managed to sense another signal matching Josh's, and when I isolated it, I saw James's image, as I do whenever I isolate magical signals."

"So where is he?" Alyssa urged.

"I sensed him in Meridian. And I also sensed another strong magical signal. The same signal I felt from the Dark Prince."

Gabi shuddered.

"Meridian? And the Dark Prince?" Alyssa frowned. "Okay, we know the Flyers are the Dark Prince's monsters and they're the ones that took James, but why did he take him to Meridian?"

"The Dark Prince wants the Heart of Meridian, right? Maybe he's taking James wherever he's going, and he's in Meridian because he's ready to take the Heart," Sage suggested.

Lili frowned, thinking. "You know what? Caty let me read the prophecy and it says you guys have to work with a prince, and considering this Dark Prince guy is completely evil, but Kasson wasn't always, it's probably him or his sons. Do you think one way you could work with him is to warn him?"

"Warn him?" Alyssa repeated.

"About the Dark Prince, and wanting to steal the Heart of Meridian. It's better that it's Kasson's hands than the Dark Prince's, right? So maybe if you guys warn him about the Dark Prince taking the Heart, then he can protect it better, and Caty's vision won't come true."

Bree wasn't sure what most of that meant, but everyone else understood, and exchanged impressed looks. That was some really good insight.

"We should seriously think about that," Alyssa said finally. "But it should also be our last priority. Our first is to go get James."

Rae nodded and gathered the team. Hay Lin was delighted at how well Rae's powers were developing, and everyone was happy that they could find James.

"Can I come?" Bree asked as the team got ready to go. Alyssa grabbed James's sword, which he dropped when the Flyer carried him away. Rae was getting energy bars and healing powder from Hay Lin. Hay Lin replenished her supply.

"_Way_ too dangerous," Gabi disagreed.

"But James is _my_ friend too," Bree protested.

"We're not even taking the whole team," Rae said.

Bree just sneered at her. She was still having some trouble talking to Rae, Alyssa, and Caty normally since she'd made fun of them for so long.

It was true. Rae thought it wouldn't be smart to have a big team go on a covert rescue mission, so she decided this would be a guardian only mission.

Bree huffed.

"I can _help_," she insisted. "You let _James _join the team."

"Why does everyone use him as an example?" Ellie asked.

"Cuz he's the only human on the team," Alyssa replied.

Josh cleared his throat exaggeratedly.

"I mean human with no direct connection to the guardians," Alyssa clarified.

Rae changed all the girls back into their human forms so that she and Gabi could get into guardian forms without the Heart. They figured it was safest if they did that every time they went to a different world or into battle. After they changed, Rae united the rest of the guardians.

"Water!"

"Fire!"

"Air!"

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," Bree said.

"None of us have," Lili told her.

Rae opened a portal. It was little weird with the new Heart, but luckily, it didn't put up any resistance, like new Hearts sometimes did.

Ellie, Caty, and Gabi each gave their boyfriend a kiss. Chris told Alyssa to stay safe, and Sage gave Rae a little last minute encouragement, reminding her to believe in herself, because once they got to Meridian, it was up to Rae to lead them to James.

Alyssa stepped through the portal first, eager to get going. Caty followed close behind. Rae went in last, as usual, and closed the portal behind her.

"Wow, that's so cool," Bree said. "I still have so many questions though."

"I'll try to answer them," Lili offered.

Bree nodded and the two girls, who'd already made plans to have dinner together, started walking in the direction of a cafe they both liked. They invited Josh and Sage to join them, an invitation they both accepted. Misha, Nina, and Brian began to walk home. Cara and Chris began to follow Hay Lin back to the restaurant, but Adam stopped the Lyndon boy.

"I know you're not my biggest fan," Adam said. "But I want to learn how to fight. It's really important to me, and it's for Ellie, and I know you care about her, so will you teach me?

"Just because you learn to fight doesn't mean Ellie will let you join the team," Chris said.

"I know that. I don't want to join the team. I don't want to learn about weapons either. I just want to learn hand-to-hand."

Chris nodded. Josh was really better at this than him, but Chris was the second best fighter on the team, and he was getting closer and closer to Josh's level everyday.

"Why?"

Adam knew Chris would probably be the only one to understand why he wanted to learn, so he told him, even though it had been nearly seven years since they had any kind of conversation at all, let alone a friendly one. Just as Adam suspected though, Chris understood, and suddenly seemed very eager to train him, under one condition: when Adam was ready to put his skills to use, Chris could accompany him. Adam agreed. This was going to be interesting.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: I hope you guys liked it. I felt bad Gabi didn't have anyone in the know (Eva, being only eight, doesn't really count), so I had to give her Bree, especially since Caty has enough people in the know for a baseball team (not really, but you get the idea). And I'm also sorry for what happened between Jake and Rae. Originally, they were supposed to be back together by now, but I realize now, they are not going to be dating again any time soon…if at all. Their relationship has been through too much. But, **_**anyway**_**, keep going. The next chapter gives you a lot of important information.**


	55. The Infinite City

**A/N: So this is the next chapter, and the last one of a little while (sorry). Regardless, I hope you enjoy!**

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**Shay: I'm not a huge fan of reading battle scenes either, but I do have fun writing them, so I'm glad you liked them. I tried to keep it interesting with side conversations and jokes. I'm glad you liked unbusy. It was completely random. I LOVED Raythor in the show, he was one of my favorite characters, even though he was rather minor. I love when couples are happy, but James being kidnapped was a long time coming, it was always meant to happen, so I had to. You're right, Gabi and Josh were basically already a couple. I always planned to make them easy once they got to that point because they had it so hard before that. I'm sorry, I know Chris and Ellie were a lot of people's favorite, and that's why I kept apologizing last chapter, but it had to be done. Just like James was supposed to get captured, Ellie was supposed to end up with Adam. The "Adam and Jade" thing was supposed to happen, but the whole "Chris and Ellie" thing wasn't. They were never meant to be together. And Ellie and Adam ended up together the same day because Ellie always loved Adam, she just didn't realize it. I hope you'll still like the story with Adam as Ellie's boyfriend, and there is something coming up in future chapters that will hopefully help Adam redeem himself.**

**SilvenArrow: It'll be a little while before you hear more about the Dark Prince. I wanted James to be Alyssa's trigger. They **_**are**_** my favorite couple after all. The new Heart looks exactly like the one CHYKN used in their days. You can see a clear picture of it in the episode in either L is for Loser or M is for Mercy. That's an interesting thought, and if you think it's unrealistic, I'll take that over the 'Imma freaking kill you' PMs I've been getting. Even **_**I**_** know putting Ellie and Adam together so quickly is unrealistic; I guess I rushed that part cuz I wanted it to happen. They were supposed to be together by now. It wasn't supposed to be as complicated cuz in my original plan, Chris and Ellie never got together. I responded to everything else in your PM, so I hope you like these chapters!**

**Taylor: Thank you for your PM. You are so right about that! You saw it in this chapter, as you will see, but in a more flexible way. And okay, I wrote Adam Driver when I described him, but I don't see him that way anymore, for some reason. Not exactly like Wells or Zoom, more like Vandal Savage. Can you see that? I responded to everything else you ask about, so I hope you like this chapter! **

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

"The signal's really strong here guys, and his image is clearer. We're getting really close," Rae said as she led the guardians through Meridian.

The five girls had been walking for an hour. Ellie was flying, because somehow, that was easier and less tiring for her than something she'd been doing for most of her life. The girls started at the caves where Ellie and Chris fought the Air Nymph, and headed North. The farther they got, the more barren and deserted the land seemed, but Rae insisted they were going the right way, and since she was the only guide they had, they had to trust her.

Alyssa followed without complaint, both because she had an unbelievable amount of faith in Rae in every situation, and because she had a need to find James. The other girls were exhausted however.

"Rae, we've been walking forever! Can we rest or something?" Caty begged.

"Caty, you play soccer. How are you tired?" Rae asked.

"My adrenaline is pumping in soccer. Right now, we're just...walking."

"We're really close guys, I can feel it," Rae insisted.

"That's what you said five minutes ago New Girl," Gabi sneered. "And ten minutes ago, _and_ twenty minutes ago."

"But this time I really mean it."

"That's what you said seven minutes ago, _and_ fifteen minutes ago," Ellie listed.

"Guys, come on. Rae is the most tired out of all of us," Alyssa said, standing up for the Keeper as always. "Do you even realize how much concentration it takes for her to follow James's signal? It's a new power, and he has a weak signal because the magic in him is just residual energy. This is taking a huge toll on her, but she's not complaining."

Looking at Rae, the others realized Alyssa was right. Rae was sweating, breathing hard, and her face was pale. She did look worse for wear. The other girls' legs were aching and they were hot. Rae had to deal with all that and everything using her tracking power took out of her. They shouldn't be complaining.

"Okay, tell you what guys. We should take a five minute break," Rae conceded. "We can all have some water, and I think we should eat a fourth of an energy bar."

The girls all agreed with that. Alyssa didn't look too happy to be stopping, but Ellie, Caty, and Gabi had already sat down, and began breaking apart the energy bars Rae had given them.

Caty produced fresh water and used her powers to help the girls drink it. It looked a little silly, but it was much easier relying on Caty rather than carrying around water bottles.

"Has all this seemed too easy too you?" Rae asked Alyssa.

"Are you kidding? We've been walking for an hour! What's easy about _that_?" Ellie asked.

Alyssa gave her a small smile before turning back to her best friend. "I've been thinking the same thing, but maybe we just need to relax. If this is easy, it's a good thing, right?"

"Or it's a trap," Rae said.

"Or you're super paranoid, like always," Gabi broke in.

"I think you pronounced cautious wrong," Rae bit back.

"Can you say tension?" Caty intoned.

"Tension! I said it!" Ellie cried excitedly.

For a moment, everyone just looked at her. Then everyone began to laugh, and the tension dissipated. Ellie was confused as to why that so funny, but went with it.

The girls got up and began walking again. They hadn't gotten very far before they were attacked. The monsters were unlike any they'd seen before. They were huge, and looked just like rhinoceroses, with the added feature of wearing orange and silver armor.

"Rhino soldiers...that's a new one," Caty muttered as the girls took to the air.

There were at least twenty rhinos, all growling.

"These things are _not_ gonna stop me from rescuing my boyfriend," Alyssa said, glowering at them.

"Maybe don't be so threatening to things that might want to _eat_ us and _definitely_ want to kill us," Caty advised.

Alyssa ignored her and unleashed a wave of fire on half of them. Rae was right behind her, attacking the other half with a huge ball of lightning. All the monsters seemed to be in pain at first, but then shook it off, growling even more intensely.

"Uh...what happened?" Caty asked.

"Apparently fire doesn't effect them," Alyssa said dumbly.

"Yeah, they're impervious to lightning too," Rae put in.

Gabi closed her eyes, trying to sense any vines underground, but couldn't. They were in a barren, rocky land. She'd just have to use the terrain. She started with an earthquake to make the rhinos lose their footing. It worked out well. Most of them were flat on their stomachs, their legs spread out, unable to get up.

"My turn," Caty said. She created an enormous wave, and doused them with it. She kept the wave up, creating tides. The roar of rushing water got louder and louder as the rhinos struggled to breathe. But, just as fast as they started to drown, they pulled themselves back up. They were still underwater, unable to swim, but they could breathe.

"Did they grow gills?" Ellie asked.

"You can't _grow_ gills," Caty snapped, but wondered if maybe Ellie was right. How else could they be breathing under water?

"Save your energy and get rid of the wave. It's clearly not working," Rae advised.

Caty did. The rhinos were still drenched. Rae decided to see if her lightning would work a little better now. The half that got hit by Alyssa's fire writhed in pain for a few seconds before shaking it off. The half that Rae originally attacked didn't feel the lightning at all.

"Okay, so that's not good," Rae muttered.

"I think I just found out why they invulnerable to fire," Alyssa called.

The other girls turned to Alyssa in time so see one of rhinos shooting a stream of fire at her through it's mouth. Several others followed suit.

"They can _breathe _fire?" Gabi cried. "I thought they were _rhinos_, not dragons!"

One of the rhinos turned to her. It's black irises began to disappear into the whites of it's eyes. Then both his eyes turned into a blue-white color. In the next second, it shot a blue-white ray out of it's eyes.

Gabi shrieked and flew out of the way.

"It just shot lightning out of it's eyes!" Ellie squeaked.

"That's not all," Caty said fearfully. She was dodging blasts of water the rhinos were shooting out of their mouths. She got hit with a strong blast and tumbled backward, but managed to save herself by flapping her wings quickly.

"I'm getting pretty tired of this," Ellie declared. She used her power to lift one of the rhinos into the air, then began sucking the air out of him. At first it seemed to work. The rhinos was struggling in the air, shaking it's legs, and it seemed to be having trouble breathing. But just as quickly as he was losing air, he broke free from Ellie's winds, and landed gracefully back on the ground.

"That's never happened before," Ellie declared.

The rhino began to ascend into the air again, but this time , of it's own accord. Alyssa flew closer to it and got blown back.

Gabi used her telekinesis to stop Alyssa from blowing away.

"There's air around it's body," Alyssa said when she recovered. "It's using the winds to fly."

The rhino began to blow out of it's mouth. They couldn't see what came out of it, but Ellie knew it was air. She managed to send it back to the rhino, but the air ball keeping the rhino in the air acted as a shield.

"It's like Anti-Shagon," Alyssa whispered as she realized what was going on.

"It's absorbing our powers," Caty agreed, realization also dawning on her. "If we attack them, they get our powers, and they become invulnerable to our attacks, but we're not invulnerable to theirs."

Gabi frowned. She caused an Earthquake, but they didn't come back at her with anything like that. She threw a boulder at one of the rhinos. The rhino got hit and began almost squealing in pain. She threw another one at a different rhino. It was a much smaller boulder, and the rhino got hit in the side, but managed to get up. It shot lightning at Gabi. Rae flew in front of her and redirected the dissipated it.

Gabi gasped. "They don't get _my_ powers. No matter what I do, they can't do anything with Earth like they can with the other elements."

"Great. You're the only one who can attack them. What should we do? Distract them while you kill them all with boulders?" Caty asked.

Gabi looked at the rhino she'd crushed with a boulder, and to her horror, he began to get up, throwing the boulder off of him. He shot fire at Gabi, which she dodged.

"No. They're too strong for me to kill. But I do have another idea. I need you and Ellie though."

Caty and Ellie flew over and hovered on either side of the Earth guardian.

"Okay, El, when you used air to pick up that one rhino, you gave him the power of not just your powerful breath, but also the power of flight, so it's dangerous to use your power on them, but we need to. When I say to, you need to lift half of the monsters with your power. I'll lift the others with my telekinesis. I'll handle the one with the power of air in my half. We can't let them get the power of flight, so we need to be quick. When we lift the monsters, Caty, I need you to douse the battlefield with as much water as you can."

"But _all_ the rhinos can breathe under water," Caty pointed out.

"I know. I don't need them to drown. Just land on a drenched terrain."

Caty's eyes lit up as she understood what Gabi's plan was.

"Who died and made you leader Gabi?" Rae snipped.

"Do _you_ have a better plan New Girl?" Gabi asked.

"No. She has no plan," Alyssa said.

"Lyssa!"

"It's true Rae!" Alyssa defended. "You don't have any ideas, and Gabi has a one really good one, so let her use it."

Rae huffed, but didn't say anything.

"Okay, Ellie, now!"

Ellie lifted ten of the rhinos in the air, and they all struggled. Gabi lifted the other ten with telekinesis. Caty started drenching the battlefield immediately. The rhino who had Ellie's power had better luck handling the telekinesis, but Caty finished before it managed to break free. It looked like most of the rhinos Ellie was lifting grew immune to her powers.

"El, let them go," Gabi said as she threw her rhinos on the ground. Ellie did. Her rhinos seemed to be floating to the ground gently, gaining the power of flight, but Gabi caught them by surprise, using her telekinesis to throw them to the ground as well. A couple even slipped on the now muddy terrain.

Gabi gathered all her strength and made the soggy, muddy terrain into quicksand. She knew from Cornelia that she'd eventually be able to turn terrain into quicksand by herself, but for now, she needed Caty's help. The rhinos were already half into the quicksand before they realized they were sinking.

"Oh, awesome!" Ellie cried, understanding Gabi's plan for the first time.

Gabi had almost fully buried the rhinos when they started attacking. Only their heads were above the ground now.

"Gabs, like you said, we can't kill them. Finish this!" Alyssa called.

Gabi used the last of her remaining strength to harden the quicksand. The monsters were struck. They used all the powers they could-fire, air, water, and quintessence-to try and get the guardians, but they all managed to fly away, Ellie taking an exhausted Gabi with her. The girls all followed Rae. When they'd been flying for a full ten minutes, Rae led them to the ground and gave Gabi an energy bar.

"I've got three for each of us, so don't worry about conserving it," Rae said when Gabi nibbled at it tentatively.

Hearing those words, Gabi took a huge bite. She finished in a few seconds.

Rae passed out the rest. "I know the rest of us don't need them, but if we were playing hot and cold with James as the prize, we're on fire, so we should eat these to be prepared.

Alyssa finished first, shoveling the whole bar into her mouth, needing to get to James.

"You can't help us if you choke," Rae warned.

Alyssa blushed and chewed the bar thoroughly.

When the girls were done, Rae closed her eyes, trying to fully isolate the signal. "See those mountains up there? There are caves on those mountains, and he's in one of them. I think I'll be able to tell which one once we get up there."

The girls flew faster than they ever had as they went to the mountains, a perk of the energy bar. Just as Rae had said, there were several caves all across the mountains. Rae closed her eyes and pointed at the cave right in front of them.

"That one. He's in there!"

Alyssa went first, without hesitation. She lifted her palm, conjured a small flame to use to light her way, and ran in.

"Alyssa wait, this seems awfully-!" Caty started, but knew, even Alyssa heard her, she wouldn't actually be _listening_.

Rae went after her, using a little lightning ball as an extra source of light, and the other girls felt obligated to follow. Anyway, they all wanted to find James, Caty especially.

It was Gabi, who after fifteen minutes, brought up the fact that this was taking too long.

"We've walked in _way_ too deep," she said. "I didn't even know caves could go on for this long. He's not here."

"I _sense _him though," Rae insisted. "Every step we take, it gets stronger."

"And are we sure the Dark Prince isn't messing with your powers, making you think there's a signal when there isn't?" Gabi asked.

Ellie and Caty exchanged horrified looks (though they couldn't see each other well), wondering if this could be true.

Rae stopped suddenly. "That's it! Why didn't I think of it before?"

"Think of what?" Caty asked, knowing she couldn't be talking about the Dark Prince because Rae sounded happy and excited.

Rae didn't answer. She changed the girls back however.

"Rae! What are you doing?" Alyssa asked.

"Something _is_ messing with my powers. You guys. We ate the energy bars, which are infused with Meridian magic, and the only people who have magic in Meridian are the Martins. You guys now have the same magical signal that James does, combined with the Kandrakaran signal. You guys are jamming my powers. If I want to isolate James's signal, you guys can't be in guardian form."

"What if someone attacks?" Ellie asked.

"We always have time to change, and the light from the Heart stalls the monsters," Rae replied. "Worst case scenario, Gabi will change without the Heart and keep the monsters busy while I change the rest of you."

Everyone looked at the Earth guardian for confirmation.

"I...oh alright!" Gabi said.

"So now that we're not jamming your signal, where's James?" Alyssa broke in.

Rae changed herself back into guardian form, without the Heart.

"Why do you get to be all powerful?" Gabi asked obnoxiously.

"_All_ my powers, including this one, is stronger in guardian form," Rae replied, glaring at her. She closed her eyes and took a breath, trying to sense James.

"He's probably not this deep in the cave," Caty whispered.

Sure enough, when Rae opened her eyes, she led the girls back the way they came. Ten minutes later, Rae paused.

"Gabi, use your powers to create a whole over there," Rae said, pointing to a cave wall.

Gabi looked at her like she was crazy, but did it anyway. Rae led the way into the new entrance. Alyssa followed.

"I love Alyssa with all my heart, but sometimes I wonder about her. If Rae jumped into a volcano, would she follow her in?" Ellie asked.

"Probably. Those two will follow each other anywhere," Caty replied, a little envious. She had Misha and Nina, and she loved _them_ with all her heart, but even knowing Nina for pretty much her entire life didn't give them a friendship like Alyssa and Rae.

Everyone else she knew did. Adam and Ellie would do anything for each other. So would Gabi and Bree. Sage and Josh had that kind of friendship. And truth be told, Caty did have that friend, but thanks to Rae, she lost him.

"Let's get moving before we lose our light sources," Gabi suggested.

"Here," Rae said a few minutes later, pointing to another wall. Gabi sighed, but broke another hole in it.

This happened three more times. The third time Gabi broke a wall, she finally understood. Rae and Alyssa dissipated the lightning ball and flame because there were lanterns lining the walls. Between every two lanterns were jail cells. The first few were empty, but as they walked farther along, there were all kind of creatures in the cells. Monsters with gray skin, blue skin, monsters with hair, bald monsters, monsters with warts, monsters with fangs.

"This is so creepy guys," Ellie whispered. The monsters were all reaching out of their cells, trying to grab at the girls.

"Single file guys, so they can't get us," Rae ordered.

The girls formed a line.

"I'm feeling a second signal, _very_ similar to James's."

"Where?" Alyssa asked.

Rae stopped for a minute to concentrate, then walked forward a few paces, stopping at a cell. Peering inside, the girls saw it was a human in the cell. Rae held up the Heart to get a better look. He looked to be around Hay Lin's age. He had blue eyes, and blond hair. His bangs were falling in his eyes, probably because he'd been locked up so long, he hadn't trimmed them. His hair was a little on the long side on the back too, falling on his shoulders, but that made him look more familiar to the guardians. He had a lightning shaped scar on his left cheek. He had a bit of a beard, and though his clothes were tattered, a girl like Gabi could tell he was wearing a uniform.

"_If he got cleaned up, he'd be super hot_," Gabi said.

"_Gabi_!" Alyssa cried. "_Read the room! Seriously_!"

"_I think she totally improved the silence,_" Ellie said. "_Anything's better than the moaning of the monsters anyway_."

Caty stifled a giggle, making the man in the cell look up. He squinted through the light of the Heart. Rae lowered it. His eyes were unfocused as he took in the other girls, but he grew alert when she saw Rae.

"Guardians?" he asked, hope raining in his voice.

"_Okay, who is he? Do we know him_?" Ellie asked.

"_He _does_ look familiar_," Caty said.

"_What's that uniform he's wearing_?" Gabi wondered.

"_Wait, look at that insignia on the shoulder. Braided ropes, the Meridian symbol of magic. Maybe he was part of the Queen's guard!"_ Alyssa suggested.

"_Not just part of it_," Rae said. Then she said outloud to the man, "Yes, we are guardians. And you...you are King Drake, right?"

The man smiled faintly. "I haven't heard _that_ in a while."

"What, king?" Rae asked.

"Drake," the man said. "But yeah, king too I suppose."

"So you're Sage's father?" Ellie asked.

Drake's eyes widened. "You know my daughter! Is she alright?"

"Yeah. She's on Earth. She has been for a while," Alyssa said.

"She's living at my house," Rae added. "My mother is good friends with Elyon...oh yeah. Sage is fine, but the rest of your family…"

"I know," Drake said. "Sage was not at the palace at the time of the attack so I had no idea of her fate, but I know my wife and other kids were captured by the Dark Prince and taken to his homeland. Only there is a prison that can hold people as powerful as my wife and children."

"By Dark Prince, you mean Kasson, right?" Ellie asked.

"Who else would I mean?"

The girls exchanged looks, but didn't answer.

"Okay, how do we get you out of here?" Rae asked.

"Any magical talisman can break me out. The Heart of Kandrakar for example."

Rae chewed on her lip. "I broke the Heart. I needed to. This is a new one. And the Oracle is locked up, so it was the Mage of Meridian who helped make this Heart. Will it still work?"

Drake shrugged. "I don't see why not. Although if it doesn't, I wouldn't be surprised. My luck hasn't been the greatest, as you can see." He grinned.

"_I see he still has a sense of humor_. _I like him_," Gabi decided. "_Plus that grin is _so_ hot_."

"_That's your best friend's dad. Gross Gabs_," Alyssa said.

Gabi just shrugged.

Rae lifted the Heart up from around her neck and touched it against one of the bars. Lights flashed and the bars disintegrated.

Drake's face broke into a huge smile. He staggered out. "I'm...free," he whispered.

He took a few more steps and fell to his knees.

Rae and Alyssa surged forward.

"Are you okay?" the fire guardian asked.

"I'm weak. As you can guess, I haven't been properly fed and I'm dehydrated. I've been in that cell for nearly a year."

"Here," Rae said, giving him an energy bar. "Eat this. It'll help."

Drake took it and immediately recognized it. "Ah, yes. My family puts magic in these," he said. He ate it, and he instantly looked better.

He obviously felt better as well because he stood up again, and this time, his legs didn't shake like they did when he stood up to walk out of the cell.

"Any injuries you need us to heal? We have some medicine. There's this healing powder…" Rae trailed off as Drake shook his head.

"No need. Kasson and Cassandra needed me kept alive and reasonably healthy in order to get the least bit of my wife's cooperation, so they made sure all my injuries were healed."

"What about these other guys? Do we need to release them?" Rae asked.

"No. These are enemies of _our_ Meridian. This is our low security prison. We have a maximum security prison for people like Phobos, and other magical beings, with cells that cannot be escaped from with magic. For creatures who possess no magical abilities, we built this prison, so we could use the max security prison when we really needed it. When we first trapped Phobos, several of his non-magical men were trapped in those cells as well, and it seemed a waste."

"Raythor was trapped there," Caty recalled.

"So you know him too?"

"And Vathek, Aldarn, Caleb," Ellie listed. "And Caleb's family. His son Josh is also staying on Earth."

"Of course. He's taking care of my daughter, isn't he?" Drake asked.

"To the best of his ability," Gabi said. "Sometimes he's a bit overbearing."

"I know," Drake chuckled lightly. "But as a father, I am a big fan of the overbearing protection Josh offers."

"Guys...James," Alyssa said urgently.

"Right. He's further down. Let's walk and talk," Rae said.

The girls continued on, Drake walking in step with Rae.

"So what about the other prisoners of war?" Alyssa asked. "People that fought on your side against Kasson? Shouldn't we find and free them?"

"There aren't any," Drake said. "My family and I were the only ones captured. As I said, my family was taken to Eldantia. I was brought here because I'm not magical. We experienced casualties, but Elyon ordered a rebel retreat before anyone else could get captured."

"She sounds like such a benevolent queen. I can only hope I'm as good a leader," Rae said wistfully.

"You are," Alyssa said immediately.

"And, 3, 2, 1," Caty said.

"What does benevolent mean?"

"Called it," Caty said. "And it means well meaning or kindly."

"So what are the guardians doing here anyway?" Drake asked.

Rae explained their mission as quickly as possible.

"That's one amazing power, for you to have found this place," Drake said.

"What do you mean? Where are we?" Rae asked.

"Have you ever heard of the Infinite City?"

All the girls nodded, remembering Hay Lin telling stories, but only Alyssa remembered what it actually was.

"The rebel army used it as a base when fighting against Phobos," she said.

"That's right. As you can tell by the name, the city is infinite. We used a part of it when we fought Phobos the first time, and another part when we fought Phobos after he regained power a year later. This prison is the center of the city."

"Does this mean you know a faster way out of here after we find James?" Ellie asked. "Because I do _not_ want to go _back_ through this prison."

"I do know shortcuts," Drake said. "But you can just open a portal."

"Oh, duh!" Gabi said. "Why didn't we think of that?"

"I did," Alyssa, Rae, and Caty said together.

Gabi and Ellie rolled their eyes at each other.

"Why hasn't Kasson released these prisoners?" Caty asked. "If they fought against you guys, wouldn't they be a perfect addition to his army?"

"Yeah, it seems like a no-brainer to me," Ellie agreed. "And I _never_ say that."

Gabi stifled a giggle as Drake said, "These guys don't really have a side. They're basically soldiers for hire. They may be our prisoners, but Elyon treated them better than Kasson, giving them food, water, and medical care. They wouldn't fight for him."

"Why doesn't Kasson just treat them better?" Ellie asked.

"My wife is the first queen to think of treating prisoners better. She had to hire doctors, and pay them handsomely so they'd agree to work as prison doctors. She had to pay farmers and merchants extra for all the food and water she was buying for the prisoners. None of it came cheap. Kasson doesn't want to spend that kind of money, and he has a big enough army without these guys."

"So why don't you release them, for your army?" Ellie asked. "They like Elyon, right?"

"Between all these guys and the rebels, you should have an army big enough to rival Kasson's," Rae agreed. "Kasson's family isn't all powerful. His oldest daughter Piper needs to syphon magic to use it, but with your family locked up, she can only syphon from her own army, more so her family. Our team has ten people, and four of us were able to hold our own with Hope and Riley, two more of his kids, and I doubt his other son is that much more powerful. If we all work together, we can take him down."

"It's a good plan on paper, but if we let these guys out, they'll form their own, self-serving army. Good treatment or not, they were still prisoners under Elyon's rule. They won't want to go back to that. Even if they did fight with us to take down Kasson, they'd turn on us after, and there are more of these guys than there are rebel fighters. We wouldn't be able to get my family from Eldantia."

"What if _we_ went to Eldantia to get them?" Rae asked. "You know, hypothetically. If we released Elyon and your kids from the prison, we could free these guys too and you can all work together to take down Kasson, and then your family could imprison these guys again."

"That would work, however the only way to release my wife and children from their Eldantian prison would be with the Heart of Eldantia."

"So much for your hypothetical plan New Girl," Gabi muttered.

"There was a _reason_ my plan was hypothetical," Rae grumbled.

"Rae, are you sure James is down there?" Alyssa asked.

Rae gave Alyssa a mournful look. "We've been in Meridian for over two hours, and you're the _only_ one who hasn't questioned me yet. So why now?"

"It's not that I doubt _you_ Rae," Alyssa begged. "It's just...Drake was put here, and he was the only prisoner from the Siege of Meridian, which was led by _Kasson_. But James was taken by the _real_ Dark Prince. Why would he be down here?"

"I don't know Lyssa," Rae admitted. "The question's crossed my mind too. But this is where his signal is coming from."

Caty, Ellie, and Gabi all sighed exaggeratedly to let Rae know they were tired of her talking about James's 'signal' every five minutes. Alyssa glared at them and said, "Okay. Then I trust you."

"Volcano," Ellie sang, making the other two girls laugh. Rae, Alyssa, and Drake ignored them.

It was not even a minute later when Rae stopped in front of a cell and put up the Heart again so everyone could see.

Alyssa let out a sound that was half excited gasp, half sob, making the boy in the cell look up.

"James!" Alyssa cried, tears welling in her eyes.

James's eyes widened as he got up and rushed to the front of the cell, his hands wrapping around the bars.

"Lyssa? Guys! You're here!"

"_You think being locked up for a week changed him?_" Ellie asked. "_Like made him a shell of his former self or something_?"

"_El, shut up_," Caty said, noticing the look of horror on Alyssa's place.

"_Let me test it_," Gabi said.

"Well naturally," she said. "We had to come save you, even if you _were _stupid enough to get captured."

"My bad. I'll never do it again," James said sarcastically, and Gabi grinned. He was fine.

"Step back," Rae ordered. "We're busting you out."

James grinned and stepped back.

Rae touched the Heart to the bars, and they disintegrated. James slowly walked out of the cells, and Alyssa practically fell into his arms. Forgetting he'd probably be weak, she yelped when they both fell to the ground, but neither minded, as they burst out laughing.

Rae shook her head good naturedly and made James eat an energy bar. When he finished it, he grinned again and kissed his girlfriend.

"It's so good to see you," he whispered when they broke apart.

"You have no idea," Alyssa agreed, near tears.

They went back to kissing.

"This is all sweet, but there's no time for a make out session. Let's _go_," Rae said after about half a minute. "You know, before we get attacked or something."

"Good idea," James said.

"Here," Alyssa said, handing him his sword.

He took it with a grin and sheathed in the cover he still had. Then he gave Alyssa a puzzled look. "That necklace you're wearing...is it _made_ of flowers?"

"My handiwork. Pretty, right?" Gabi asked, grinning.

"If we don't have time for Alyssa and James to revel in the fact that they're finally together again, we _definitely_ don't have time to discuss your jewelry making," Rae said, rolling her eyes.

"Jealous you don't get one New Girl?" Gabi taunted to get back at Rae for talking to her like she was an idiot.

Rae didn't even grace that with a response, instead turning to Drake.

"Will you come with us? You can see your daughter again, and we can bring you back to Meridian after.

"Of course. Thank you."

"Lyssa, link?" James asked.

"_You're in_."

"_Okay, so who is the man who looks like he hasn't seen daylight in a year?_"

"_King Drake. Elyon's husband and Sage's father. He was locked up here by Kasson and we rescued him_," Alyssa replied.

James looked shocked.

"_And he _hasn't_ seen daylight in a year,_" Caty said.

"_And if we're done with this conversation_," Rae said, basically saying 'we _are_ done.'

"Wait," Alyssa said. "What about what Lili said, about warning Kasson about the Dark Prince stealing the Heart of Meridian? I don't know how, but we should think about warning him. I'd rather the Heart in Kasson's hands than the real Dark Prince's."

"Wait, what did Lili say?" Caty asked, but everyone ignored her when James spoke up.

"He already knows," James said.

"What do you mean?" Alyssa asked.

"I heard the guards talking about it two days ago. Kasson is very aware the man he stole his title from is after the Heart of Meridian, and he's taken extra precautions. I don't know if they'll work, but he knows."

"That's good. Maybe we have a chance of keeping it within our circle," Alyssa said.

"How is Kasson within our circle?" Gabi asked.

"The prophecy says a prince will help us. That has to be Kasson or one of his sons. So if Kasson keeps it, it's in our circle."

"How do we know the prince isn't Cam? Or Shane? Or Philip?" Gabi challenged, listing Sage's brothers.

Alyssa looked stunned for a moment. "I guess we don't. But the prophecy also says 'The bane of Meridian shows the trail.' That has to be Kasson."

"Or Cassandra. Hay Lin basically said Kasson was manipulated into taking over Meridian by her, so she's really the bane of the a land," Caty pointed out.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on? What did you mean when you said the _real_ Dark Prince? And how does Kasson have the Heart of Meridian? It was highly safeguarded the minute Elyon caught wind of the fact someone could be planning an invasion, and no one can _use_ another world's Heart unless it's given up willingly, or the original owner is encased inside it."

Rae shifted uncomfortably, knowing she'd have to be the one to deliver the news. "Yeah, um...Kasson found the Heart, and Elyon's inside it."

The heartbroken look on Drake's face nearly destroyed the others. He needed a friend. Perhaps Caleb or Aldarn, his best friends, could help him through this. And he should see his daughter. They needed to leave.

Rae raised the Heart wordlessly, and opened a portal. The monsters in the other cells got louder and more violent, trying to grab at the guardians and maybe reach the portal.

Ellie squealed in fright and ran into the portal.

The girls exchanged bewildered looks before the monsters scared Gabi enough for her to follow Ellie. Caty went in next. James looked at Alyssa, silently asking her to go through next. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"No way. You first," she insisted.

Last time, Caty tried to drag her into the portal, and James got captured. She was not going through that again.

James didn't argue. He knew this was what Alyssa needed, so he kissed her on the cheek, then put a hand on Drake's shoulder, trying to snap him out of his reverie. It didn't look like it did much, but James managed to guide Drake through the portal. Alyssa went in next, and Rae went last, closing the portal once she was on the other side.

Rae expected the Lyndons to be waiting for them in the basement. When she came through the portal, she saw Hay Lin giving James a hug. Eric clapped him on the shoulder, telling him it was good to have him back. Then they turned to greet Drake, who still looked heartbroken.

Cara breathed a sigh of relief and hugged James as well. He seemed surprised, but hugged her back.

Rae was surprised to see Adam in the basement as well.

He and Chris gave James simple, impersonal nods of acknowledgement, which irritated Rae. She knew Adam barely knew him and Chris barely liked him, but he was missing for a _week_. Couldn't they be _nice_?

"Hey. What are you still doing here?" Ellie asked Adam after giving him a kiss, snapping Rae out of her thoughts.

"I was hanging out with Chris."

"You were what?" Alyssa asked disbelievingly.

"We're friends again," Chris said.

Alyssa and Ellie exchanged looks, then turned to Chris and Adam respectively and said in perfect unison, "You're lying."

Chris and Adam exchanged looks now, before turning back to the girls, unable to think of anything to say.

"I would insist you tell me what's going on, but I just got my boyfriend back, so we're going to leave. El, get to the bottom of this," Alyssa said.

Ellie nodded.

Alyssa grabbed James's hand and the pair headed upstairs. They had a lot of catching up to do. Rae and Caty wanted to catch up with James as well, but they knew Alyssa's version of "catching up" would be different from theirs, and she deserved his full attention right now.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Rae and Alyssa gave James a sparknotes version of what Jake, Brian, and Adam knew about GRACE and his disappearance the next morning as they walked to school. Alyssa told James, in his head, what was going on between Jake and Rae. What no one remembered to mention was James's now empty house-no one remembered considered James spent the night at Alyssa's (in a guest room, of course).

When Alyssa and James walked to Alyssa's locker, which was very close to Jake's, and the Sheffield Golden Boy saw his senior friend, the three textbooks in his hands fell to the ground with a huge BANG, startling everyone in the hall.

Normally, Alyssa would tease Jake for this "charming" display, but, even though Caty said he was good with everyone else on the team, the fire guardian was still unsure.

Jake walked over to the pair and gave James a smile. The boys did that awkward high five/hug thing boys do.

"Good to have you back."

"Good to be back...really. That cell I was in wasn't nearly as homey as Alyssa's place."

Jake looked at Alyssa with wide eyes.

Alyssa cocked her head, confused for a moment before her eyes widened. "Oh, God!" she cried, swatting him on the arm. "He slept in a guest room. Jeez!"

Jake laughed, letting Alyssa know he was just joking. Then he looked back at James. "So...cell?"

"Meridian prison."

"Up to talking about it?"

"About my horrifying experience with monster guards, food depravity, and darkness? Sure."

"Boys," Alyssa muttered. She looked at Jake. "Are we...okay?"

"The way I see it, you had no idea what was going on all that time. What could you have done about it after the fact?"

"Told you for one."

"Not your job. Rae's, and to a lesser extent, Caty's. We're good."

"For what it's worth, Caty _wanted_ to tell you. She's really upset. I can understand you being mad at Rae, but Caty…"

"If she _really_ wanted to tell me, she would've."

Alyssa bit her lip, contemplating. She could tell Jake that Rae wouldn't let her, but that would make him even angrier at Rae, and there was no guarantee he'd forgive Caty. Besides, Caty most likely already told him it was Rae's idea to keep silence. She chose to say nothing instead.

Gabi and Bree walked by and Bree pointed to James. "Oh, you _are_ back," she said.

"Back, and glad that you're in the know. I think Gabi needed her best friend in on this," James said.

"In on this?" Jake asked.

"Oh yeah. Bree found out yesterday. Or, she demanded answers out of me and I told her," Gabi said breezily.

"I thought this was supposed to be a _secret_. Isn't that why I broke up with Rae? Because she kept protecting her secret."

"We're _terrible_ at keeping this a secret," Alyssa said. "You found out _twice_, remember? We couldn't even keep the secret from a seven-year-old."

"Okay, that's totally unfair," Gabi complained. "We _just_ got our second powers and the she-devil walked into my room."

Even though she said 'she-devil' the name didn't have the usual malice.

"Your door was open," Alyssa said.

"I was in a bad mood, and you know how emotions are with our powers," Gabi defended.

"What are we talking about?" Ellie asked, hand in hand with Adam.

"How terrible we are at keeping the GRACE secret," Alyssa answered. She looked at Adam. "Speaking of secrets...did you figure out the one your boyfriend and Chris are keeping?"

"They tried every excuse they could think of. I ended up laughing so much, I told them they could keep their secret. How bad could it be?"

"It's not like they erased anyone's memory," Jake said. "Uh, right?"

"We don't have that power," Adam said flatly. "But I would like that."

"I personally think no one should ever erase anyone's memory," Alyssa said, thinking of her mother.

"If I could get Jade to forget we ever dated...well, I would jump at that chance," Adam said.

"She's still being moody?" Alyssa asked.

"Moody is the wrong word," Adam muttered.

Since Adam and Ellie started dating, which they told Milly and Jade about since they knew it would be too hard to hide, Jade had stopped talking to both Ellie and Adam. She told Ellie friends weren't supposed to date their friend's ex-boyfriends, and Milly was, predictably, taking her side.

"How do you guys have room for all this drama and GRACE in your lives?" Jake wondered.

"We ask ourselves the same question everyday," Alyssa replied as the bell rang.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

Jake Saunders did not forget things easily, and he was always curious, so it made sense that come lunch time, he peppered James with questions about Meridian prison, and, by extension, The Infinite City, and Drake.

Drake had reunited with Sage, and stayed at Rae's house that night. He and Silena didn't know each other, but they got along rather well, considering a lot of their friends were the same. That morning, Rae opened up a portal in the living room for him that led straight to the front door of Caleb's house.

"We covered for you with the school," Jake said near the end of lunch which was the same time Gabi, Lili, Josh, Sage, and now, Bree, left the popular table to join the others everyday. "We told everyone you had the flu."

"Can you even _get_ the flu in June?" James asked.

"I'm pretty sure it's a year round disease," Caty said, rolling her eyes.

"Then how come they only give flu shots in October?" Ellie challenged.

"Because!" Caty cried.

"Looks like someone doesn't know the answer," Jake taunted. Between his questions, he'd made cutting remarks at Caty and Rae. Neither girl felt they had the right to fight back.

Brian glared at Jake, not too keen on Jake's comments towards his girlfriend, but didn't say anything at the water guardian's request.

"We also tried to cover with you for your parents," Jake went on. "But they up and disappeared."

Everyone exchanged looks, realizing they'd forgotten about James's family's vanishing act.

James shook his head. "Disappeared?"

"Your house looks like it hasn't been lived in," Alyssa clarified.

"That's because we moved," James said.

"Moved?" Rae asked.

Alyssa gasped. "To Brookstone!" she cried, citing a neighborhood near the border or Heatherfield and Star City.

"Yeah," James said. "You forgot?"

"Well, I was a little concerned with _your_ disappearance," Alyssa defended.

"Wait, what's going on?" Jake asked.

"My family moved here this year, and we bought one of the new houses being built in Brookstone, but when we were ready to move in, constructions wasn't finished, so we rented the house you've been to while we were waiting for the house to be ready."

"And I knew this," Alyssa admitted. "They were supposed to move out Wednesday, and James was supposed to stay with a friend for the entire week while they moved in, got all the stuff in order, and got the house painted, which they wanted to do after construction."

"I'm not supposed to be home til this weekend," James confirmed. He looked at Jake. "I was going to ask you if I could stay at your house. I even brought a week's worth of luggage and put it in my locker, but then...well, you know. I went flying."

Rae giggled.

"What?" Caty asked.

"Um, remember that day we were at The Silver Dragon waiting for practice to start and you guys were stealing my fortune cookies?"

"Stealing. Totally," Alyssa said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "But go on."

"Well, remember James's fortune? 'You will go flying with danger.' And that's what happened."

"Oh please New Girl, you don't actually believe in those, do you?"

"Why not? Hay Lin does."

"My mom also thinks her arm is a suitable substitute for paper," Chris said slowly.

"_Curse_," Alyssa sang in the heads of Rae, Ellie, Josh, and James, making them all stifle laughter.

"What?" Chris asked.

"Nothing," Alyssa said, shaking her head. "Anyway James, you can stay with me."

"Yeah, I have a feeling your dad isn't going to be too happy with that."

"Your dad moved back?" Caty asked.

"Yup, just a couple of days ago. It's kind of a trial period, but I think they're going to work things out," Alyssa said, a huge smile breaking out on her face.

"Aww, that's great Lyss," Ellie said.

"And James, you can stay with me," Jake said.

"Sounds good."

"James, do you know why you were put in the prison in the Infinite City?" Rae asked. "That's a Meridian prison. Why did the Dark Prince use it? _How_ was he even _able_ to use it? No one is supposed to be able to _find_ the Infinite City."

"But Kasson found it, didn't he? Or else how would Drake be there?" James asked. "And it was the Flyer that got me took me to Meridian. He was flying past the Dark Prince, but the Dark Prince didn't seem to mind, even though he totally _noticed. _And then the Flyer delivered me to some monsters who put me in the cell."

"Almost like that Flyer was working for Kasson," Caty suggested.

"But then wouldn't the Dark Prince mind?" Alyssa asked.

"Maybe they're working together," Misha piped up, trying to help.

"But then why would the Dark Prince be trying to steal the Heart of Meridian?" Rae asked.

"Are you sure it's him who's trying to steal the Heart?" Brian asked Caty.

"Yes. I heard his voice in the vision, and it matched the Dark Prince's voice exactly."

"Maybe they're working together, but the Dark Prince is cooperating with...Kasson, under false pretenses. Like, the Dark Prince could get close to Kasson, and have an easier time stealing the...Heart of Meridian," Nina suggested, trying to keep the names straight.

"That makes sense," Caty said. "We thought the Dark Prince was exceptionally powerful, but maybe he had such an easy time taking down Kasson and Cassandra because he got close to them and knew their weaknesses or something."

"That makes me feel better," Ellie said.

"What worries me is the amount of monsters he had at his disposal. We couldn't beat them then, and we can't beat them now," Alyssa said.

"Well, what if we had the _entire_ Meridian army at _our _disposal?" Rae asked. "Josh, what do you think? Could we have beaten them then?"

"Maybe. But remember, the entire Meridian army can only fight the grounders. The Flyers have to be fought in the air, and it's only because we had Sage lending us her power that _all_ of us could fly."

"So what are we supposed to do to beat this guy?" Gabi asked. "Because he's the one in the prophecy, so it's either him or every world in existence."

"Every group of Thousand Year Guardians defeated their enemy, even with casualties," Alyssa said. "Maybe we should read the journals."

"Haven't you read all of them?" Gabi asked.

"Not the ones about the final battle," Alyssa replied.

Each of the Thousand Year Guardians had one extra journal where they each wrote their account of the final battle.

"Maybe we can learn something from them," Alyssa went on.

"Then we should do that after practice today," James said.

The others nodded, as did the people not on the team. Everyone wanted to be in the know.

"Okay, practice starts right after school today, so if you want to come, meet us by Alyssa's locker," Rae said.

Lili opened her mouth, most likely to ask where "Classless-a's" locker was, so Rae said, "It's also where Jake's locker is."

Lili closed her mouth.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

After school, Caty arrived at Alyssa's locker first. Everyone else was cleaning out their lockers, except Ellie who was helping Adam, and Alyssa who was helping James. This was the reason Caty cleaned out her own locker (and Ellie's) early on.

Caty held in her hands an envelope that came in the mail the previous day. She'd seen it in the mailbox just before guardian practice, but she felt so bad about her fight with Jake, she couldn't handle anymore bad news.

But today, one of her best friends was back in school and seemed fine despite his stay in a small, dark cell for the past week. She was probably not going to be in a much better mood for a while with things like finals and dangerous GRACE stuff coming up.

Still, she couldn't do it. She wanted Brian to be here with her, but he felt sick after lunch and had to go home. She loved Nina and Misha, but she didn't want them around, or any of her other friends really. Just Brian...or Jake.

As if her thoughts summoned him, Jake appeared. He didn't notice her at first as he opened his own locker, putting some books in, and taking others out. When he closed his locker, he jumped a bit, realizing she was there.

"Hi," Caty said, giving a him a nervous smile, hoping he'd smile back.

He glared at her.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I get it, I'm your best friend, I'm supposed to be loyal to you. But I'm also a guardian, and I'm supposed to be loyal to Rae. I can't betray or disobey my leader. It's my duty...Alyssa can explain it better than me, she always had the strongest sense of duty. I don't know how many more times I can apologize."

"You can stop apologizing. It's not going to do anything to me," Jake said.

"What do you want me to say Jake? I told you why I didn't tell you. How can you blame me for that?"

"I blame you for choosing Rae over me."

"Are you kidding me? If you and Rae were still dating, you'd choose her over me, or anyone else, every single time."

"Yeah, because she would be my girlfriend. But she's not _your_ girlfriend. She's not even your best friend. _I_ am."

"Okay, she's not my best friend. But she's not just my leader either. Rae and I are friends..._good_ friends. She was doing what she thought was right, and she's been right about so many other things, that we just fell in line with her."

"But _you _didn't think it was right Caty! I know you didn't, because if you did, you wouldn't have kept asking her if you could tell me. So why didn't you do what _you_ thought was right?"

"I should've. I know that now. But I didn't then. We'd just recently become friends again, I didn't even know if we were going to be as close as we once were. I've learned my lesson. Can't you forgive me for what happened in the past?"

"Like you did? I won the election and you held a grudge for half a year."

"That has nothing to do with this! It all comes down to one simple question. Can you forgive me or not?"

Jake remained quiet, as if contemplating, but he was silent for too long.

"Oh for_get_ it!" Caty cried in frustration. "I'm going to meet Lyss at James's locker."

She went to walk past Jake, but accidently bumped his shoulder, dropping her envelope in the process.

Jake picked it up first, and flipped it over, to read who the sender was.

"No, don't!" Caty squealed. If he wasn't going to be there as a friend, she didn't want him knowing what was in the envelope, but it was too late.

"It...are these your SAT scores?"

Caty nodded.

"They're supposed to come in online," Jake said. He'd taken the March SAT with the others, and gotten a 2360, almost perfect. It was even higher than Alyssa's score, and was way above his desired score, meaning both his top choices, American University and Northwestern, would eat him up. It was also Caty's original goal, but now she'd be lucky if she could score above 2000.

"I requested for them to come in the mail as well."

"So, how'd you do?"

"I don't know. The envelope is closed."

"But didn't you look them up online?"

"I've been to nervous," Caty said, grabbing for it.

Jake pulled it out of her reach. "If I know you, which I do, you won't ever open this, and your parents, while great, won't think of looking up your score online or asking about it. You need to know."

"What if it's terrible?"

"So you'll take it again. There's another test in September and one in October, both of which will give you your results before college applications are due. And then there's the ACT in August. Maybe you'll do better on that."

Caty looked at him fearfully, so Jake took initiative and opened it.

"It's a _felony_ to open other people's mail," Caty protested.

Jake gave her amused look before unfolding the letter inside.

He snorted. "Man Caty, your composite score is 1520. That's worse than last time!"

Caty had the urge to kick him. "Shut up Jake, you know very well it's out of 1600!"

The new SAT was out of 1600, like it used to be several years ago. Colleges were still publishing their desired scores out of 2400, so everyone converted their scores to the 2400 scale before telling people what they got.

In an instant, Caty's look of irritation changed to one of elation as the news sunk in. "A 1520? A 1520 out of 1600? That's...that's _good_!"

"Great actually," Jake corrected. "I don't know what it is out of 2400 though, and I know most colleges still only publish their expectations on the 2400 system."

"I memorized the conversion chart," Caty said.

"You would."

"Just give me minute. A 1520 out of 1600 is a..._2210_ out of 2400! That would be in the top percentile of Yale's accepted students!"

"See, that first test was just a fluke," Jake said.

Caty nodded. "I don't need to take the SAT again. I don't have to take a standardized test ever again! As long as I keep my grades up, I'm...set!"

"You're going to Yale," Jake agreed.

Caty squealed and gave Jake a hug. He chuckled and hugged her back, but Caty pulled away quickly, remembering Jake was technically mad at her. She blushed and said, "Uh, James's locker," she mumbled.

"Okay," Jake called after her. "But...yes."

Caty turned back to him, frowning. "Yes what?"

"Yes, I can forgive you."

"Oh. Um, then on second thought, I guess I'll stay here with you."

Jake grinned. "Good, because Brittany said the craziest thing last night, and I've been _dying_ to tell you.

G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E. G.R.A.C.E.

**A/N: Yes, that was a very weird place to end it, but it was getting very drony, and it's been too long since I updated. I know it was long, and felt filler, but as I said before, a lot of the information I put in these two chapters is very important for coming plot points. Regardless, I hope there were little parts that gave you enjoyment! Let me know in your reviews!**


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